Specialist Prosecution Units and Courts: A Review of the Literature

Abstract

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Australia commissioned this literature review to discern the potential benefits of using specialist prosecution units and courts to deal with child sexual abuse cases. While the notion of a specialist prosecution unit is relatively straightforward, it is much more difficult to define a specialist court. Some jurisdictions identify courts with specialist labels when in reality the court is merely a specialist docket within a generalist court. Many specialist courts do not have specialist judges.

There are no specialist courts that deal only in sex offences against children. The main evidence about the efficacy of specialist court approaches to sex offences (including offences against adults) comes from South Africa and New York. The evidence for the efficacy of the South African Sexual Offences Court is strong, taking into account the complexities of South Africa’s multiracial and multicultural society and the scale of its social needs. The Sexual Offences Courts have clearly made a difference to conviction rates, especially where well supported by services for victims of sexual assault.

Specialist prosecution units are a feature of specialist sex offence courts and may also exist independently of such courts. The experience of such specialisation has generally been positive. A persistent theme in all the studies, whether of sexual offences courts, family violence courts or other specialist jurisdictions, is the benefit gained from having one prosecutorial team involved from the inception of the case, with enhanced benefits if the prosecutor works closely with the investigators to build the case from early in the investigation.

The literature on family violence courts was also reviewed. The benefits of having a specialist family violence court depend on the extent to which that court is part of a larger multifaceted and coordinated response to family violence involving, for example, dedicated police and prosecutorial teams, victim support services, well-trained probation officers and effective behavioural change programs. All of these could be features of a specialist family violence response within a generalist court system operating a specialist docket.

The report concludes with a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of expanding specialist prosecution units and establishing a specialist child sexual offences court. The case for specialist prosecution units is strong, particularly if, as far as possible, one prosecutorial team can take the case from inception to conclusion. A specialist court would be of little value unless it were part of a suite of reforms that aim to improve the quality of justice. Specialist courts that ‘work’ do so because they have a range of specialist features, services and personnel.

Keywords: Specialist courts, sexual assault, child sexual abuse, criminal justice, children, child protection, prosecution

JEL Classification: K10, K30, K42