Particularisation of Child Abuse Offences: Common Problems when Questioning Child Witnesses
| dc.contributor.author | Powell, M., Roberts, K., & Guadagno, B. | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2019-01-09T17:35:57Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2019-01-09T17:35:57Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2007 | |
| dc.description.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). | en_US |
| dc.identifier.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. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://scholars.wlu.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://scholar.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1101&context=psyc_faculty | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11212/4169 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.publisher | Current Issues in Criminal Justice | en_US |
| dc.subject | International Resources | en_US |
| dc.subject | Australia | en_US |
| dc.subject | sexual abuse | en_US |
| dc.subject | prosecution | en_US |
| dc.subject | repeated abuse | en_US |
| dc.subject | temporal knowledge | en_US |
| dc.subject | child memory | en_US |
| dc.title | Particularisation of Child Abuse Offences: Common Problems when Questioning Child Witnesses | en_US |
| dc.type | Article | en_US |