New Specialist Child Sexual Assault Jurisdiction for New South Wales

• NCJ Number: 202790
• Author(s): Rebekah Rodger
• Date Published: May 2003
• Length: 9 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: Australian Institute of Criminology
• Sale Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
• Publication Format: Document (Online)
• Publication Type: Program/Project Description; Conference Material
• Language: English
• Country: Australia
• Note: Paper presented at the Child Sexual Abuse: Justice Response or Alternative Resolution Conference held in Adelaide, Australia, May 1-2, 2003; downloaded November 6, 2003.

Annotation

This paper discusses the rationale for and the implementation of a pilot specialist court jurisdiction in New South Wales (Australia) for child sexual assault cases.

Abstract

Two reports on the handling of child sexual assault cases in the criminal justice system released in 2002 led to the New South Wales (NSW) Government's decision to implement the pilot. One report found the NSW criminal justice system to be deficient regarding length of time from reporting to trial, waiting conditions at court, the availability of closed circuit television (CCTV) technology, lack of early recording of evidence of child complainants, and the availability of committals in child sexual assault prosecutions. The second report identified two key problems with child sexual assault prosecutions in NSW: the comparatively low conviction rate in trials and the traumatizing effect of the trial process on complainants. In an effort to remedy the identified deficiencies in the processing of child sexual abuse cases, the Specialist Child Sexual Assault Jurisdiction was created as a pilot scheme available only for district court and local court matters at Parramatta Courthouse in Western Sydney. The specialist jurisdiction has the following features: provision of a secure remote witness facility separate from the courthouse that is child friendly; a presumption in favor of using special measures, including the admission of prerecorded evidence, the use of CCTV, and support persons; improved CCTV technology and facilities; pretrial hearings to determine the special needs of the child and the readiness of the matter to proceed; improved training for judicial officers specific to child sexual assault cases; and extensive evaluation of the pilot. Problems identified from two cases processed by the pilot are discussed.