I found that the outcomes of the processes of cases and investigations going to the crown were reliant on judges who too frequently gave the perpetrators of the crimes benefits of the doubt.
Both the aboriginal women I interviewed and certainly a lot of people in the helping professions identified that this sends a strong signal to the women, to the perpetrators, and to the community. So one of the findings was that judges need to be trained about the impacts, the long-term impacts, of their decisions. Not that we have to tell them what to decide, but they need to be very aware of what happens in aboriginal communities when perpetrators are not asked to be accountable.