The Taskforce on Women and the Criminal Code was established by the Minister for Justice and Attorney-General Matt Foley MLA and the Minister for Women's Policy Judy Spence MLA in November 1998. The Taskforce was required to report and make recommendations to the Ministers on the operation of the Criminal Code as it impacts on women. This is the Report of the Taskforce. Its establishment arose out of the Government's pre-election commitment to - Establish a broad based consultative Taskforce to consult widely on the Queensland Criminal Code in relation to its impact upon women. The Taskforce will include sexual assault workers, Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander women, women from non-English speaking backgrounds, disability workers, legal practitioners and police. This was recognition of the fact that issues of specific concern to women had not been an integral part of reform processes which were undertaken throughout the earlier part of the 1990s. To the best of our knowledge this is a unique exercise and the Taskforce hopes that its work will be useful to a wider audience than Queensland, although the women of this State have been the focus of and drive behind the Report. The Taskforce was a broad-based consultative committee and comprised members of government departments and women of diverse backgrounds drawn from the Queensland community. The membership included lawyers, women who provided perspectives from Indigenous, rural and non-English speaking background communities and women who provided expertise on disability, domestic violence and sexual violence. The full membership of the Taskforce is included at the end of this introduction. The members of the Taskforce brought a variety of skills, expertise and life experiences to the review.