The Prosecution of Child Sexual Assault: A Survey of NSW DPP Solicitors

1995 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judy Cashmor
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Full Advantage ◽  
Justice System ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Child Witnesses ◽  
Child Sexual Assault ◽  
South Wales

Over the last decade, there has been a number of changes in the law and in courtroom procedures in relation to the prosecution of child sexual assault. These changes were intended to ease the restrictions on the admission of children's evidence and to make the experience of testifying less stressful for child witnesses. Court statistics on the outcome of child sexual assault prosecutions and the results of a survey by the NSW Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) of prosecuted cases of child sexual assault in New South Wales were examined to throw some light on the way such prosecutions and the child witnesses involved were dealt with in the criminal justice system. One of the major concerns was that while some reforms have allowed more and younger children to give evidence, full advantage has not been taken of other reforms to ease children's experience at court.

scholarly journals Imposed Stories: Prisoner Self-narratives in the Criminal Justice System in New South Wales, Australia

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maggie Hall ◽  
Kate Rossmanith
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
South Wales

This article examines the ways in which offenders are required to provide very particular accounts of themselves and to self-narrate in confined ways. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews conducted in the New South Wales justice system, it explores how the stories that offenders are made to accept and tell about themselves often bear little relationship to their own reflections. It analyses how, despite the expectations of judges and prison authorities, these self-narratives are not products of an offender’s soul-searching concerning his past actions and experience; rather they are products of an official legal narrative being imposed on an offender whose capacity to own and enact such a narrative is already seriously compromised.

Care-criminalisation: The involvement of children in out-of-home care in the New South Wales criminal justice system

2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 412-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kath McFarlane
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Home Care ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Out Of Home Care ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Children's Court ◽  
Children’S Court

This article discusses the involvement in the New South Wales criminal justice system of a cohort of children in out-of-home care. The paper reports the findings of a four-year research project that investigated the relationship between the child welfare and justice systems as experienced by a cohort of children in the New South Wales Children’s Court criminal jurisdiction. Analysis of 160 case files identified that children in out-of-home care appeared before the Children’s Court on criminal charges at disproportionate rates compared to children who were not in out-of-home care. The out-of-home care cohort had a different and negative experience of the justice system, entering it at a significantly younger age and being more likely to experience custodial remand, than children who had not been in out-of-home care. While both cohorts shared many of the risk factors common to young offenders appearing before the Children’s Court, the out-of-home care cohort experienced significant additional disadvantage within the care environment (‘care-criminalisation’), such that living arrangements designed to protect them from harm instead created the environment for offending. The paper concludes by arguing that a paucity of research exists regarding the drivers and dynamics of care-criminalisation and that more research is needed to explore the criminogenic impacts of a childhood spent in out-of-home care.

scholarly journals ‘Just another policy document?’ Can a protocol end the criminalisation of kids in care?

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-42
Author(s):  
Kath McFarlane ◽  
Emma Colvin ◽  
Andrew McGrath ◽  
Alison Gerard
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Justice System ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Policy Document ◽  
Out Of Home Care ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Criminal Justice Systems ◽  
Home Care Providers

This article examines the New South Wales Joint Protocol to Reduce the Contact of Young People in Residential OOHC with the Criminal Justice System (2016 ) from the perspective of residential out-of-home-care providers, police, lawyers and departmental staff involved in the child welfare and criminal justice systems in New South Wales.

scholarly journals Police and Vulnerability in Bail Decisions

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Danielle Hughes ◽  
Emma Colvin ◽  
Isabelle Bartkowiak-Théron
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
New South ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Vulnerable People

Since bail legislation was enacted in the 1970s, Australia has experienced a continual increase in the number of prisoners on remand. Amendments to bail legislation and police discretion have been shown to contribute to this increase. Further, an accused’s vulnerability affects whether they are granted or denied bail, with vulnerable people being more likely to be denied bail. Vulnerability in the criminal justice system refers to factors such as race, age, sex and socioeconomic status. Many vulnerable people have multiple intersecting vulnerabilities, which further compounds their contact with the justice system. This study employed a qualitative content analysis of bail legislation for the Australian states of New South Wales (NSW), Tasmania, and Victoria, along with key correlating second reading speeches. The aim was to better understand the way in which bail decision-makers, such as police, consider vulnerability when making decisions about bail, in particular, if and how they are legislated to consider factors relating to vulnerability. The research found that only police in NSW and Victoria were required to consider an accused’s vulnerability explicitly under the law. Although legislation may cater for varying vulnerabilities, intersecting vulnerabilities are not considered.

scholarly journals (DE)CONSTRUCTING THE “PERFECT RAPE VICTIM”: AN ANALYSIS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT AND SURVIVOR DISCOURSES IN THE CANADIAN CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanshika Dhawan ◽  
Marty Fink
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Rape Myths ◽  
Attrition Rates ◽  
Sexual Assault Survivors ◽  
Spousal Rape ◽  
Definition Of

The Canadian criminal justice system has seen many progressive changes to the way sexual assault cases are investigated and prosecuted over the past several decades. From the acknowledgement of spousal rape to the introduction of rape shield provisions, the law has seemingly changed to broaden the definition of what is considered a sexual assault. However, sexually-based offences are still vastly underreported and have the lowest attrition rates of indictable offences. Larger societal discourses around sexual assault and survivor-hood consist largely of rape myths, such as the idea that “real rape” only occurs when an “undeserving” woman is sexually assaulted by a “stranger in the dark.” These discourses permeate the Canadian criminal justice system, negatively influencing the experience of survivors who do not fit the narrow mould “real rape.” Drawing from Norman Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis and Stuart Hall’s Discursive Approach, this Major Research Paper traces the effects of these discourses on constructions of sexual assault and survivor-hood in the legal system. Through a theoretical analysis of existing literature on the experiences of sexual assault survivors, this paper also examines the ways in which the language we use to describe sexual assault serves to cement rape myths and invalidate survivor experiences in every stage of the Canadian criminal justice system.

Children as Witnesses in Child Sexual Abuse Trials

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 80 (4) ◽  
pp. 585-589
Author(s):  
Julius Landwirth
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Adverse Effects ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Child Witnesses ◽  
Constitutional Rights ◽  
Presumption Of Innocence ◽  
Child Sexual Abusers ◽  
Child Sexual Abuse Trials

When alleged child sexual abusers are prosecuted and brought to trial, child witnesses are often exposed to procedural requirements of the criminal justice system that may cause further psychologic trauma. These procedures are driven by the dual interests of pursuing the truth and protecting the constitutional rights of the accused to a fair trial with a presumption of innocence. Proposals for judicial reforms designed to balance both interests while shielding children from potential adverse effects of the process are discussed.

The Legal Enforcement of Integrity

2020 ◽  
pp. 35-62
Author(s):  
Stuart P. Green
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Political System ◽  
Legal Discourse ◽  
Bodily Integrity ◽  
Moral Concepts ◽  
Legal Enforcement ◽  
The Law

Talk of “integrity” is ubiquitous in law and legal discourse: Protecting the integrity of our political system has been cited as a basis for anti-corruption laws; preserving the integrity of the legal profession as a principle underlying the rules of lawyer ethics; ensuring integrity in policing and in the wider criminal justice system as a justification for excluding evidence obtained in violation of the Constitution; and protecting bodily integrity as a potential goal for the law of rape and sexual assault. This chapter examines what integrity means in each of these contexts, what these uses have in common, and whether thinking about these various rules and doctrines in terms of integrity rather than other moral concepts leads to any practical difference in outcome. It also asks what the examination of integrity in the law can tell us about the concept of integrity in other contexts.

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