Legitimate Sexpectations

Can we promise future generations a life free of sexual violence, in which their sexual wellbeing will be protected? Is this a promise we can keep?

As a sexual offences prosecutor, Katrina Marson works for an institution that can only respond, one case at a time, to sexual violence once the damage is already done. During a decade of looking back, she kept returning to a single question: what could have been done to prevent this?

In 2019 she stepped out of the justice system to travel abroad on a Churchill Fellowship, where she witnessed first-hand the power of comprehensive relationships and sexuality education to safeguard sexual wellbeing and act as a protective factor against sexual violence. Combining her coalface experience in the criminal law with her international research on sex education, Marson’s perspective is unique, looking in two directions at once.

Legitimate Sexpectations exposes the limits of the criminal justice system and the fault lines in our society when it comes to sex, sexuality, and relationships. Through storytelling that moves between heartbreak and hope, Marson makes the case for a cultural shift towards valuing sexual wellbeing and preventing sexual violence in the first place. In doing so, she calls on us all to play our part to ensure that young people’s sexual experiences are not just free from violence, but far from violent.

• Shortlisted, 2023 ACT Notable Book Awards

About the Author

Katrina Marson has been researching the protective power of sex-ed to prevent sexual violence and safeguard sexual wellbeing for a decade. She has been a criminal lawyer since 2013, primarily in the areas of family violence and sexual offences. On secondment for two years, Katrina led the implementation of the Child Sexual Abuse Royal Commission's criminal justice recommendations in the ACT before returning to the ACT DPP as the 2IC of the Sexual Offences Unit. She undertook a Churchill Fellowship in 2019 researching the implementation of relationships and sexuality education overseas. She is the lead researcher of primary prevention at Rape and Sexual Assault Research and Advocacy and is the President of the Relationships and Sexuality Education Alliance in the ACT.