Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse Sparks Rise in Sex Assault Claims

By Michael Walsh
The Australian
June 26, 2014

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/royal-commission-into-child-sexual-abuse-sparks-rise-in-sex-assault-claims/story-e6frg6nf-1226967932292

SEXUAL assault reports hit a four-year high last year, with victim support groups attributing the rise to awareness created by the royal commission into child sexual abuse.

Data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics today reveals almost 20,000 sexual assaults were reported to police in 2013, an increase of 8 per cent on the previous year.

While all states and territories recorded an increase, the largest change was seen in Tasmania where the number of reports rose by 48 per cent. This was followed by New South Wales with an 11 per cent increase.

NSW Rape Crisis Centre executive officer Karen Willis said it was encouraging that more victims were coming forward.

“This is great news, because what we know is that only 17 per cent of people who experience sexual assault report it to police. We know it’s really difficult for victims to come forward,” she said.

Sexual violence often goes unreported as the majority of incidents are committed by somebody known to the victim, most often a family member or partner, research shows.

Almost two-thirds of people who reported sexual assault last year were aged 19 or younger, a sign highly publicised child sexual assault cases may be encouraging more victims to seek justice, experts said..

“It’s highly likely that what we’re actually seeing are adult survivors or survivors more broadly being inspired to speak out,” said Bravehearts criminologist Carol Ronken.

“There was certainly a lot of attention on the Royal Commission [into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse] last year when these figures were compiled, it was really active — it was on the front page of papers constantly.”

The ABS figures also revealed most police investigations into sexual assaults took longer than a month to complete, and often led to charges not being pursued.

This was most evident in NSW, where 68.5 per cent of investigations resolved within a month failed to end in criminal proceedings.

Ms Ronken said sexual assault cases are hard to prosecute and rarely lead to convictions.

“Sometimes it can be incredibly hard to take these matters forward — you’ve often got no evidence, a young victim, and it’s usually only one person’s word against another’s,” she said.

Often child victims of family sexual violence will withdraw their reports before the police finish their investigation, she said.

“Going forward in the criminal justice system against someone who you loved and trusted is very difficult, and can be very re-traumatising, especially for children,” Ms Ronken said.

“We need to look at our criminal justice system, and make sure that it’s supportive of victims of all ages.”