Research funding to investigate sexual offence court cases

Three legal academics have been awarded more than $85,000 by the New Zealand Law Foundation to investigate alternatives to the current pre-trial and trial processes for sexual offence cases.

Professor Jeremy Finn of the University of Canterbury, and Associate Professor Elisabeth McDonald and Dr Yvette Tinsley of Victoria University of Wellington will spend 21 months investigating whether the current criminal justice system is failing victims. The project will investigate possible options for modification or reform of the current procedures for trial and pre-trial processes for prosecuting sexual offenders, including possible alternatives to adversary criminal trials," said Professor Finn. To find out more about the research visit the following links:
http://www.lawfoundation.org.nz/news/read.php?i=68
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/20090608
http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/newsroom/090527c.shtml