CAPÍTULO 4 FORMACIÓN PROFESIONAL DEL ADMINISTRADOR DE
4.2. Perspectivas de la Formación Profesional
Apart from the enactment of COVA in 1995, there have been a number of other governmental responses to victims of crime in recent years, including significant changes in how the QPS responds to sexual offences — these are discussed in the next chapter of this report.
Volume 2 of the Project Axis reports (QCC & QPS 2000b) documented some of the changes that have taken place in Queensland since 1997 regarding child- sex offending, many of which have a strong emphasis on victims’ rights. These include:
• the establishment of the Queensland Crime Commission (QCC) in 1997 (which merged with the CJC in 2000 to form the CMC) with a specific legislative responsibility to investigate criminal paedophilia
• the Commission of Inquiry into the abuse of children in Queensland institutions (the Forde Inquiry) conducted in 1998 by the Minister for Families, Youth and Community Care
• the establishment of the Children’s Commission in 1998 • the establishment of the Child Protection Council in 1999
• the enactment and implementation of the Child Protection Act 1999 (Qld) • a Law Reform Commission review of the laws relating to the evidence of
children in Queensland (2000)
• the enactment and implementation of the Commission for Children and
Young People Act 2000 (Qld), which extended provisions for screening of
employees in child-related employment
• increases in funding for the Department of Families
• the provision of $250 000 per annum for the establishment of an assessment and treatment program for young sex offenders in detention centres and in the community.
Project Axis also found a need ‘for better coordination between agencies providing services to victims of child sexual abuse’ (QCC & QPS 2000b, p. xiv). The Taskforce on Women and the Criminal Code (Queensland Government 2000a), which reported in the same year, recommended considering:
• the establishment of a Victim Advisory Unit within the QPS, with a view to enhancing police response and ongoing service delivery to victims/survivors of crime (Recommendation 40)
• funding for the development of models of court assistance, including a training and support unit to provide resources, information and a centralised point of coordination (Recommendation 41)
• the issue of court support for all victims of violent crime with responsibility for it to be taken up by an appropriate agency and coordinated across the State; and the necessity for specialist services and the importance of continuity of care (Recommendation 42).
The inter agency guidelines for responding to adult victims of sexual assault released by Queensland Health, the QPS and the ODPP in November 2001 (Queensland Government 2001), already briefly mentioned, warrant further discussion here. The guidelines suggest that quality care for victims depends on good working relationships between departments, and recommends that each
29 C H A P T E R 3 : S E X U A L O F F E N C E L E G I S L A T I O N agency establish local procedures to facilitate improved liaison and
coordination, including systems for information sharing and conflict resolution between the services (p. 16). The guidelines also recommend that joint training can enhance an understanding of how each service contributes to assisting the victim (p. 16) and discusses the difficulties of dealing with diverse cultural, linguistic and disability issues (pp. 17–18). The document then details Queensland Health, QPS and ODPP procedures that a victim of adult sexual assault would ordinarily face, should they decide to report their experience. In response to some of the concerns raised earlier by the Taskforce on Women and the Criminal Code, a report released in 2002 by a whole-of-government group for the Coordinating Efforts to Address Violence Against Women (CEAVAW) Project (Queensland Government 2002b) observed that there still remained no clear lead agency to provide information about victims’ rights, CO VA or the operation of the criminal justice system more generally.25This lack of coordination was noted to cause difficulties for women, as victims, in
obtaining information about the progression of their matters through the criminal justice system. The report also found that there were no specific services funded for court assistance in sexual assault matters, pointing out that:
the provision of court support for women in sexual matters can be a very time consuming process that may stretch over months as the matter proceeds through the system. It is a crucial service as it is recognised that these matters can be highly distressing for women as complainants.
Queensland Government 2002b, p. 120 Further, the report noted that, although VLOs from the ODPP sometimes provide such support — and although the role of providing court assistance for victims would appear to fit the mandate of the Victim Liaison Service (VLS) — the provision of court assistance was not a formal role and the VLS did not provide this function.26 CEAVAW proposed the following strategies:
• Forming a working group (across government) to develop proposals for a coordinated response to victims who are engaged in the civil and criminal justice system and to investigate the feasibility of a victim’s advisory unit (to be ongoing between 2002 and 2005).
• Forming a working group (across government) to address the provision of court assistance services to domestic violence and sexual assault matters in a consistent manner (to be ongoing between 2002 and 2005).
Research undertaken for the Inquiry revealed that an inter-criminal justice working group was established in August 2002 to address both of these strategies (Department of Premier and Cabinet, Office for Women, Community
Engagement Division, personal communication, 12.02.03).
The recently released Cape York Justice Study Report by the Queensland Government (2002c) highlighted how the ODPP, the QPS and LAQ in Cairns have worked closely together to improve coordination for processing court matters for Indigenous populations. For example, the ODPP has recently delivered a training program for QPS officers in the north to improve the presentation of police briefs with the aim of providing both the ODPP and defendants’ lawy ers with clearer instructions. The report notes that ‘this level of integration between the activities of agencies serving the justice system in Cape York is to be encouraged’ (p. 192).
SUMMARY
This chapter has illustrated the complexity of the legislative response to sexual abuse matters in Queensland and how it has changed over the years. There have been recommendations for reform during the last five years and some have recently been implemented b y the government’s new legislative reform package (and even more are proposed). The views of those providing submissions to the Inquiry about these issues are explored in more detail in Chapters 6 and 9.
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ENDNOTES TO CHAPTER 3
12 Seventy-eight per cent of all child sexual offences reported to the QPS between 1994 and 1998 concerned the offence of indecent treatment of a child under 16 years (QCC & QPS 2000b, p. 28).
13 Until 1991, it was an offence for anyone to engage in sodom y, even consenting adults. Amendments to the Criminal Code removed the offence in relation to consenting adults, but it is still an offence to engage in consensual sodomy with a person under the age of 18 years (s. 208). Non-consensual sodomy at any age constitutes rape (s. 349).
14 Note that the Sexual Offences (Protection of Children) Amendment Act 2003 contains a new version of s. 229B . This is discussed in more detail later in this chapter.
15 Where a ‘special witness’ is to give evidence in a criminal proceeding, the court can order that the person charged be excluded from the courtroom; that the special witness give evidence in a room other than the courtroom; and that a videotape of the evidence be viewed and heard in the proceeding instead of direct testimony.
16 The Bill extends the application of section 93A to all children under 16, as well as 16- and 17-year-olds who satisfy the definition of a ‘special witness’ in section 21A of the Evidence Act.
17 Despite legislative reforms that allow for the use of screens in court, and for the giving of evidence via CCTV (see s. 21A of the Evidence Act), consultations and submissions made to the Inquiry asserted that inadequate use of these measures occurs in Queensland
(consultation with the QPS, Townsville and Cairns, 28.10.02 and 31.10.02). However, further reform is proposed.
18 The issue of separate legal representation for sexual offence complainants has recently been considered in sev eral jurisdictions, including Victoria. (See Chapter 10 of this report.) 19 These provisions were previously found in Chapter 65A of the Criminal Code. Some of the
amendments made to the Code include allowing payments to the families of homicide victims and simplifying the application process. Before the Criminal Offence Victims Regulation 1995 (Qld) was amended in December 1997, a victim of a sexual offence who suffered no physical injury was entitled to claim a maximum of only $25 000 for nervous shock. A victim of a sexual offence who suffers no physical injury is now entitled to claim a maximum of $75 000 for ‘the totality of the adverse impacts of a sexual offence’ (which includes a sense of violation, reduced self-worth or perception, and increased fear or feelings of insecurity).
20 Legal Aid Queensland (LAQ) — which is a government-funded provider of legal services that sometimes acts for victims (for example, victims who wish to apply for a compensation order under part 3 of COVA) — does not appear to be subject to COVA. In 1998, the CJC suggested (in a submission to JAG) that consideration should be given to making LAQ a ‘public entity’ for the purposes of COVA (CJC unpub., p. 9).
21 A corrective services officer (employed by the Department of Corrective Services) has obligations under section 15(2) of COVA to provide information to a victim of a sexual offence (on request) about certain events that take place while a defendant is in custody (e.g. eligibility dates for parole, escape from custody and actual release dates). It is possible for a victim to register on the department’s ‘concerned persons register’. By doing this, a victim is automatically sent information about a defendant’s custodial movements.
22 The Department of Families is also involved with sexual offence victims where the victim is aged under 18 and the offence has occurred within the victim’s home environment or where the victim is living in an approved shared family care placement/residential care facility. 23 Some agencies, such as the VLS within the ODPP, provide information to victims without
waiting for a request for the information (Queensland Government 2000a).
24 In its submission to JAG, the CJC recommended that the Ombudsman be given jurisdiction to deal with victims’ complaints about noncompliance with the fundamental principles and that section 4(7) of COVA be amended so that the obligation to comply with the principles is stronger and less ambiguous. Section 7 of the Victims Rights Act 1996 (NSW), which uses the word ‘must’, was suggested as a possible model (CJC unpub.).
25 The CEAVAW project involved the following key government departments and agencies: the Department of Families, Queensland Health, J AG, the QPS, the Department of Corrective Services, the Department of Housing, Education Queensland, LAQ, the Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy, the Department of the Premier and Cabinet (Office for Women, Multicultural Affairs Queensland, and the Social Police Division), and Queensland Treasury.
26 The ODPP’s VLS is discussed in more detail in the next chapter, which explores the current responses to sexual offences in Queensland by the QPS, the ODPP and the courts.
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