Prosecution Rates Drop By 45% In Four Years

This week we talk about how child sexual abuse prosecution rates have reportedly fallen 45% in four years.

The figures obtained by the NSPCC indicate prosecutions fell from 6,394 in 2016/2017 to 3,025 in 2020/2021. Convictions in the same period fell from 4,751 to 2,595

Further information obtained through freedom of information requests suggested cases were taking much longer to get to trial with explanations of closing courts, reduced court staff.

However, during the same period there was an increase of 57% in police reports of child sexual abuse. We have discussed before the impact of the pandemic on resources, increased abuse and delays in court procedures.

NSPCC are now calling for Dominic Rabb to review and reserve the decline in prosecutions and convictions. Further they want court delays tackled and more funding for specialist sexual violence advisers to assist children during the process.

NSPCC are seeking funding from the Ministry of Justice Spending Review  to tackle the backlog of child sexual abuse cases, to fund children safe houses

However a crown prosecution services spokesman stated prosecutions had increased by 22% in the last year. Between July 2020- June 2021 the CPS stated 4347 were prosecuted which was a 84.2 % conviction rate. The year before they state the conviction rate of 2556 prosecutions was 84.4 %

We encourage anyone who has concerns about sexual abuse to get in touch. You can contact Alan Collins at Alan.collins@hughjames.com or Danielle Vincent at  Danielle.vincent@hughjames.com.