---

Convicting Rapists/Protecting Victims

I am grateful to the Solicitor-General for her remarks, but I shall simply quote the Government's position:"““The Government's view is that whilst it would be desirable for juries in rape cases to receive expert evidence concerning the characteristics of behaviour and psychological reactions that victims of rape may demonstrate, so as to seek to break down what are well recognised to be stereotypical myths about the way rape victims react, there are substantial risks to this proposal and it should be approached with caution.””" The document goes on to refer to general evidence, but the high point is:"““Consequently we will continue to look for ways in which general expert material could be presented in a controlled and consistent way with a view to dispelling myths as to how victims behave after incidents of rape. We will ask the experts who came to help us in formulating the Government's response on this issue to continue to work to find an appropriate and fair way forward.””" To which I say hooray, but I inferred from the Solicitor-General's comments that there was much stronger certainty of a particular outcome than I read in the report. That is all I wanted to say on the matter.