Katrina Marson has been researching the 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. In 2016, she was named ACT Young Lawyer of the Year. From 2019-2020, she led the implementation of the Child Sexual Abuse Royal Commission’s criminal justice recommendations in the ACT before returning to the ACT Director of Public Prosecutions as a senior prosecutor in the Sexual Offences Unit.
She undertook a Churchill Fellowship in 2019 researching the implementation of relationships and sexuality education overseas; her findings were published in the report Ignorance is not Innocence. She sits on the federal government’s National Respectful Relationships Education Expert Working Group.
She is a columnist for The Age/The Sydney Morning Herald, she delivered a TEDx Talk on why consent education isn’t enough in late 2022, shortly after her first book, Legitimate Sexpectations: the power of sex-ed, was published to critical acclaim.
Katrina is taking a break from criminal practice while she completes her PhD in sex-education, teaches at the Australian National University College of Law, and writes her second book.
Talking Points
Sex Education: What's the Point?
More than half of young Australian women will have experienced sexual violence by the time they are in their twenties, and more than half will have been sexually harassed since the age of fifteen. It’s one in twenty for men.Sex Education: What's the Point?
Relationships and sexuality education have the power to delay first sexual experiences and reduce the incidence of negative sexual experiences.
As someone who prosecuted sexual offence cases, case after case, I saw the devastating impact of sexual violence in our community.
My own international research about the power of sex-ed showed me a better, brighter future – one that I aim to empower us all to pursue. So that we can promise all young people a life that is not just free from sexual violence, but far from violence. A promise that their sexual wellbeing will be protected.
Finding the Courage to Call It
For years my professional identity has accompanied me into every room, sometimes entering before I do. I spent a decade pursuing the skill and cultivating the mettle that it takes to be a courtroom advocate, and people respected me for it—loved ones, colleagues, and strangers alike. I weathered the vicarious trauma, the crippling anxiety, the not-infrequent public humiliation, the long hours and lost weekends, as I climbed the ladder in front of me. This was what everyone—myself included—expected I would do.Finding the Courage to Call It
And then I quit.
Quitting a high-profile, high-adrenaline career to pursue an intangible, slow, creative dream, was a risk I needed to take.
Video
Why consent education isn't enough | Katrina Marson | TEDxBrisbane
As a sexual offences prosecutor, Katrina Marson spent a decade seeing the aftermath of sexual violence cross her desk - case after case after case. Feeling frustrated by the limits of the criminal justice system, in 2019, Katrina decided to focus on sexual violence prevention, embarking on a global journey to meet some leading experts in this field. Her research confirmed her suspicions that sex education focusing on consent education and violence prevention is inadequate and misguided, however well-intentioned, and that comprehensive relationship and sexuality education is a human right for all young people. Katrina Marson practiced as a criminal lawyer for a decade, particularly in family violence and sexual offences. She has been researching the protective power of sex-ed to prevent sexual violence and safeguard sexual wellbeing since 2012. On a two-year secondment, she led the implementation of the Child Sexual Abuse Royal Commission’s criminal justice recommendations in the Australia Capital Territory (ACT) before returning to the ACT Director of Public Prosecutions as a senior prosecutor in the Sexual Offences Unit. Katrina undertook a Churchill Fellowship in 2019 to research the implementation of relationships and sexuality education overseas; her findings were published in the report, ‘Ignorance is not Innocence’. She is the lead researcher of primary prevention at Rape and Sexual Assault Research and Advocacy, and is completing a PhD in human rights and sex education. Her first book, ‘Legitimate Sexpectations: the power of sex-ed’, was published in 2022.Katrina knows what young people today need to hear, and how to speak so that they’ll listen. Her story-telling abilities create relevant, clever, and impactful points that stick long after t ... keep reading Event Attendee
When it comes to the issue of sex and relationships education and the prevention of sexual violence, Katrina Marson has 360 vision, having worked as a sexual offences prosecutor, a sex and ethics educator and researcher. She is the go-to voice on the subject, her expertise and depth of subject-matter knowledge stand her apart from the pack.
Marson provides a voice of reason in this unnecessarily hyperbolic debate. The clarity of her research and communication gives me hope that eventually young people will get the education they deserve.
Katrina is an engaging and knowledgeable speaker. Her insights into the role that education can play in developing healthy relationships, respectful attitudes towards sexuality and sexual consent among young people, are both timely and prescient. Katrina’s professional background, training, and depth of experience make her a unique and authoritative voice in this sphere. She encouraged our staff to understand and respond to the importance of instilling the values and practices of safe and respectful relationships, particularly with women, in our students. We applaud Katrina’s expertise and passionate voice in the space of sex education.
Katrina was a powerful and motivating voice for our cohort of young, student leaders. She empowered her audience to contribute to an ongoing dialogue about how young people can be a voice for positive change in sex education and positive sex culture. The students left the talk keen to engage deeper with this important topic.
Katrina spoke brilliantly to the Year 10 cohort of Cranbrook and Kincoppal Rose Bay about the issues of how sex education has been delivered and what they can do not only to avoid issues of sexual assault, but to ensure a healthy and positive relationship with sex, whenever they have it. When booking in a speaker for a school it can seem that you are walking a fine line between scaring teenagers about sex, or being too sex positive – Katrina walks that line perfectly and encourages communication, consent, and enjoyment for everyone, regardless of what their relationship with intimacy is now. At the end of the session students walked away with great tools to use, effective strategies for enthusiastic consent, and more importantly, an understanding that respect and understanding go both ways. We will have Katrina speak to our students for many years to come, and encourage other schools to do so too.
