Review of criminal justice responses to sexual offending

Improving experiences for victim-survivors: Review of criminal justice system responses to sexual offending

What is this project about?

The Western Australian Government wants to find out whether our criminal justice processes allow victim-survivors of sexual offending to get justice, support, and outcomes that help them to heal and move forward with their lives.

We want to know how the different parts of the criminal justice system are working and what could be done differently or better to improve the experience for victim-survivors. 

This review is only looking at sexual violence that is a criminal offence (sexual offending) and the criminal justice process. If you would like to talk to us about preventing and responding to sexual violence more generally, or non-criminal sexual violence (eg sexual harassment), you could participate in a linked project looking at these issues - Sexual violence prevention and response strategy.

Who can participate in consultation?

Anyone can participate in consultation. We want to hear from:

• People with lived experience, including victim-survivors of sexual offending and family members of victim-survivors
• People who work in the criminal justice system
• People who work to support victim-survivors of sexual offending outside of the criminal justice system.

What are we trying to find out?

Here are some questions we want to answer as part of this Review:

1. How can the process for reporting sexual offending be improved for victim-survivors?
2. How can the process for investigating sexual offending be improved for victim-survivors?
3. How can the court process for sexual offending be improved for victim-survivors?
4. What other kinds of justice models could be used to support victim-survivors of sexual offending (eg restorative justice, Aboriginal justice)?
5. What supports in the criminal justice system would help victim-survivors of sexual offending?

How can you participate in consultation?

Here are some options for how you can tell us what you think about how the criminal justice system responds to sexual offending.

Online: see online form below
Email: experiences@justice.wa.gov.au
Mail: Criminal justice system review consultation
Office of the Commissioner for Victims of Crime
GPO Box F317 PERTH WA 6000
Phone: 61 8 9264 9877

Consultation closes 8 October 2023. Contact us if you would like to talk about different options to get involved.

Publications

Your safety and privacy

Your safety and privacy is important to us. The information we ask for in this submission form will be kept confidential and stored securely. We won’t share your information with anyone. You can choose not to answer any questions that you don’t want to. If we use information from your submission in our final report, we won’t use your name and we will change details so you can’t be identified. If you are worried about your safety and privacy, you can contact us and talk about other ways to participate.

Online Submission Form

Note:

• The survey below includes questions about sexual offending victim-survivors experiences of the criminal justice system.
• The survey includes some short text boxes with a limit of 500 words.
• You can copy and paste from another document into the text boxes if you wish.
• You must complete the submission in one sitting, ie unable to save and return to the submission to continue.
• You can answer as many or as few questions as you like.