A startling comparison

Jonathan Pearlman’s description of police killing Victoria Esperanza Salazar, a 37-yearold mother of two, was appropriately headlined “Femicide in Mexico” (World,

April 3-9). Mexico’s brutal treatment of women is indicative of a thoroughly dysfunctional society in which only “about 5 per cent of rape and sexual assault allegations lead to criminal sentences”. Hang on – 5 per cent – that’s better than Australia. How dysfunctional is this country’s legal system and legislative regime when even femicidal Mexico manages to do a better job in convicting sexual assailants?

– David Clarke, Battery Point, Tas