Lawyers’ perceptions about complainants and case outcomes in cases involving allegations of child sexual abuse

Martschuk N¹, Hoff S¹, Cashmore J², Shackel R², Powell M¹, Goodman-Delahunty J³

¹Griffith University, ²The University of Sydney, ³The University of Newcastle

Biography:

Natalie Martschuk is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Griffith Criminology Institute, Griffith University. She has extensive experience as a Project Manager in multiple projects involving investigative interviewing practices, legal decisions in criminal cases (e.g., child sexual abuse), and vignette studies. Before starting a research position, she practiced as a psychologist at the State Hospital for Forensic Psychiatry in Germany. Her responsibilities included interviews with, and psychological treatment of, mentally ill offenders, risk assessment and crisis intervention, and providing expert evidence in court.

This paper investigates what criteria and thresholds prosecuting lawyers use in deciding whether a case involving child sexual abuse should proceed for prosecution. A total of 56 prosecution case files with 79 complainants involving 58 defendants in three Australian states were reviewed. The cases involved allegations of sexual assault (69.1%) and/or indecent assault (30.9%), ranging from a single incident to prolonged abuse over the period of 11 years (M = 2.3 years). Written notes and emails that were included in the prosecution files were searched and coded for views regarding perceptions about the complainants, such as memory, consistency, credibility, reliability, cognitive capacity, and confusion about the nature of the event. Perceived consistency, credibility and reliability were associated with case outcome. When the complainant was considered inconsistent in some way, the majority of the cases resulted in an acquittal or discontinuance of the cases, while the majority of the cases in which the complainant was considered consistent throughout the investigation resulted in a conviction. Similarly, cases were more likely to be discontinued when there was a perceived issue with a complainant’s credibility or reliability. By contrast, reported issues with memory, cognitive capacity, and confusion about the alleged assault were not significantly associated with case outcome. Complainant age at commencement of abuse and at the time of first police interview, and subsequently delayed reporting were not associated with any of the perceived complainant factors or case outcome.