This article seeks to draw conclusions about the potential impact of the Crimes Amendment (Abolition of Defensive Homicide) Act 2014 (Vic). We do so by considering whether defensive homicide served as a safety net in the 2014 case of Director of Public Prosecutions (Vic) v Williams. The article...

This paper examines the theory behind and some examples of the relationships between gender, language, cognition and perception in the context of the criminal justice system. In particular, we consider the language of domestic violence and sexual assault and how words and communication styles...

How do principles or notions concerning fairness of proceedings tend to play out in Australian rape trials? We look at two types of legislative provisions pertaining to evidence in chief and cross-examination that have been altered in the last three decades in Australia. They were enacted to...

Consideration of the media's representations of women who kill highlights dominant discourses in the framing of public responses to criminal acts of a particular kind, which in turn shapes legal responses to such acts. Generally, women who commit murder are, in some way, portrayed as an...