Friday, 14 January 2005 - 12:00 PM

This presentation is part of: Poster Session I

Victims’ Age and Gender as Influences in Child Sexual Abuse Prosecutions

Purpose: This poster describes findings from research on legal outcomes of child sexual abuse cases. The findings focus on the relationship between child characteristics and case outcomes. Social workers frequently offer services to families and victims of child sexual abuse during or after legal proceedings related to the sexual abuse. This work can include family or child therapy, interviewing child victims, or serving as victim advocates for them during court proceedings. There are rarely witnesses other than the victim, and credible medical evidence is scarce in child sexual abuse cases. Therefore, credibility of the victim plays an extremely important role in the outcome of these cases, and support of the child’s allegations by the non-offending parent is important to the child witness.

Methods: The analysis includes 264 criminal prosecutions of alleged sexual abuse of children 12 or under by an adult. The data on the outcomes of the cases was reported by prosecutors or child advocates from three counties in a Midwestern state after the case was completed. The prosecutors who designed the research did not wish to gather information on race or ethnicity of children. However, prosecutors reported the child’s age and gender as well as non-offending parents’ support or non-support of the children’s allegations.

Results: For the pretrial stage, both age and gender were significant predictors of the outcome of the pretrial or preliminary exam. When the victim was an older child [one-way ANOVA: F(2, 176) = 7.23, p=.001] or a male [chi-square: &Chi²(2, 183) = 6.89, p=.032], the case was less likely to be dismissed or pled to a lesser charge at pretrial. Cases with male or older victims were more likely to have a perpetrator plea to the initial charge. However, these demographics were not associated with different outcomes of cases that went to trial. In addition, non-offending parents’ were significantly more likely to support the child’s allegations if the child was male [&Chi²(1, 152) = 8.44, p=.004]. Parental support was not associated with disposition at pretrial or trial.

Implications for Practice: Younger witnesses might be less credible in the intimidating atmosphere of criminal prosecutions of child sexual abuse. The gender differences related to case dispositions in the early stages of prosecution and in parental support of children’s allegations suggest that gender bias might be affecting female victims. These findings can assist social workers who help prepare children for testimony or help them process the outcomes of prosecution. Younger children and female children might need special preparation. Social workers might help non-offending parents explore how they make decisions about the credibility of their children’s allegations. In addition, the data can inform advocacy, prevention education, and family therapy. Social workers can use their knowledge of the social environment to help educate judges and lawyers to communicate with and understand younger and female witnesses. The findings suggest a need for further research to understand the apparent gender inequities in the perceived credibility of child witnesses.

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