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IICSA published its final Report in October 2022. This website was last updated in January 2023.

The Criminal Justice System

This two-day seminar focused on the way in which cases of child sexual abuse were dealt with by the criminal justice system.

Day 1 explored the experiences and perspectives of complainants victims and survivors of child sexual abuse, as well as the organisations who support them, in relation to going through the criminal justice system. On day 2, criminal justice professionals discussed the key issues from their perspective in the way that child sexual abuse cases were dealt with, and explored options for improving criminal justice processes and outcomes.

The Inquiry did not want to pre-empt the issues that seminar participants or members of the public gallery raised during the two day seminar in relation to their experiences of the criminal justice system, and therefore did not be pre-define the issues of focus.

The CJS is, however, a large and complex system, and in order to make the discussion more manageable certain issues are out of scope for this seminar. These are as follows:

  • Falsely accused individuals
  • Criminal compensation (including CICA)
  • Interactions between the CJS and family courts/civil courts
  • The management and rehabilitation of child sexual abuse perpetrators

The information and views we receive will help the Inquiry to identify areas for further investigation and scrutiny.

Please see the documents below for further information about the seminar, including the seminar agenda.

The Inquiry also accepted written accounts from victims and survivors, along with their families/supporters, about their experiences of the Criminal Justice System. This included - but was not limited to - experiences with the police, Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), and the court system. Please note that experiences of criminal injuries compensation (including the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority or CICA) are out of scope as they were explored in a separate seminar.

Documents

Seminar DateDocument(s)
Day 2
22nd Nov 2017
Day 1
21st Nov 2017
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