AUSTRALIA
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The Australian Royal Commission is specifically charged with, and limited to, institutional responses to child sexual abuse. As has been noted in a previous posting, there may be questions regarding just what constitutes an “institution” in the context of this enquiry.
One of those grey areas may well be the response of the judicial system. There are often cases where the general public feels that judges are out of touch with community expectations, especially concerning sentencing. There is also the issue of “revictimisation” resulting from how victims are treated in the court process, especially for child witnesses (see, for example, the book by S. Caroline Taylor, “Court Licensed Abuse: Patriarchal Lore and the Legal Response to Intrafamilial Sexual Abuse of Children”). Further, there have been concerns about which factors are included in variable sentencing for the same offence.
These are all valid issues for the Royal Commission to consider. Submissions on these topics will undoubtedly be sent in, and there should be no excuse for them to be ruled as being outside the Terms of Reference of the enquiry.
Although the following case originates in the U.K., parallel examples in the Australian judicial system certainly exist, and it is relevant given the similarities of the two systems. Many legal people would beg to differ with the opinions expressed in this posting, but that does not mean that the issue should not be fully debated in the enquiry setting.
A very recent case (in the U.K.) raised the ire of many people, but there was little they could do to change things, because that is how the judicial system currently operates, both here and in the U.K. No similar comment can be made for other systems, such as in the U.S. That would be for them to consider should they ever reach the point of having their own national enquiry.
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