NCJ Number
181470
Date Published
December 1999
Length
55 pages
Annotation
This report was prepared for the Taskforce on Women and the Criminal Code to document the current status of sexual assault data within the Queensland (Australia) criminal justice system.
Abstract
Data from the Queensland Police Service, the courts, and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions were analyzed for the years 1994 to 1998. The aim was to provide a critical review of this data, focusing on who reports sexual offenses, when and how the system responds, and what the long-term effects of these responses might be. Police data show that on average, approximately 6,500 sexual offenses were reported to the Queensland Police Service annually between the years 1996 and 1998. Although the number of sexual offenses reported to the Queensland Police Service doubled between 1994 and 1998, it is likely that this resulted from significant societal and legal changes, rather than from a dramatic increase in sexual offending per se. The majority of reported offenses were committed against children younger than 16 years of age (58 percent). The court data suggest that between 700 and 900 persons accused of sexual offenses come before the Magistrates Court annually, representing approximately 1 percent of all charges and 20 percent of all charges against the person heard before the Magistrates Court. Data from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions show that approximately half of the defendants between 1994 and 1998 pleaded guilty, although significantly fewer of those accused of rape chose to do so (28 percent). There were considerable problems with the quality of the data from all sources, indicating that improvements in all data collection and monitoring procedures are required. It is important that systems are developed to permit the tracking of complainants through each level of the criminal justice system. 30 tables and 8 references