Kristin Chong

Factors Associated with Delays of Days to Decades to Criminal Prosecutions of Child Sexual Abuse

Until the latter part of the 20th century, legal doctrines made it almost impossible to successfully prosecute in criminal court a case involving child sexual abuse (CSA), whether the complaint was timely or delayed. Many English-speaking countries have abrogated most formal legal barriers to prosecuting CSA cases, and courts are faced with the singular challenge of adjudicating sexual offenses against children that are reported to have happened years or decades earlier. We conducted analyses of 4,237 criminal complaints of CSA heard in Canadian criminal courts. There were several differences between timely and delayed prosecutions that led us to conclude that delayed prosecutions of CSA are common and due, in part, to the nature of the offense. Offense duration was associated with longer delays to prosecution. When the accused had access to the child through his position in the community, length of delay to prosecution was very long, particularly for male complainants. More research is needed on delayed CSA prosecutions, particularly given an apparent trend for jurisdictions to abolish barriers to criminal prosecutions of CSA that occurred years or decades earlier.

Twenty-six years prosecuting historic child sexual abuse cases: Has anything changed?

In many common-law jurisdictions around the world, criminal courts are facing or will soon face the unmitigated challenge of prosecuting cases of child sexual abuse that are reported to have happened in the past, often decades earlier. In Canada, criminal prosecutions of historic child sexual abuse (HCSA) have been common for a long time, providing an opportunity to study changes over time in such prosecutions. In the current research, we coded 3,035 HCSA complaints on 12 variables and looked at changes in those variables between 1986 and 2012. Across court dates, the average age of the complainant when the alleged offense began increased, duration decreased, frequency decreased, intrusiveness decreased, and length of delay to criminal court decreased from the late 1990s. Although guilty pleas, convictions, and guilty verdicts decreased through the 1990s, there was an increase in all 3 beginning in the early 2000s. Length of incarceration increased for those convicted. These data are discussed in the context of education, legal change, and social attitudes toward delayed reporting of child sexual abuse. Policy implications are discussed.

The Effect of Case Severity on Sentence Length in Cases of Child Sexual Assault in Canada

ABSTRACT Surprisingly, little research exists on the determination of sentence length in cases of child sexual assault. This is striking given the profound short-term and long-term consequences this crime can have on victims and their families. Previous research shows that severity of the offense commonly accounts for much of the variability in sentences in this context. A critical point, however, is that the definition of offense severity varies widely and is often confounded with the age of the complainant. The current archival study, through the examination of 1,783 judicial sentencing decisions, evaluated the effects of key variables on length of sentence in cases of child sexual assault in Canada. Length of sentence increased as intrusiveness of the offense increased, as frequency increased, and as age decreased for children who experienced the most intrusive forms of abuse. In addition, offenders who pleaded guilty received shorter sentences than offenders who pleaded not guilty.

Youth-perpetrated child sexual abuse: The effects of age at court on legal outcomes.

Drawing from a database of 4,237 cases of child sexual abuse (CSA) heard between 1986 and 2012, we examined 152 cases of youth-perpetrated CSA. We investigated differences in legal outcomes between accused that went to court when they were adults for CSA committed in adolescence, and accused who were juveniles at court. Results indicated that accused who went to court when they were juveniles were less likely to be convicted and received shorter average incarceration sentences than accused who were adults at court. Using a vignette design, we then conducted an experiment with 144 male and female undergraduates to test several age-related questions. This yielded the same pattern of results as the archival analyses. Specifically, undergraduate participants reported that they were less likely to convict and assigned shorter incarceration sentences to accused who were juveniles at court compared with accused who were adults at court. These findings show a potential biasing effect of a defendants’ age at court in cases where adults are tried and sentenced for crimes committed as juveniles. Addressing this bias is critical to protecting the rights of those accused of crimes committed during adolescence.

The unusual suspects: Female versus male accused in child sexual abuse cases

When women encounter the criminal justice system, it is typically as victims rather than as offenders. Consequently, there is limited empirical research on women who have sexually offended against children, but there is a clinically-significant group of victims who have experienced female-perpetrated child sexual abuse (CSA). In a database of 4237 CSA cases that were heard in criminal courts between 1986 and 2012, we found 70 cases that involved female accused. We compared female-accused cases against a randomly selected sample of 70 male-accused cases from the same database. We investigated associations between gender of the accused and characteristics of the victim, offense, and criminal proceeding. Several important differences between female- and male-accused cases were found: proportionally more male complainants were in female-accused cases; female-accused offenses were longer in duration; and despite offenses being similarly intrusive, female perpetrators received shorter sentences. This research indicates that there are potentially unique pathways to abuse for women and men, and unique experiences in the criminal justice system. Although female perpetrators are involved in a small proportion of CSA offenses, the cases that we describe herein are important to consider when developing appropriate support and intervention programs for offenders and victims of CSA.