Prosecution of Child Sexual Abuse: A Partnership To Improve Outcomes

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dc.contributor.authorBlock, S. D., & Williams, L. M.
dc.date.accessioned2019-05-09T18:08:47Z
dc.date.available2019-05-09T18:08:47Z
dc.date.issued2019
dc.description.abstractChild 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.en_US
dc.identifier.citationBlock, S. D., & Williams, L. M. (2019). Prosecution of Child Sexual Abuse: A Partnership To Improve Outcomes.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/252768.pdf
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11212/4324
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.publisherDOJen_US
dc.subjectchild sexual abuseen_US
dc.subjectprosecutionen_US
dc.subjectoutcomesen_US
dc.subjectdataen_US
dc.subjectmultidisciplinary teamen_US
dc.subjectcollaborationen_US
dc.titleProsecution of Child Sexual Abuse: A Partnership To Improve Outcomesen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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