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Sexual assault survivors like me seek justice as a sign of strength. Few of us end up winning

Victims don’t report because the legal system is stacked against them. It protects perpetrators and further traumatises victims

I am a survivor of sexual abuse and one of thousands of adult and child sexual assault survivors travelling through the Australian court system. Despite our numbers, we’re an elite crowd. According to the most recent data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics only about 8% of women report sexual assault to police; a fraction of these proceed to investigation; fewer again result in charges. A number of these – like mine – will make it to court. Of these, less than half get a guilty verdict. So while almost all homicides result in a conviction, fewer than 10% of sexual assault cases reported to police result in a conviction, making it one of the easiest crimes to get away with. The greatest disincentive for committing a crime is the fear of consequences. Yet consequences are something that very few perpetrators of sex crimes will ever have to worry about.

It took me several decades to report what happened to me, though many never do. Why? It’s just too damn painful. To start talking about it, and the most extreme version – to be cross-examined – involves awakening a part of you that felt like it was going to die if it stayed present to what was happening. As traumatic as doing this is, some survivors still choose to go to police, because it can feel therapeutic to confront what happened, to relive it, to fight it instead of going numb. We go to police as a sign of strength to ourselves. A desire to go back to the scene of the crime, and this time, to win. Unfortunately, however, few end up winning.

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Since writing this, the writer’s case has been dismissed. It did not make it to trial.

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Law (Australia) | The Guardian