Fulfilling Their Mission: The Intervention of Voluntary Societies in Cases of Sexual Assault in the Victorian Criminal Process

Abstract

Victorian female victims of sexual violence often found themselves isolated within the criminal justice system. No state agency existed to initiate prosecutions for rape or indecent assault thus the victim or her family had to commence formal proceedings themselves. Drawing on nineteenth century newspaper reports and records from the Rainer Foundation Archive this paper argues that numbers of female victims benefited from the support offered by certain very active voluntary societies in prosecuting such cases. From disesteemed beginnings, caseloads increased exponentially as the century progressed and society became more willing both to accept the fact of sexual violence and its criminalization. The existence and operation of these societies made a very real impact within the criminal justice process and publicly signalling that masculine sexual violence was no longer justifiable.