Over the past week, cases involving the abuse or exploitation of adolescent female sexuality have glaringly exposed how deeply entrenched victim blaming attitudes are in Australia.
First, there was the police response to the exposure of an online site posting thousands of explicit images of underage girls without their knowledge or consent. Queensland Police concluded that the site did not 'appear to contain any child exploitation material', and one young woman told Triple J's Hack program that she had received exceptionally short shrift from police when she made a complaint about her image being on the site: 'The guy I spoke to, an older guy, just laughed pretty much. He said that's what I get for taking them'.
The police response was echoed by Kambrya College after news.com.au reported that images of some of its female students appeared on the pornographic site. In a righteously indignant Facebook post that went viral, Catherine Manning, the parent of a Kambrya student, described how all years 7–10 girls were ordered at a specially convened assembly 'to check the length of their skirts' because 'the boys are distracted by their legs, and that boys don't respect girls who wear short skirts'.
She demanded, 'Stop letting boys off the hook for their appalling behaviour. Address the culture that encourages sexist and misogynist attitudes, but don't demonise our girls.'
Principal Michael Muscat's acknowledgement that the 'separate issues' of school uniform and the pornographic site should not have been linked at the same assembly hopefully indicates the school will immediately institute a policy of not using blaming language.
The week concluded with yet another demonstration of the pervasiveness of victim blaming, this time in the Victorian County Court.
As reported by The Age, when sentencing Franco Abad, a 32-year-old man convicted of knowingly having sex with a 14-year-old girl he met outside the Children's Court while employed there as a security guard, Judge Christopher Ryan said, 'the girl had appeared "worldly" and "older than her years" when she told the court about their sexual relationship in a "matter-of-fact" way via video link'.
The girl's 'worldliness' was possibly the result of a troubled childhood: at the time of Abad's offences she was in state care. Her attendance at the Children's Court should surely have indicated her potential vulnerability.
"In one 1955 Victorian case, an 11-year-old girl was branded a 'temptress' by Judge Cussen for having sex with two adult men. He demanded, 'Can't anybody do anything for the girl? She seems to be some kind of pervert."
Judge Ryan's lenient sentencing of Abad to a two-year good behaviour bond, and his remarks about Abad's powerlessness in the face of the girl's sexual precocity (he was unable to resist the girl's advances because he was not 'a man of steel'), are depressingly reminiscent of those made by judges more than 50 years ago.
Then (as it is now), it was illegal for adults to have sex with children under the age of 16. Men convicted of having such relations with underage girls could be imprisoned up to 20 years. While it was no defence to argue that the girl had consented to having sex, if it could be proven that she had had consensual intercourse with other men previously, the offender could be acquitted. Consequently, in carnal knowledge trials, girls were frequently accused of having rich histories of sexual activity.
Sally-Anne Huckstepp, who would later become a famous Sydney sex worker and whistle-blower against NSW police corruption, made her first appearance in court in the mid-1960s to give evidence against an older teenage boy accused of carnally knowing her. The following exchange between Huckstepp and the defendant's lawyer, included in her biography by John Dale, is representative of the treatment meted out to female witnesses:
'Do you swear you were a virgin when Paul Hedley first had intercourse with you?'
'Yes.'
'You know a boy called Mick Kiggins?'
'Yes.'
'And you had intercourse with him?'
'No, I did not.'
'Any boy can undress you, can't he?'
'No.'
'Provided he has drugs in his possession?'
'No.'
'Your pants are showing'.
'They are not!'
Cross-examinations of young female witnesses were also exercises in victim blaming. Take, for example, this defense lawyer's line of questioning of a 15-year-old girl in 1954:
Mr. Croxton: When you went to his room one night three weeks ago you got into bed with Roger and took off your pyjama pants?
Dorothy: He took them off
Mr. Croxton: I put it to you that you did.
Dorothy: Yes, I did.
Mr. Croxton: And you did not mind Roger having intercourse with you until you found it unpleasant and became frightened?
Dorothy: Yes. I wanted relations with him until I became frightened.
Croxford concluded: 'The legislature should provide protection for young men from girls such as this girl.'
Hostility towards girls in carnal knowledge cases did not come just from defence lawyers. Magistrates made appalling summations of victims' culpability. In one 1955 Victorian case, an 11-year-old girl was branded a 'temptress' by Judge Cussen for having sex with two adult men. He demanded, 'Can't anybody do anything for the girl? Can't she be put in a home? She seems to be some kind of pervert. She is a menace to men.' Summing up, Cussen placed the guilt squarely on the girl's shoulders while dismissing the charges against both men. 'She is more like a mature woman than a child of her age. I don't think she has suffered any harm from your attentions.'
While the language employed by Judge Cussen in 1955 and Judge Ryan in 2016 is different and, indeed, Abad was sentenced for his crime, the resilience of notions — not only in the broader community but the criminal justice system — that children are somehow responsible for their own exploitation and abuse while perpetrators are deserving sympathy, is deeply troubling.
It is heartening to see, then, the enraged rejection by many Australian girls of the widespread idea that they are to blame when images of them are published online without their consent, and that they must conform to beliefs about appropriate femininity to avoid victimisation. As year 9 Kambrya College student Faith Sobotker stated in a self-made video after that assembly, 'I do not want these girls to be growing up in a society where they believe they have to be a certain way ... they can be whoever they want to be.' Indeed. They also have the right to be protected and supported by the police, their schools and their communities when harmed.
Madeleine Hamilton has a PhD in Australian history and is currently undertaking a Masters in social work.
Main image by Wolfram Burner via Flickr