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Only 8% of contemporary child sexual assault incidents reported to New South Wales police end up proven in court, according to a Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research report released on Tuesday.
The number is lower for reported historic sexual assault incidents (7%) and lower again for reported adult sexual assault incidents (6%).
“There has been increasing concern over the low conviction rate for sexual assault,” the report says.
“This pattern shows no sign of abating and may have become slightly worse in the past decade as sexual assault reports have dramatically increased.”
Bocsar tracked the progress of sexual assaults reported to the police in 2018 through the criminal justice system, using data from the Computerised Operational Policing System and the state’s criminal courts dataset.
The study examined the attrition – or reduction – of incidents, defendants and charges from the reporting stage through to sentencing, and found most reported sexual assaults fail to progress beyond the initial police report.
No legal action was taken in about 85% of reported sexual assault incidents – a consistent trend across adult sexual assaults and contemporary and historic child sexual assaults.
“For the small number of matters that do progress to court, challenges persist,” the report said, outlining court proceedings as the second-largest attrition point.
Two out of five defendants had all charges withdrawn by the prosecution, dismissed due to mental health or “otherwise disposed of”. Only 41% of defendants were convicted of a sexual offence, by way of either guilty plea or verdict.
“The low conviction rate among reported sexual assaults has been a consistent feature of this offence in the justice system,” the study said.
“It is certainly the case that sexual assault reports far outnumber convictions in NSW.”
In 2022, 9,138 sexual assault incidents were reported to NSW police, compared with 1,016 convictions.
In the last 10 years, reported incidents of sexual assault rose by 94% – and while the number of defendants found guilty also increased during this time (up by 72%), the size of that increase was smaller than the rise in reports.
The Bocsar study said data “tells us little about the mechanisms driving this high attrition rate”.
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Nearly three-quarters of all sexual assault reports where no action was taken had no reasons recorded by police. For matters dropped at the court phase, similar “poor recording practices” hamper understanding of the reasons.
“Any attempts to increase conviction rates for sexual assault should clearly focus efforts on the reporting and investigation phases, given the high proportion of matters that fail to progress beyond this point,” the study said.
However, the report’s authors were not confident that “merely progressing more cases to court” will result in better outcomes for victims, saying improved evidence gathering must occur in the early stages to strengthen cases and ensure successful prosecutions.
The first step is to ensure detailed information about police and prosecution decisions is routinely recorded on matters that fail to progress through the system, the report said.
“This is critical to not only developing a better understanding of the causes of attrition in sexual assault matters but also to monitor the success (or otherwise) of any changes in policy or practice designed to address this issue.”
Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html