CURRENT RESEARCH ON CASES INVOLVING CHILDREN
(a) Attrition of child abuse cases
The University of Manchester has recently begun a two year study to measure the rate of attrition; the characteristics of terminated cases at each stage of the criminal justice system; the reasons for termination and to determine the implications for policy and practice.
(b) Attrition in rape cases
A research study on attrition in rape cases is currently being conducted by the Home Office with the aim of discovering what factors influence whether or not recorded rape leads to a conviction for rape and whether such factors have changed over the period 1985 to the present day. This project is due to be completed towards the end of this year.
(c) Audit of training in police interviewing of child witnesses in child sexual abuse prosecutions
Leicester University has recently completed an audit of training in interviewing child witnesses together with proposals for a national curriculum for police training.
(d) Memorandum of good practice
Leicester University is also conducting a literature review on the memorandum of good practice on video-recorded interviews with child witnesses.
(e) Admissibility and sufficiency of evidence in child abuse prosecutions
A team from Bristol University is examining whether child abuse prosecutions fail or do not proceed on evidential grounds. They have been asked to develop practical recommendations to improve investigations within the current legal framework and, if evidential problems are found to impede successful prosecutions, to consider whether further legislative reform is needed. The project is nearing completion.
(f) Sex offending against children
The Home Office Police Research Group has also conducted a literature review on the extent and nature of child abuse, characteristics of offenders, the risks posed by them and how such risk can be managed.
(g) Evaluation of the Sex Offender Register
The Home Office will shortly be commissioning research to evaluate the operation of the sex offender register introduced by the Sex Offenders Act 1997. It is envisaged that this will take 9 months with findings published in mid-1999.
(h) Dangerous and sexual offenders
The Home Office will also be commissioning research shortly on a risk assessment for dangerous and sexual offenders. It is envisaged that this will take 12 months to complete.
(i) Children involved in prostitution
The Home Office has conducted a literature review of children involved in prostitution which will be published in the Autumn.
STATISTICS
The Home Office publishes annual statistics on children as victims of crime - the first report was published in August 1997, giving details of the 1995 statistics. The 1996 statistics were published in May 1998. The Government notes the concerns in the Children's Safeguards Review that data should be available centrally about the reasons for discontinuance in child abuse cases to assist in the development of policy and practice in this area. It believes that the underlying reasons for discontinuance in child abuse cases can best be revealed by the programme of research mentioned above and is not persuaded that there would be significant benefits in changing the basis of the data collection as suggested by the Childrenís Safeguards Review.
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