NCJ Number
79393
Journal
Case and Comment Volume: 86 Issue: 5 Dated: (September/October 1981) Pages: 3-4,6,8
Date Published
1981
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article examines the issue of charging a child sexual abuser in a crime that extends over a period of time by reviewing the nature of child sexual abuse and the limitations of children's testimony.
Abstract
Offenders in a continually occurring sex crime are often neighbors, friends, or family members. When a child finally reports the abuse, it may have already occurred over an extended period of time. Because children have difficulty understanding the concept of time for the purpose of criminal court action, it is highly unlikely that the court will have any exact data upon which to pinpoint time in a charging document. Thus, adults must understand that the child's view of time relates to the child's age and degree of socialization. An accurate charging document must include a detailed description of every substantial element of the offense, including the particulars as to the time the offense occurred. As illustrated by a case involving the abuse of an 11-year-old girl in Maryland, the usual practice in Baltimore City has been to charge the accused from one point in time and thence continually to another point. However, it would be more equitable to the accused to indicate the complete time span of exposure. The defendant is thus safeguarded from any future prosecutions for the complete time span complained of in the indictment and, if found guilty of the one continually occurring crime, the offender can be sentenced for the statutory term for only one crime, as opposed to several terms for several crimes committed over the duration of the abusive relationship. Otherwise States may decline prosecution because of inexact time references. Footnotes are included.