Prosecution of Child Sexual Abuse: A Partnership To Improve Outcomes
Abstract
Child sexual abuse (CSA) cases are notoriously difficult to prosecute. Medical evidence
is available in less than 5% of the reported cases of CSA and the prosecution often must rely on
the testimony of a child. Prosecutors have the responsibility to achieve justice. They balance this
role with the complexities of determining what is justice for the child victim and how can they
best protect the community from offenders who may go on to sexually abuse others. In 2014, the
National Institute of Justice (NIJ) funded this study of prosecution of CSA. This report describes
research findings on prosecutorial outcomes and considers obstacles to obtaining justice for the
child victims in these complicated cases.
We conducted retrospective analysis of 500 CSA cases referred for prosecution in one
state, to examine the barriers to prosecuting these cases. We analyzed case records for evidence
about the alleged incident, details about the victim, the victim’s family, the alleged perpetrator,
and the prosecutorial decisions. We assessed the case attrition and the CSA case characteristics
associated with prosecution outcomes.
Our research finds that a small proportion of the reported cases (less than one in five)
went forward to prosecution. About half of those cases resulted in a conviction or guilty plea. As
demonstrated on all three of our dependent (i.e., prosecutor outcome) variables, caregiver
support of the child was an important predictor of the case moving forward. Evidentiary barriers
included problems with disclosures presented another major obstacle in these cases. The review
of these cases will help to inform guidelines on how to evaluate what successful case progression
and outcomes look like. Future research should continue to explore the ways in which other
outcomes such as Child Protective Services (CPS) involvement, therapeutic referrals, and
changes in living situations may be successful outcomes for victims of CSA.
In short, this project was designed to provide critical information to law enforcement,
victim service providers and the field on factors that impede justice for children in these
demanding and stressful cases. Recommendations are made to increase CSA victims’ access to
justice and to promote community safety. Our study found a wide array of factors influence case
outcome and that these reflect perpetrator issues, victim characteristics, case context and
evidentiary and other barriers. Efforts to address these issues will require continued work of
multidisciplinary teams to arrive at solutions and evaluate their impact. This study contributes to
scholarly and practice-oriented literature and understanding of CSA case attrition with the goal
of increasing access to justice for victims and successful prosecution of perpetrators.
Description
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Article
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Keywords
child sexual abuse, prosecution, outcomes, data, multidisciplinary team, collaboration
Citation
Block, S. D., & Williams, L. M. (2019). Prosecution of Child Sexual Abuse: A Partnership To Improve Outcomes.