Minas, Freda Charlotte (1997) The limitations of law pertaining to incest cases: observations of the confines inherent in the current criminal jurisdiction of the County Court of Victoria, which may limit justice for the victims of incest, and the resultant equivocal footing of social policy in this area. Research Master thesis, Victoria University of Technology.

Abstract

The crime of incest is rendered invisible in the 1990's under the all-embracing label of "child abuse", where the public eye is alerted to grave cases of physical abuse, by a media hungry for sensationalism. Likewise, incest is effaced amid the current outrage over the deviant outsider - typically perceived as the paedophile. It is the very nature of the sphere in which incest is committed, which makes the crime 'hermetic'. The view that the patriarchal family is somehow sacrosanct, and the debate over the public/private dichotomy relating to child protection, adjoin to further obscure this iniquity. In addition to this, the perpetrators of incest frequently deny, minimise or rationalise their crime, hence making the legal sphere the only legitimate area of redress for victims. However, the law attempts to deal with these private moral perplexities in the objective and constrained manner representative of the court system. This may not be reconcilable with just outcomes. Social policy's footing in this arena appears to be equivocal, due to the inherent confines of the legal system. But the legal system, and in particular the court arena, can be made more equitable, by being flexible and amenable to innovation, through the embodiment of other areas of expertise. Instead of being self-referential, the legal system should be more accommodating of other esteemed knowledges, in the name of justice.

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