NCJ Number
179879
Journal
Current Issues in Criminal Justice Volume: 11 Issue: 1 Dated: July 1999 Pages: 17-34
Date Published
1999
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This article analyzes the operation of an Australian rule of evidence called the delay-in-complaint rule in cases of child sexual abuse, with emphasis on the sex role issues and relationships suggested by this rule and the impacts of these relationships on the possibility of conviction.
Abstract
The difficulties associated with the prosecution of child sexual abuse take place within a context of the criminal justice system's historical desire to protect the accused man from false accusations due to the entrenched cultural belief that females commonly lie about being sexually assaulted. The fact that sexual assault victims are considered to be a class of witness whose credibility requires boosting by evidence of recent complaint suggests that the rule is a product of the cyclical reproduction of gender patterns within the child sexual assault trial. The Crofts case exemplifies the operation of the delay-in-complaint rule as a sex segregation rule. The trial judge did not inform the jury that they were entitled to consider the 6-year delay in complaint when assessing the complainant's credibility; as a result, the High Court quashed the convictions. However, the delay in complaint in Crofts was typical of the behavior of victims of child sexual abuse. Effective reforms to improve conviction rates for child sexual abuse must arguably address the relations of power between the accused and the victim and the impacts of particular rules of evidence. However, it is not clear whether reforms of specific rules of evidence will be effective without efforts to address the adversarial and gendered context in which child sexual abuse cases are prosecuted. Footnotes, list of cases, and 43 references