Marital rape provokes strong emotions among many. Many would sympathise with victims of family violence, particularly victims of sexual abuse. There is an active movement in Singapore to repeal the marital rape exemption (www.notorape.com), and supporters include Eunice Olsen and Prof. Chan Wing Cheong.
The abolitionists appear correct at first glance. Rape, after all, is rape. Why should marriage make it anything less?
In PP v. N, [1999] 4 Sing. L.R. 619 [PP v. N], a man stripped his wife, tied her hands together with a towel and forced her against her …
Imagine that you are in courtroom. Imagine an ongoing trial where the accused is, for all intents and purposes, a rapist with no way out. The rapist represents himself. He wears the same clothes he wore on the night of the incident. He attempts to cross-examine the victim six times, changing his mind on the first five times. He attempts to make the victim relive that night of the incident by asking her what he wore, what she wore, how he did it, and what he smelt like. He questions …
In 2003, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, a UK-based charitable organisation, revealed that more than 20,000 images of child pornography were posted online each week. Meanwhile, the US Customs Service estimates that there are 100,000 websites offering illegal child pornography, underpinning a US$ 3 billion dollar industry.
Child pornography is a grave international problem and most countries have enacted legislation to tackle this issue head-on. In Singapore, the Children and Young Persons Act (Cap. 38, 2001 Rev. Ed. Sing.), Undesirable Publications Act (Cap. 338, 1998 Rev. …
“The woman (Chinese) worked in a manufacturing company. Her head of department touched her neck and talked about touching her. She was emotionally disturbed and went to see a doctor. However, she was not given medical leave as the doctor was told by her company not to do so. She was being picked on for laziness and lateness thereafter. She resigned from the company and filed a police report as requested by the human resource manager and her boss before they would consider taking any action. In the end, she …
JEREMY LUA (Associate Editor)
“We were in love!”
Say romance, and one invariably thinks of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet. However, if their tale was retold today, these star-crossed lovers may have more than just the blood feud of their families to contend with – they may also get in trouble with the law.
Juliet, as her father describes, “hath not seen the change in fourteen years”, meaning she was a couple of weeks shy of her fourteenth birthday. The couple’s consummation of their marriage might land Romeo in jail for a very long …
