Pathway to justice: Examining the attrition of child sexual abuse cases
Abstract
In Australia, similar to other Western societies, the conviction rate for child sexual
abuse (CSA) cases is low. Case attrition can occur at any time from the initial report to
authorities through to an outcome in court. Prior literature that has explored the attrition (and
case progression) of CSA cases has focused on the laying of charges and prosecution stages.
To date, the research has not focused on the earlier stages of the criminal justice system. The
overarching aim of the current thesis was to address four major gaps identified in the
research: (1) the need to understand better the factors that contribute to the attrition of CSA
cases from the perspective of professionals working in the system and develop further ideas
for improvements to the criminal justice system; (2) to identify the various points of attrition
for CSA cases, the percentage of CSA cases that resulted in attrition, and the reasons for
attrition at each of these points; (3) to explore the characteristics associated with attrition at
the earlier stages of the criminal justice system; and (4) to explore the characteristics
associated with specific reasons for attrition at the earlier stages of the criminal justice
system. Each of these gaps was addressed in one of the four studies presented in the current
thesis.
Description
item.page.type
Article
item.page.format
Keywords
criminal justice system, Australia, International Resources, conviction, child sexual abuse, case attrition
Citation
Christensen, L. S. (2016). Pathway to justice: Examining the attrition of child sexual abuse cases (No. PhD.). Deakin University.