Criminal Law and Justice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Criminal Law and Justice - Essay Example It is not always true that the accused may have committed the crime as reported by the complainant. Some rape cases have found the complainant to be guilty of accusing the defendant falsely. Most of the rape incidences are not committed by a single person. A gang may choose to commit the crime on a person or on a group of people. An example is a group of boys from West Auckland who called themselves ‘Roast Busters’. This group targeted teenage girls who they made drunk and afterwards gang-raped them (Ludovica 2014). With the rise of anonymity in rape cases, legislations have been put in place to protect both the complainant and the defendant. These laws help to maintain transparency in the judgment of the case and hence the charges are directed towards the party that is found to be guilty of committing the offence. This paper will look into details on the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1976 Section 4 that was put in place in 1976. It will also provide for its weaknesses and strength of the legislation and will give a conclusion on the legislation and what amendment have been made to make it efficient. The Sexual Offence Amendment Act of 1976 not only provided for anonymity to complainant but also to the defendants. The aim of this act was to prevent stigmatization among the innocent defendants. It is not always true that those who reported sexual assault cases were sexually assaulted. Some lie for their own personal benefit. The aim of this act was to treat both the defendant and the complainant equally according to the laws. The provisions for this act were that once a person was found guilty to have committed a rape crime, his identity should not be published. Publication of the name, address and other material that belonged to the accused were prohibited from publication (Taylor 2014).The act also provided for conviction of people who published the