Particularisation of Child Abuse Offences: Common Problems when Questioning Child Witnesses
Date
2007
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Current Issues in Criminal Justice
Abstract
Sexual abuse of children is a global problem that affects millions of children worldwide
(World Health Organization 1999), however prosecution and conviction rates are low in
developed countries (e.g., Crime and Misconduct Commission 2003). Child sexual abuse is
a particularly difficult crime to prosecute when several different acts of child abuse were
allegedly perpetrated, or a particular act was perpetrated on multiple occasions over an
extended period of time. For an offender to be charged and convicted in relation to child
abuse, most jurisdictions require that the individual offence(s) be ‘particularised’.
Specifically, each separate act of which the suspect is charged (e.g., assault, indecent
assault, unlawful sexual penetration) must be identified with reasonable precision in
relation to time, place or some other unique contextual detail (S v The Queen). An absence
of particularising details is problematic because it potentially jeopardises: the defendant’s
right to a fair trial; the court’s ability to establish rules of evidence and procedure; the
accuracy and integrity of the verdict; and the ability to determine the appropriate sentence
(see S v The Queen). On the other hand, child witnesses have tremendous difficulty isolating
the time and context of repeated occurrences. This difficulty is compounded in situations
where numerous offences occurred at close intervals in time, and where the context or
content was highly similar across repeated occurrences (Price et al 2006; Roberts & Blades
1998, 1999; Roberts & Powell 2001).
Description
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Article
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Keywords
International Resources, Australia, sexual abuse, prosecution, repeated abuse, temporal knowledge, child memory
Citation
Powell, M., Roberts, K., & Guadagno, B. (2007). Particularisation of child abuse offences: Common problems when questioning child witnesses. Current Issues Crim. Just., 19, 64.