NCJ Number
155726
Date Published
1995
Length
118 pages
Annotation
This study was the first to evaluate the effectiveness of the 1988 policy of the British government to expedite the prosecution of child abuse cases, and in parituclarly, the provisions of the Criminal Justice Act 1991 which elevated the policy to a statutory level.
Abstract
Data for the analysis were collected from 200 prosecution case files and interviews with 85 criminal justice system personnel. The analysis focused on case disposition times and the way in which the police, Crown Prosecution Service, and courts handled cases to which the governmental policy of speedy progress applied. The book describes the context of the government's policy commitment to expedite child abuse cases; describes the fieldwork for this study; provides a profile of study cases, victims, and defendants; contains the key analysis of the length of pre- and post-Criminal Justice Act cases; and addresses the response of criminal justice agencies to child abuse prosecutions and the extent to which they identify cases that come within the parameters of the speedy progress policy. The results indicate that child abuse cases, far from receiving priority treatment, actually took longer to reach disposition that the national average for other types of cases. New statutory procedures to expedite cases were used infrequently and were ineffective in reducing delay. The final chapter of the book discusses factors contributing to delay, case management initiatives, and good practice in the management of these prosecutions. 62 references