Records of mobile phone text messages and social media posts and messages have become a ubiquitous feature of the evidence that is admitted in rape trials in Australia. Messages sent by complainants – to the accused and to other people – attract particular scrutiny during cross-examination. In this article we consider whether the deployment of digital communications evidence is impeding the long-term effort to transform rape trials and decrease the prevalence and influence of ‘rape myths’. Our study is informed by qualitative analysis of transcripts from 108 rape and sexual offence trials finalised in Victoria and NSW between 2013 and 2020. We show that digital communications evidence is often engaged in ways that are insensitive to the uniqueness of text and social media messages as modes of communication. We conclude that the tendency to assume that digital communication can be interpreted just like any other written record (such as a police statement) operates to the disadvantage of complainants, and in ways that impede just outcomes.
Quilter et al. (Wed,) studied this question.