The former vice president of the Law Society Chia Boon Teck resigned after he was heavily criticised for his comments about a rape victim.
Steven Chia and Otelli Edwards speak to Mark Yeo, director at Fortress Law Corporation and Sugidha Nithiananthan, director of advocacy and research at AWARE, about the dangers of victim-blaming.
Here’s an excerpt from the conversation:
Steven Chia, host:
But a lot of people will be saying the environment does sometimes contribute to the offence.
You go into a war zone, you get hurt. You can’t come around and say: “How come I got hurt?” But you were in the war zone to begin with.
So explain to all our listeners why this is sort of different in that respect, and why our environment cannot be held accountable to the offence that occurs later.
Mark Yeo, Fortress Law Corporation:
So I think there is a line to be drawn between conducting a defence and victim-blaming. And I think in the area of sexual offences, it’s particularly sensitive because the effect on victims, if they are so found to be victims, is quite damaging.
People are already afraid to report sexual offences, and if they feel like they’re going to get blamed, there’s a lot of psychological trauma that is inflicted.
The trial process in itself is … not the most comfortable environment. And so all of these things are more heightened, more sensitive when it comes to sexual offences. Not so much when you talk about a robbery, for example.
Steven:
So if your house was burgled and you left the door open, in court you can argue, well, you left the door open.
Sugidha Nithiananthan, AWARE:
Actually, you can’t. And that’s the whole point. Even if I leave my door wide open and I walk out, anybody who walks in and steals my goods is still guilty of theft, right? Because it was not yours to begin with. Even if a victim, a survivor of sexual assault, carelessly allowed herself to get excessively drunk at a bar, follows a man back to his room.
If she then still says no or she falls asleep because she’s drunk, has she given consent to sex?
If she hasn’t, there is no excuse or no way to read the fact that she decided to meet him through Tinder or because she decided to get drunk at the bar or because she followed him back to the room. None of this leads to consent.
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