Criminal Law Reform Essay

The legal system has proven to be moderately effective in addressing the issue of sexual assault with regard to law reform. Sexual assault is the term used for criminal offences involving unwanted sexual contact. This can include unwanted touching or groping, indecent acts of other kinds and rape, and this can occur from any type of perpetrator, someone that the victim has a relationship with or a stranger. There are many problems regarding the issue of sexual assault, such as consent, and under reporting.

In the past decades, there has been significant law reform in relation to sexual assault offences. This is due to the increasing awareness that the criminal justice system was not delivering right outcomes for the victim and the community. This crime is dealt with under the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW). A number of recent law reform initiatives intended to address on how the criminal justice system has responds to allegations of sexual assault have
Mechanisms of law reform relating to sexual assault include the parliament and the courts. There have been many acts passed by the NSW Parliament from the past few years. These include; Criminal Procedure Amendment (Sexual Offence Case Management) Act 2005, Criminal Procedure Amendment (Evidence) Act 2005 and the Crimes Amendment (Consent - Sexual Assault Offences) Act 2007. It has been suggested that specialist courts for sexual offences would lessen the trauma suffered by victims when giving evidence, and this would help improve conviction