Ms Marson spoke recently on the Lawyers Weekly Show about her career and work in sexual violence and how important these issues are — both in an educational sense and within legal organisations.

She has been practising in criminal law since she graduated, despite having doubts about the law generally whilst studying. However, these doubts led to Ms Marson being able to recognise the limits of the criminal justice system, which she said has been helpful across her practice.

“Certainly, when I was working in the legal reform side of things, looking at ways that the criminal justice system could be changed to improve access to justice for victims, for example, that was one of the driving principles, I suppose, of the Child Abuse Royal Commission and their recommendations,” she said.  

“I think seeing the criminal justice system for what it is and how it sits in our society more broadly has obviously always been a feature of my career if we start back at that honours thesis, and working within it has only served to reinforce that perspective.”

Within the sexual offences legal sphere — in which Ms Marson has done a lot of work, both in terms of legal work and research for her book — there are a number of these limitations to be aware of.

“The most important limitation to be conscious of is that the criminal justice system only steps in after something has happened. It cannot reach back and undo damage. And when it does step in, it only steps in for some. And so, it’s very limited in its functions,” she said.

“[In terms of] the work of pursuing an agenda of preventing sexual violence, I have realised [it] is an act of self-care, I think. It allows me to feel that I’m paying forward and putting my efforts into making things better for future generations so that they may have a better chance than those of us who have come up in a world where sexual violence is so prevalent and is sort of part of the fabric of our society.”

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This is something that Ms Marson discusses in her book — and said that if “we can shift the dial even a little”, it will have enormous benefits.

“The book looks at what I call the expectations that we all have of our sexual experiences and our responsibilities in sexual encounters, the rights that we might think we have. And it also looks at the expectations we have of institutions to safeguard sexual wellbeing, to respond to sexual violence, and it’s a reflection on how better relationships and sexuality education may create better expectations of our sexual encounters. And the responsibilities that we have in those encounters,” she explained.

“Improved relationships and sexuality education is, I argue in the book, a better institutional response and a meeting of the right that young people have to access this information by an institution that professors to equip them for their lives. And that institution I’m talking about is education, the educational institution, rather than relying so heavily on the criminal justice institution to do all the heavy lifting when it comes to sexual violence, when it, as we’ve already discussed, is by nature so limited in its power to prevent sexual violence in the first place.”

There are also certain elements of the criminal justice system that can be put onto the education system, Ms Marson submitted.

“I don’t say that we need to abandon the criminal justice system altogether. I think that there’s certainly a place for that in the response to sexual violence. The criminal justice system and responding to sexual violence as a harm that merits punishment is one way of recognising the harm of sexual violence and the violation that it represents,” she said.

“But what good is that if we as a society do nothing, let alone everything we can, to prevent it from happening in the first place? And comprehensive RSE: relationships and sexuality education, is such an important part of any sexual violence prevention strategy.”

This type of education is also valuable at any age — and organisations should be implementing training and educational programs around RSE to help their employees become champions of these issues, Ms Marson added.

“Even thinking about the fact that RSE is lifelong, if you work in a law firm, considering perhaps it’s part of professional development or some kind of training program to actually engage some relationships and sexuality education for staff and colleagues, that’s at an age-appropriate level, RSE and attitudinal change programs, those sorts of things are definitely worthy of consideration,” she concluded.

“We know that sexual harassment is an issue that plagues the legal profession; it’s certainly something I’ve experienced in my professional life as a lawyer. I think that there’s definitely a nexus between the profession and the need for the education of those within it.”

The transcript of this podcast episode was slightly edited for publishing purposes. To listen to the full conversation with Katrina Marson, click below: