TRANSFORMING SEXUAL ASSAULT INVESTIGATION TRAINING: USING EVIDENCE TO INFORM PRACTICE

摘要

Sexual offences have profound emotional, psychological and physical consequences for survivors that impact their lives in complex and long-lasting ways. In Queensland, rape and sexual assault made up 16% of all crime reported. However, these official crime statistics may seriously underrepresent actual incidences of sexual offences particularly by adult victims, with the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reporting in 2016 that approximately one in five Australian women and one in 20 Australian men had been sexually assaulted (or threatened with sexual assault) since the age of 15. Although the exact figure of unreported sexual offences is unknown, it is well established that reported sexual offences have high attrition rates and result in lower charging and prosecution rates, fewer guilty pleas and fewer convictions. The number of reported victims of sexual assault in Queensland alone has risen for the seventh consecutive year to 4,849. Whilst this may indicate an increase in public awareness and confidence to report, public service auditors and victim advocates argue that the prevailing manner in which sexual offences are managed, investigated and cleared is unreliable and flawed. Survivors lack the trust and confidence that they will be believed, that their cases will be thoroughly investigated and that they will achieve a justice outcome.