The research project sought to gather community views on the sentencing of rape and sexual assault offences. Specifically, the project investigated how the community views the importance of just punishment, denunciation and community protection as sentencing purposes for sexual assault and rape offences; and how the community ranks the seriousness of sexual assault and rape offences compared to other offences committed in Queensland. Using focus groups, researchers spoke to adult community members across Queensland from metropolitan, regional and rural areas to determine their views about sentencing for sexual violence offences.

Impact

Community views are an important perspective for sexual assault and rape offence sentencing. Disparity between public opinion and judicial decisions can lead to perceived illegitimacy in the criminal justice system. This project identified that Queenslanders believe a focus on the context of sexual offending is necessary when sentencing rape and sexual assault offences. The community also views the experiences of victim-survivors as central to the sentencing process. The high numbers of victim-survivors, and their families, represented in this study is significant, with almost 40% of participants representing victim-survivors views. The findings from this research project were presented to Queensland’s Attorney-General as part of broader law reform considerations about whether sentencing penalties currently imposed for sexual violence adequately reflect.