“Chuck her on a lie detector”: Investigating Australians’ mistrust in women’s reports of sexual assault (Webinar)

As many as four in 10 Australians mistrust women’s reports of sexual violence according to the 2017 National Community Attitudes towards Violence against Women Survey. This mistrust is in stark contrast to the fact that false allegations of sexual assault are extremely rare and the vast majority of sexual assault in Australia remains unreported.

“Chuck her on a lie detector”: Investigating Australians’ mistrust in women’s reports of sexual assault, is an ANROWS qualitative research study that explores the factors underlying this community mistrust in women’s reports of sexual assault.

This webinar unpacks the report findings and its implications for policy and practice across response services, the criminal justice system, education and the broader community.

The discussion is led by Padma Raman PSM (ANROWS) with:

• Kate Minter, Senior Research Officer, ANROWS
• Saxon Mullins, Director of Advocacy, Rape and Sexual Assault Research and Advocacy
• Dr Emma Partridge, Manager of Policy and Evidence, Our Watch
• Meena Singh, Senior Advisor, Human Rights Law Centre
• Heather Clarke, former manager of Northern Centre against Sexual Assault and current board member of the National Association of Services against Sexual Assault

This webinar is designed for policymakers, practice design and decision-makers, practitioners and researchers working in sexual violence and domestic and family violence, legal, police, health and other relevant areas responding to and preventing sexual assault.

A recording of the webinar with captions is now available.

Enquiries: rachel.pow@anrows.org.au and janice.yeung@anrows.org.au

Disclaimer: ANROWS webinars bring together a diverse range of speakers on a particular topic, informed by the evidence-base, lived expertise, and policy and practice knowledge. The views expressed by speakers or other third parties in ANROWS webinars and any subsequent materials, are those of the speaker or third-party and not, necessarily, of ANROWS.

WATCH

Presenters

Kate Minter
Kate is a Senior Research Officer at ANROWS working on the National Community Attitudes towards Violence Against Women Survey. Prior to working at ANROWS, Kate was a union official and worked on campaigns for a universal right to paid domestic violence leave and more effective responses to workplace sexual harassment. Kate holds a Master’s degree in Applied Statistics and a degree in Social Science.

Saxon Mullins
Saxon Mullins is Director of Advocacy at Rape and Sexual Assault Research and Advocacy. In 2018 Saxon appeared on Four Corner’s episode ‘I am that girl’ where she gave up her anonymity to tell the story of her 2013 sexual assault and the subsequent criminal trials and appeals. The Four Corner’s episode led to the NSW Attorney-General asking the NSW Law Reform Commission to review the section of the NSW Crimes Act that deals with consent in relation to sexual assault, which has resulted in a bill legislating for affirmative consent being introduced to parliament. Saxon was the recipient of the Australian Human Rights Commission’s 2018 Young Persons’ Human Rights Medal.

Meena Singh
Meena Singh is a Yorta Yorta and Indian woman, born and living on Naarm (Melbourne) on the lands of the Kulin Nation. She is a lawyer and has worked in criminal and human rights law and has held senior positions with organisations including Victoria Legal Aid, the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, Djirra and the Human Rights Law Centre. She is currently undertaking PhD research into the experiences of lawyers who identify as First Nations women and women from communities of colour as well as working in an advisory capacity to the Human Rights Law Centre and Djirra.

Heather Clarke
Heather Clarke has 40 years’ experience as a social worker working in community and mental health services, local and state government, and the sexual assault sector. For the past 15 years she has worked at the Northern Centre against Sexual Assault in the roles of counsellor/advocate, team leader and until very recently, as Manager. Heather was active in the Women’s Mental Health Victoria, advocating for mental health services to provide safer women only wards, and is a current board member of the National Association of Services against Sexual Violence (NASASV) through which she is working to promote adequate funding of respectful relationships education to prevent sexual violence. Heather is passionate about the need for women who have experienced sexual assault to receive victim-centred care from all legal, health and community service providers, as well as for increased belief and empathy towards victims within the general community.

Emma Partridge
Dr Emma Partridge is Manager, Policy and Evidence at Our Watch, a national organisation working to prevent violence against women. Emma led the development of Change the story: a shared framework for the primary prevention of violence against women and their children in Australia. Released in 2015, Change the Story is the world’s first national framework focused on preventing violence against women. She also led a follow-up project, developing Changing the picture (2018) a national resource that focuses specifically on preventing violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. Emma manages a team that provides high level policy advice and analysis to inform Our Watch’s work, and that also continues to build the evidence base for primary prevention, including through publications such as Men in focus and Tracking progress in prevention. She recently led the development of a second edition of Change the story, to be released in late November 2021. Prior to her role at Our Watch Emma worked in a range of government policy and academic research roles and completed a PhD in Indigenous policy.

Facilitated by:

Padman Raman 
Padma Raman PSM has a wealth of experience as a senior executive at both the state and federal level, and in 2018 was awarded the Public Service Medal for outstanding service leading significant cultural, technological and governance change. Before starting as CEO of ANROWS, she was the Chief Executive of the Australian Human Rights Commission for 11 years. Prior to that she established and was Chief Executive Officer of the Victorian Law Reform Commission for nine years. During that time, Ms Raman was a member of the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission and was instrumental in assisting the Victorian Government develop and implement the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006.