Issues in Sexual Assault

Abstract

The sexual assault of women and children represents a very serious problem in North American society. It is a frequent occurrence, and the effects on its victims are severe and long lasting. While such offenses have been acknowledged for many years, the emergence of the feminist movement forced an awakening of interest in the problem, and finally the full extent of these crimes has been appreciated. Increased public awareness has stimulated discussion of the steps we might take as a society to prevent these crimes. Until recently, the criminal justice system, which has control of apprehending, charging, convicting, and punishing a small minority of offenders, was society’s only response to the crime. Even now, although more rational and innovative approaches have been suggested and tried, we cannot say that we have taken more than the initial steps toward adequately addressing the problem. This book is a description of some of those initial steps.