NCJ Number
244684
Date Published
December 2012
Length
310 pages
Annotation
This report presents information on law enforcement's response to child sexual assault in Aboriginal communities in New South Wales, Australia.
Abstract
This report by the Office of the New South Wales (NSW) Ombudsman presents information on law enforcement's response to child sexual assault in Aboriginal communities in the territory. This report is the fourth and final report resulting from the audit by the Ombudsman's office on the implementation of the NSW Interagency Plan to Tackle Child Sexual Assault in Aboriginal Communities. Highlights of the audit's findings include the following: current statistics show that continued work still needs to be done to improve the social and economic conditions needed for Aboriginal communities to tackle the problem of child sexual assault; implementation of the Interagency Plan has succeeded in raising awareness of the problem in Aboriginal communities; despite the Plan, there continues to be a disconnect between poor school attendance and increased behavioral problems among Aboriginal children, leading to at-risk children not receiving the services they need to stay in school; and implementation of the Interagency Plan has provided increased funding to improve availability of forensic medical services in Aboriginal communities. A total of 93 recommendations resulted from the audit and are included in each separate section of the report. The audit also identified a range of data weaknesses that need to be addressed in order to improve service quality, transparency, and accountability. These weaknesses include capturing information about key service issues, making better use of existing information sources, investing in centralized data systems, ensuring compliance with data recording requirements, and capturing data for agency business units. 34 tables