Professor Anne Cossins

Professor Anne Cossins

Honorary Professor
Law & Justice
School of Law, Society & Criminology

Dr Annie Cossins is an Associate Professor in Law at the Faculty of Law, University of New South Wales.  She is the pre-eminent Australian expert on legal reform in the area of sexual assault and a scholar in theoretical criminology. She is presently the holder of an ARC Discovery Grant (along with J Delahunty) entitled: "Countering misconceptions in child sexual assault cases with expert evidence and judicial directions".

She is the founder and Convenor of the National Child Sexual Assault Reform Committee - a high-level committee which was comprised of all Directors of Public Prosecution, various District Court judges, academics, and Children`s Commissioners (amongst others) which met annually for the past 8 years. A link to its discussion paper on reforms for the prosecution of child sex offences around Australia is available under Dr Cossins' publications. 

Dr Cossins was also a member of the Criminal Justice and Sexual Offences Taskforce which was established by the NSW Attorney-General in 2004 after a submission by her and the NSW Rape Crisis Centre to the Attorney-General for the establishment of a taskforce to examine changes to the laws of evidence in NSW and the feasibility of specialist courts for sex offences in NSW.  As a result of this Taskforce, a number of legislative changes were made to the substantive criminal law as well as procedural laws concerning the conduct of sexual assault trials in NSW.

She was a founding member of the NSW Working Party Concerning the Confidentiality of Sexual Assault Counsellors` Notes and the main author of submissions to the NSW Attorney-General`s Department which were used as the basis for the introduction of s 126H, Evidence Act 1995 (NSW), the first sexual assault communications privilege enacted in Australia.  She was also a member of the Child Protection Internet Taskforce, Ministry of Police, 2003-2004, a member of The Innocence Panel, (NSW Ministry for Police) between 2001-2003, a member of the Child Sexual Assault Jurisdiction Working Group on Practice and Procedure (NSW Attorney-General`s Department) 2002, and a consultant to Parliament of New South Wales, Legislative Council, Standing Committee on Law and Justice, Inquiry into Child Sexual Assault Prosecutions in NSW, 2002.  She was the only academic member of the Advisory Committee of the Australian Institute of Judicial Administration on a Guide to Children Giving Evidence and as a member of this committee, co-authored the first Australian benchbook on children's evidence, published by the AIJA.  In 2005, she was nominated for the Law and Justice Foundation Justice Medal.  She is a member of the board of the Centre for Gender Related Violence Studies at the University of New South Wales and is the Chair of the Advisory Committee of that Centre.

In 2010, she organised a group of judges and lawyers from Australia to visit the New York Sex Offenses Courts. In conjunction with the NY Center for Court Innovation, she organised the tour with the aim of studying the rationale for these courts and all procedural and practical measures that were involved in their establishment. As a result of her written report, the Premier of NSW recently announced the establishment of a pilot specialist sex offences court for NSW.

She was appointed as a consultant to the Australian Law Reform Commission in 2010 to work on its family violence reference which resulted in the publication: ALRC and NSWLRC (2010) Family Violence - A National Legal Response (Final Report). Several of her recommendations were adopted in the report.

Phone
+61 2 9385 2246
Location
Room 333 The Law Building University of New South Wales UNSW Kensington Campus Sydney NSW 2052 Australia (Access via Gate 2 off High Street)
  • Books | 2020
    Cossins A, 2020, Closing the Justice Gap for Adult and Child Sexual Assault, Palgrave Macmillan UK, http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-32051-3
    Books | 2015
    Cossins A, 2015, Female Criminality Infanticide, Moral Panics and The Female Body, 4, Palgrave Macmillan, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0964663916647530a
    Books | 2013
    Cossins AI, 2013, The Baby Farmers, ISBN 978 1 74331 401 2, Allen & Unwin, Sydney
    Books | 2003
    Cossins AI, 2003, Remedies in Context: Commentary and Materials, Original, LexisNexis Butterworths, Sydney
    Books | 2000
    Cossins AI, 2000, Masculinities, sexualities and child sexual abuse, ISBN 90 411 1355 X, Kluwer Law International, The Hague, London, Boston
    Books | 1997
    Cossins AI, 1997, Annotated Freedom of Information Act New South Wales: History and Analysis, Original, Law Book Company Information Services, Sydney
    Books | 1993
    Cossins AI; Harrison K, 1993, Documents, Dossiers and the Inside Dope: A Practical Guide to Freedom of Information Law, Allen & Unwin, Sydney
  • Book Chapters | 2020
    Cossins A, 2020, 'Feminist criminology in a time of ‘digital feminism’: Can the #MeToo Movement create fundamental cultural change?', in Walklate S; Fitzgibbon K; Maher J; McCulloch J (ed.), Emerald Handbook in Criminology, Feminism and Social Change, Emerald Publishing, Bingley UK, pp. 69 - 94, https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/978-1-78769-955-720201007/full/html
    Book Chapters | 2018
    Cossins A, 2018, 'Moral regulation and media representations of the female body', in Rafter N; Brown M (ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Crime, Media, and Popular Culture (Volume 2), Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 558 - 576
    Book Chapters | 2017
    Cossins A; Goodman-Delahunty J, 2017, 'The Application of the Uniform Evidence Act in Child Sexual Assault Trials', in Roberts A; Gans J (ed.), Critical Perspectives on Uniform Evidence Law, Federation Press, Sydney, pp. 104 - 124
    Book Chapters | 2016
    Cossins A, 2016, 'The Sociology of Sex Offending', in , Wiley, pp. 267 - 288, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781118574003.wattso013
    Book Chapters | 2016
    Cossins AI, 2016, 'The Sociology of Sex Offending: The Offender, Culture and Context', in Boer D (ed.), The Wiley Handbook on the Theories, Assessment and Treatment of Sexual Offending, edn. Original, Wiley-Blackwell, New York, pp. 267 - 288, http://books.google.com.au/books/about/Theories_of_sexual_offending.html?id=AGIPyIOhjrYC&redir_esc=y
    Book Chapters | 2015
    Cossins A, 2015, 'Introduction: ‘Dumb Brutes’ and Murderous Mothers', in Female Criminality, Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 1 - 15, http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/9781137299420_1
    Book Chapters | 2015
    Cossins A, 2015, 'Regulation of the Female Body: Was Infanticide a Moral Panic of the Nineteenth Century?', in Female Criminality, Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 57 - 167, http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/9781137299420_3
    Book Chapters | 2015
    Cossins A, 2015, 'The Implications of the Body for Female Criminality', in Female Criminality, Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 257 - 261, http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/9781137299420_5
    Book Chapters | 2015
    Cossins A, 2015, 'The Moral Panic Concept: Its History, Social Utility and Ability to Interpret Past Events', in Female Criminality, Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 16 - 56, http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/9781137299420_2
    Book Chapters | 2015
    Cossins A, 2015, 'The Moral Regulation of Infanticidal Mothers', in Female Criminality, Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 168 - 256, http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/9781137299420_4
    Book Chapters | 2014
    Cossins A, 2014, 'Phillips v R [2006] HCA 4', in Douglas H; Bartlett F; Luker T; Hunter R (ed.), Australian Feminist Judgments: Righting and Rewriting Law, Hart Publishing, Oxford, pp. 295 - 305
    Book Chapters | 2012
    Cossins AI, 2012, 'Cross-Examining the Child Complainant: Rights, Innovations and Unfounded Fears in the Australian Context', in Spencer J; Lamb M (ed.), Children and Cross-examination: Time to Change the Rules?, edn. Original, Hart Publishing, UK, http://www.wildy.com/isbn/9781849463072/children-and-cross-examination-time-to-change-the-rules-
    Book Chapters | 2009
    Cossins AI, 2009, 'Restorative Justice and Child Sex Offences: The Theory and the Practice', in Hoyle C (ed.), Restorative Justice: Critical Concepts in Criminology, Routledge, Abingdon, pp. 359 - 378
    Book Chapters | 2007
    Cossins AI, 2007, 'Men, Masculinity & Child Sexual Abuse: A sex and gender question', in Kiter Edwards M; O'Toole L; Schiffman J (ed.), Gender Vioence: Interdiscilinary Perspectives, edn. 2nd, New York University Press, New York, pp. 333 - 341
    Book Chapters | 2001
    McNaughton A; Cossins A; Kriesler P, 2001, 'Introduction', in Australian Journal of Human Rights, edn. 2, pp. 1 - 2, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1323238X.2001.11911060
    Book Chapters | 1999
    Cossins AI, 1999, 'Recovered Memories of Child Sexual Abuse: The Science and the Ideology', in Breckenridge J; Laing L (ed.), Perspectives on Violence against Women, Allen & Unwin, Sydney
    Book Chapters | 1998
    Cossins AI, 1998, 'Tipping the scales in her favour: The need to protect counselling records in sexual assult trials', in Easteal P (ed.), Balancing the Scales: Rape, Law Reform and Australian Culture, edn. Original, Federation Press, Sydney, pp. 94 - 106
    Book Chapters | 1996
    Cossins AI, 1996, 'Open Government and Freedom of Information', in Douglas R; Jones M (ed.), Administrative Law: Cases and Materials, Federation Press, Sydney, pp. 55 - 85
    Book Chapters | 1994
    Cossins AI, 1994, 'Using the Freedom of Information Act (Cth)', in Lawyers’ Practice Manual (NSW), Law Book Company Ltd, Sydney, pp. 1302/1 - 1302/43
    Book Chapters | 1993
    Cossins AI, 1993, 'The Public Interest in Freedom of Information', in Douglas R; Jones M (ed.), Administrative Law: Cases and Materials, Federation Press, Sydney, pp. 151 - 161
  • Journal articles | 2019
    Cossins A, 2019, 'Why her behaviour is still on trial: The absence of context in the modernisation of the substantive law on consent', The University of New South Wales law journal, 42, pp. 462 - 499, http://www.unswlawjournal.unsw.edu.au/article/why-her-behaviour-is-still-on-trial-the-absence-of-context-in-the-modernisation-of-the-substantive-law-on-consent/
    Journal articles | 2018
    Cossins A; Plummer M, 2018, 'Masculinity and Sexual Abuse', Men and Masculinities, 21, pp. 163 - 188, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1097184x16652655
    Journal articles | 2018
    Cossins A, 2018, 'The future of joint trials of sex offences after Hughes: resolving judicial fears and jurisdictional tensions with evidence-based decision-making', Melbourne University Law Review, 41, pp. 1121 - 1159, http://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/MelbULawRw/2018/5.html
    Journal articles | 2018
    Plummer M; Cossins A, 2018, 'The Cycle of Abuse: When Victims Become Offenders.', Trauma Violence Abuse, 19, pp. 286 - 304, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1524838016659487
    Journal articles | 2017
    Goodman-Delahunty J; Martschuk N; Cossins A, 2017, 'Validation of the Child Sexual Abuse Knowledge Questionnaire', Psychology, Crime and Law, 23, pp. 391 - 412, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1068316X.2016.1258469
    Journal articles | 2017
    Goodman-Delahunty J; Martschuk N; Cossins A, 2017, 'What Australian Jurors Know and Do Not Know about Evidence of Child Sexual Abuse', CRIMINAL LAW JOURNAL, 41, pp. 86 - 103, https://www.webofscience.com/api/gateway?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000399695500003&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=891bb5ab6ba270e68a29b250adbe88d1
    Journal articles | 2016
    Cossins AI; Jayakody A; Norrie C, 2016, 'The Role of Photographic and Video Documentation in the Investigation and Prosecution of Child Sexual Assault', Journal of Law and Medicine, 23, pp. 925 - 937
    Journal articles | 2016
    Goodman-Delahunty J; Martschuk N; Cossins AI, 2016, 'Programmatic Pretest-posttest Research to Reduce Jury Bias in Child Sexual Abuse Cases', Onati Socio-Legal Series, 6, pp. 283 - 314, http://ssrn.com/abstract=2786072
    Journal articles | 2014
    Cossins AI, 2014, 'The Legacy of the Makin case 120 Years on: Legal Fictions, Circular Reasoning and Some Solutions', The Sydney Law Review, pp. 731 - 760
    Journal articles | 2013
    Cossins AI; Goodman-Delahunty J, 2013, 'Misconceptions or expert evidence in child sexual assault trials: Enhancing justice and jurors’ “common sense”', Journal of Judicial Administration, 22, pp. 171 - 190, http://www.thomsonreuters.com.au/journal-of-judicial-administration-online/productdetail/97179
    Journal articles | 2013
    Cossins AI, 2013, 'Expert Witness Evidence in Sexual Assault Trials - Questions, Answers and Law Reform in Australia and England', International Journal of Evidence and Proof, 17, pp. 74 - 113, http://dx.doi.org/10.1350/ijep.2013.17.1.419
    Journal articles | 2011
    Cossins AI; Goodman-delahunty ; O'Brien K, 2011, 'A Comparison of Expert Evidence and Judicial Directions to Counter Misconceptions in Child Sexual Abuse Trials', Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 44, pp. 196 - 217, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0004865811405140
    Journal articles | 2011
    Cossins AI, 2011, 'The Behaviour of Persistent Sex Offenders: Implications for the Prosecution of Child Sex Offences in Joint Trials', Melbourne University Law Review, 35, pp. 821 - 864
    Journal articles | 2010
    Cossins AI, 2010, 'Time Out for Longman: Myths, Science and the Common Law', Melbourne University Law Review, 34, pp. 69 - 105, http://mulr.law.unimelb.edu.au/go/34_1_3_Cossins
    Journal articles | 2010
    Goodman-Delahunty J; Cossins AI; O''brien K, 2010, 'Enhancing the Credibility of Complainants in Child Sexual Assault Trials: The Effect of Expert Evidence and Judicial Directions', Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 28, pp. 769 - 783, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/bsl.936/abstract
    Journal articles | 2009
    Cossins AI; Goodman-Delahunty J; O'brien , 2009, 'Uncertainty and misconceptions about child sexual abuse: implications for the criminal justice system', Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 16, pp. 435 - 452, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13218710902930234
    Journal articles | 2009
    Cossins AI, 2009, 'Cross-examination in child sexual assault trials: evidentiary sfaeguard or an opportunity to confuse?', Melbourne University Law Review, 33, pp. 68 - 104
    Journal articles | 2008
    Cossins AI, 2008, 'Children, sexual abuse and suggestibility: What laypeople think they know and what the literature tells us', Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 15, pp. 153 - 170
    Journal articles | 2008
    Cossins AI, 2008, 'Restorative justice and child sex offences: the theory & the practice', British Journal of Criminology, 48, pp. 359 - 378, http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azn013
    Journal articles | 2006
    Cossins AI, 2006, 'Prosecuting Child Sexual Assault Cases: Are Vulnerable Witness Protections Enough', Current Issues in Criminal Justice, 18, pp. 299 - 317
    Journal articles | 2006
    Cossins AI, 2006, 'Prosecuting Child Sexual Assault Cases: To Specialise or Not, That is the Question', Current Issues in Criminal Justice, 18, pp. 318 - 342
    Journal articles | 2004
    Cossins AI, 2004, 'Is There a Case for the Legal Representation of Children in Sexual Assault Trials?', Current Issues in Criminal Justice, 16, pp. 160 - 182
    Journal articles | 2003
    Cossins AI, 2003, 'Saints, Sluts and Sexual Assault: Rethinking the Relationship Between Sex, Race and Gender', Social and Legal Studies, 12, pp. 77 - 103
    Journal articles | 2002
    Cossins AI, 2002, 'The Hearsay Rule and Delayed Complaints of Child Sexual Abuse: The Law and the Evidence', Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 9, pp. 163 - 176
    Journal articles | 2001
    Cossins AI, 2001, 'Complaints of Child Sexual Abuse: Too Easy to Make or Too Difficult to Prove', Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology, pp. 149 - 168
    Journal articles | 2001
    Kriesler PR; Mcnaughton AM; Cossins AI, 2001, 'Introduction to Special Issues: Mandatory Sentencing, Rights and Wrongs', Australian Journal of Human Rights, 7, pp. 1 - 2, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1323238X.2001.11911049
    Journal articles | 1999
    Cossins AI; Corpuz-Brock J, 1999, 'A Reply to the NSW Royal Commission Inquiry into Peadophilia: Victim Report Studies and Child Sex Offender Profiles - A Bad Match?', Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology, pp. 42 - 60
    Journal articles | 1999
    Cossins AI, 1999, 'Defying Reality: Child Sexual Assault and The Delay in Complaint Rule', Current Issues in Criminal Justice, 11, pp. 17 - 34
    Journal articles | 1997
    Cossins AI, 1997, 'Recovered Memories of Child Sexual Abuse - Fact or Fantasy?', Judicial Review Journal of Judicial Commission of New South Wales, pp. 163 - 199
    Journal articles | 1996
    Cossins AI; Pilkinton R, 1996, 'Balancing the scales: the case of inadmissibility of counselling records in sexual assualt trials', University of New South Wales Law Journal, 19, pp. 222 - 267
    Journal articles | 1996
    Cossins AI, 1996, 'Contempt or Confidentiality: Counselling Records, Relevance and Sexual Assault Trials', Alternative Law Journal, 21, pp. 220 - 226
    Journal articles | 1996
    Cossins AI, 1996, 'Counselling notes, relevance and sexual assualt trials', Alternative Law Journal, pp. 223 - 229
    Journal articles | 1995
    Cossins AI, 1995, 'On stone throwing from the feminist sidelines: a critique of Helen Garner`s book `The First Stone`', Melbourne University Law Review, 20, pp. 528 - 561
    Journal articles | 1995
    Cossins AI, 1995, 'Revising open government: developments in shifting the boundaries of government secrecy under public interest immunity and freedom of infromation law', Federal Law Review, pp. 226 - 276
    Journal articles | 1992
    Cossins AI, 1992, 'Uncertainty, Risk Assessment and Legal Regulation: A Look at the Debate Surrounding the Release of Genetically-Engineered Organisms into the Environment', Environmental and Planning Law Journal,, 9, pp. 320 - 330
    Journal articles | 1990
    Cossins AI, 1990, 'Women’s Dependence on the State', Legal Service Bulletin, 15, pp. 105 - 110
    Journal articles | 1989
    Norton RS; Cossins AI; Kem WR, 1989, '1H NMR Study of the Solution Properties of the Polypeptide Neurotoxin I from the Sea Anemone Stichodactyla helianthus', Biochemistry, 28, pp. 1820 - 1826, http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/bi00430a059
  • Reports | 2016
    Cossins AI; Goodman-Delahunty J; Martschuk N, 2016, Jury Reasoning in Joint and Separate Trials of Institutional Child Sexual Abuse: An Empirical Study, Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse, Sydney, ISBN 978-1-925289-61-9, http://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/getattachment/5539a015-3353-4b20-9c7b-59cc97a80d1b/Jury-reasoning-in-joint-and-separate-trials
    Conference Papers | 2014
    Cossins AI; Goodman-Delahunty J; Martschuk N, 2014, 'Persistent misconceptions about child sexual abuse: The impact of specialized educative information and deliberation on mock jurors.', in Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Empirical Studies of Judicial Systems: Citizen Participation Around the World, Institutum Jurisprudentiae Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, presented at Third International Conference on Empirical Studies of Judicial Systems: Citizen Participation Around the World, Taipei, Taiwan, 05 September 2014 - 06 September 2014
    Reports | 2012
    Cossins AI, 2012, Australian Institute of Judicial Administration Committee ‘Children Giving Evidence’ (2012) Bench Book for Children Giving Evidence in Australian Courts, Australian Institute of Judicial Administration, Melbourne
    Creative Written Works | 2010
    Cossins AI, 2010, Alternative Models for Prosecuting Child Sex Offences in Australia, Alternative Models for Prosecuting Child Sex Offences in Australia, The National Child Sexual Assault Reform Committee, UNSW, http://www.law.unsw.edu.au/Staff/cossinsa/docs/NationalCSAReformCommitteeReport2010.pdf
    Reports | 2006
    Cossins AI, 2006, Responding to sexual assault: the way forward, Criminal Law Review Division, Attorney General's department of NSW, Criminal Justice Task Force report December 2005
    Conference Papers | 1999
    Cossins AI, 1999, 'Masculinities, sexualities and child sexual abuse', in British Criminology Conference, British Criminology Conference 1999, Liverpool, presented at British Criminology Conference 1999, Liverpool