Overview

Winner of the 2009 Canadian Law and Society Association Book Prize \nCarnal Crimes: Sexual Assault Law in Canada, 1900-1975 is an engaging and powerful book about sexual assault crimes in Canadian history written by one of Canada’s foremost legal historians. Using a case-study approach, Constance Backhouse explores nine sexual assault trials from across the country throughout the twentieth century. We move from small towns to large cities, from the Maritimes to the Northwest Territories, from the suffrage era to the period of the women’s liberation movement. Each of these richly-textured vignettes offers insight into the failure of the criminal justice system to protect women from sexual assault, and each is highly readable and provocative. The most moving chapters document the law’s refusal to accommodate a woman who could only give evidence in sign language, and the heartbreak of a child rape trial. Backhouse deals sensitively and deftly with these difficult stories. \nThis book is the best kind of legal history — a vivid exploration of the past which also gives us the tools to assess the efficacy (or in this case lack of efficacy) of the legal system. \n

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9781552211786

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Reviews

A brilliant anatomy of sexual assault—both law and legal history. There is no book quite like this: the legal analysis leaps from each person’s individual story and trial transcript with awesome dexterity. Constance Backhouse is a spectacular writer. This is the way to learn law!--Clayton Ruby

Author Information

Constance Backhouse is a professor of law, distinguished university professor, and university research chair at the University of Ottawa. She teaches feminist law, criminal law, human rights, and labour law and is the author of many award-winning legal history books. She received the Law Society Medal in 1998 and an Honorary Doctorate from the Law Society of Upper Canada in 2002. She became a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2004.

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