The Queensland data reported above are similar to those of other Australian States. In South Australia in 1993–95, for example, the National Association for the Prev ention of Child Abuse and Neglect (NAPCAN) Working Party Report reported that prosecution had begun on only 13 per cent of reported cases of child sexual abuse to the Department for Family and Community Services for that year, resulting in convictions in only 4 per cent of cases. Similarly, child abuse statistics for 1993 in New South Wales compiled by the Department of Community Services and the New South Wales Criminal Court indicated convictions of only 4 per cent of offenders (NSW Child Protection Council 1996).
A more recent study in South Australia by Hood & Boltje (1998) followed 500 cases of child sexual abuse that had been reported to the Child Protection Services, from the initial report to the child welfare system through the intervention process to criminal prosecution. That study found that only 27 per cent of cases substantiated at the welfare/health level were prosecuted in the criminal courts and that only 17 per cent resulted in a conviction, half of these as a result of guilty pleas. The study indicated that failure to prosecute was not the result of faulty substantiation classification at the health/welfare level:48on the contr ary, constraints in the legal system that significantly reduced the likelihood of prosecution led to choices being made about whether to proceed.49 The most recent Austr alian figures available were reported by Joy Wundersitz of the Office of Crime Statistics and Research, South Australia, in May 2003 (paper presented to the Australian Institute of Criminology national conference ‘Child sexual abuse: Justice response or alternative resolution’). She reported
preliminary findings of a current research project that is tracking child
victimisations (including sexual abuse) from police incident report to finalisation in court. Wundersitz reported that 16.1 per cent of reported child sexual offences resulted in a successful court prosecution, verifying the general perception that many child sexual assault cases never result in the apprehension of a suspect, and that even fewer proceed to a successful prosecution in court. She also reported, however, that this figure is not dissimilar to the con viction rates for other offences. Her study has indicated, for example, that the conviction rate is 32.9 per cent for major assault, 18.4 per cent for minor assault and 18.4 per cent for ‘threat to kill’.
A report by the NSW Child Protection Council (1996, p. 39) also indicated that only 48 per cent of child sexual offenders went to prison. The remainder were given community-based orders involving bonds, fines and periodic detention. In some 60 per cent of cases, the community-based orders did not require any form of supervision.
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COMPARATIVE INTERNATIONAL DATA
Like Australia, other Western countries also experience low reporting and high discontinuance (or attrition) rates for sexual offences in the criminal justice system. For example, a case-flow analysis of the criminal justice outcomes of the prosecution of child sexual abuse allegations in four counties of the United States by Cross, Whitcomb & De Vos (1995)50 found that only 9 per cent of the total sample of complaints (relating to 552 alleged perpetrators) that were referred for prosecution by the police actually went to trial. The majority of those complaints that went to trial, however, resulted in a conviction and three- quarters of the perpetrators convicted were incarcerated. The authors concluded that ‘the best predictor of outcome was simply whether or not cases were accepted, since the great majority of cases accepted for prosecution resulted in guilty pleas’ (pp. 1438–9).
Similarly, research conducted in the United States in 1997 indicated a rejection rate of about 41 per cent of matters by the prosecutor (with a further 11 per cent being dismissed at a later point in the proceedings), and a complementary conviction rate (by plea or trial) of 46 per cent. In only 1.4 per cent of matters defendants were not convicted. The authors claimed that these findings ‘confirm the importance of the decision to charge or not and suggest that the prosecutor “controls the doors to the courthouse”’ (Spohn, Beichner & Davis-Frenzel 2001, p. 228).
In the United Kingdom, the Home Office (2002a) has indicated that about 25 per cent of all rape cases passed by the police to the Crown Prosecution Service are discontinued by the Service. Cases where the alleged complainant is under 16 years at the time of the attack are most likely to proceed to court and the most likely to result in a conviction. The study also indicated that just 9 per cent of suspects were convicted of rape or attempted rape.
In Ireland, the recently released SAVI (Sexual Assault and Violence in Ireland) report by McGee et al. (2002) assessed the prevalence of sexual abuse among a random sample of the Irish population to be high, but also reported that
disclosure r ates to the Gardai (the Irish police) were strikingly low. Of those who disclosed adult sexual assault, for example, one man (of 98 who reported being assaulted — 1 per cent) reported to Gardai, as did 19 women (of 244 who report being assaulted — 7.8 per cent). Regarding child sexual abuse, 10 men (of the 178 who reported it — 5.6 per cent) and 28 women (of 290 who reported it — 9.7 per cent) had reported their experiences to the police. About one-half of those who had reported were satisfied with the service provided by the police, most dissatisfaction being because they didn’t feel that they were given enough information about the process, rather than concerns about police attitudes or responses. Gardai annual report statistics suggested that the attrition rate (i.e. the difference between those events reported to the police and the number of prosecutions that result) w as 95.1 per cent. That is, only about 5 per cent of reported offences progress through the system.
In Canada, the Federal Provincial Territorial Ministers Responsible for the Status of Women in Canada (2002) reported that about one-third of sexual assault cases that appeared before the adult court in 1998–99 resulted in a conviction. A higher proportion (just over one-half) of other sexual offences (the majority of which are child sexual abuse cases) resulted in a conviction.51 According to the authors, attempted murder is the only violent offence in the adult court system with a markedly lower conviction rate than sexual assault. About 6 in 10 of those convicted of sexual assault or other sexual offences in an adult court were sentenced to a period of incarceration. This is lower than the percentage
receiving prison terms for crimes of homicide, attempted murder and robbery, but higher than that for crimes of assault and kidnapping/abduction.
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SUMMARY
The data presented earlier in this chapter, if taken in isolation, indicate that the successful prosecution of a sexual offence in Queensland is likely to be limited to a relatively small proportion of reported offences overall. However, as indicated by the comparative interstate and international research, the range of outcomes in Queensland is not dissimilar to other States of Australia or other countries. Indeed, in many ways the Queensland situation appears to be somewhat better. It is probably unreasonable, therefore, to expect that
Queensland would be significantly different to other States or countries, given that the Queensland criminal justice system is similar to those illustrated above. The message taken by victims of abuse w ho review this data might, therefore, be that the stress of enduring the complexities and difficulties of the criminal justice system by reporting such an offence may not be warranted, given the limited likelihood of ac hieving a conviction. Thus, under-reporting of offences may continue. Con versely, the message to ‘would-be offenders’ might be that the likelihood of being caught and convicted of a sexual offence appears slim. Neither response is likely to lead to the prevention of sexual abuse nor enhance the perceptions of the public that the criminal justice system is little more than a legal process, rather than a ‘justice’ system.
ENDNOTES TO CHAPTER 5
39 North Coast Region recorded the largest increase in offences since the previous year while Far Northern Region recorded the highest rate of sexual offences overall.
40 An offence is deemed to be cleared if it is either solved or withdrawn, including one of the following:
• at least one offender has been arrested or summonsed or issued with a Notice to Appear, or information has been laid to compel an offender’s appearance in court • action has been taken against at least one offender under the provisions of the
Juvenile Justice Act 1992 (Qld)
• at least one offender has been dealt with in accordance with QPS policy (e.g. informal counselling of children and elderly persons)
• the offender has admitted the offence, but there is an obstacle to the proceedings • the offender is known and sufficient evidence has been obtained, but the
complainant refuses to prosecute
• the offender is in another jurisdiction and extradition is not desired or not available • the offender is serving a sentence and no useful purpose would be served by
prosecution
• the offender has died
• the offender has been admitted to a mental institution • the offender is being offered drug diversion
• there is some other bar to prosecution
• the offender is dealt with by ex-officio indictment • the offender is being dealt with by another agency • the complainant or essential witness has died
• the complainant has requested police to take no further action.
41 Most cases that were solved resulted in an arrest (72 per cent) or a Notice to Appear (16 per cent). The remainder resulted in a range of actions such as cautions (4 per cent), Notices to Attend (1 per cent), summons (2 per cent) or other (4 per cent), whereby the offender is known and sufficient evidence has been obtained but there is a bar to prosecution.
42 An official caution can be administered to a child under the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act 1992 (Qld) and includes the cautioning of persons over 65 years of age and intellectually disabled persons for minor criminal offences in accordance with official Service policy. The term does not apply to any informal process where a child is spoken to by an officer w here the officer is exercising discretion in relation to the child’s particular behaviour or actions.
62 C H A P T E R 5 : P R O G R E S S I O N O F S E X U A L O F F E N C E M AT T E R S T H R O U G H T H E Q U E E N S L A N D C R I M I N A L J U S T I C E S Y S T E M 43 Community conferencing is the referral of a child under the provisions of the Juvenile
Justice Act 1992 (Qld)to a community conference by a police officer before the start of a proceeding for an offence, or by a court after a finding of guilt is made against a child for the offence.
44 These included:
• aggravated sexual assault • assault with intent to commit rape • attempted rape
• bestiality
• carnal knowledge of children • censorship offences
• child pornography • incest
• indecent/wilful exposure
• maintaining a sexual relationship with child • non-aggravated sexual assault
• non-assaultive sexual offences • rape.
45 Previous research (see CJC 1999, pp. 28 & 30) has indicated that, on average, most accused come before the courts for an average of two to three charges, although the range can be quite extensive, from just one charge to hundreds of charges. A review of the number of charges associated with the appearances reported in Figure 3 indicated that one appearance in the lower court represented, on average, 4.8 charges (with a range of 1 to 104 charges) and that one appearance at the higher courts represented an average of 11.9 charges (with a range of 1 to 425 charges).
46 A conservative figure of 47 000 reported offences for the period 1994–2001 was
determined by a review of the data presented in the annual statistical reviews published by the QPS for that period, but this figure is only an approximation based on time trends and the limited data available.
47 These offences included: • sodomy
• rape
• attempted rape
• attempted carnal knowledge • incest
• indecent assault/indecent dealing • other sexual offences
• conspiracy sexual offences • publication of indecent matter • indecent behaviour
• wilful exposure.
48 Australia-wide data consistently show that more than one-half (54–57 per cent) of the reports of child abuse are ‘not substantiated’ (Australian Institute of Health & Welfare 1990–91, 1991–92, 1992–93, 1993–94, 1994–95).
49 Hood & Boltje (1998) identified 32 of 51 cases before the courts that involved children under 7 years of age. In these cases, the children were either not able to give statements that sufficiently described events or specified dates, or were predicted to be unable to repeat the description a second time. Howev er, in some w ay the information provided by the child or the situation had convinced the doctors, interviewers and police that the allegation was substantiated. In one example, a child of 2 years living in an Aboriginal community had physical signs of sexual assault, but could not say what had happened. 50 Erie County (Buffalo), New York; Polk County (Des Moines), Io wa; Ramsey County (St Paul),
Minnesota and San Diego County, California.
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