The permissible logic of sex offence complainant post-event conduct

By Alan D. Gold (July 28, 2023, 1:49 PM EDT) -- It is trite law encompassed within the prohibition against stereotypical reasoning that “there is no inviolable rule on how people who are the victims of trauma like a sexual assault will behave:” R. v. D.D., [2000] S.C.J. No. 44 at para. 65. Just like the failure to make a timely complaint, a failure to demonstrate avoidant behaviour or a lack of change in behaviour “must not be the subject of any presumptive adverse inference based upon now rejected stereotypical assumptions of how persons (particularly children) react to acts of sexual abuse ... :” R. v. D.D. at para. 63....