The alarming rate of under-reporting in sexual assault matters has spurred NSW Police to further widen its online reporting options, with the ACT remaining firm this type of reporting should be confined to historical cases only.
Sexual assault, like family violence, is a grossly under-reported crime in the ACT, as it is nationally, with police-derived data regarded as only a subset of the full problem.
In 2022, there were 541 sex assault reports made to police in the ACT, down slightly from 555 in 2021. But over the longer term, the numbers remain consistently high at an average of around 45 per month.
A damning report released in late 2021 by the ACT's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Steering Committee found 38 per cent of sexual violence was related to family or domestic violence, and most cases were never reported to police.
The report "identified a significant gap between the number of reports of sexual assault made to police and the number of reports that resulted in a criminal charge".
Moreover, the confronting nature of taking a sexual assault matter through the court process meant criminal proceedings were undertaken in only 2.8 per cent of cases in 2020.
Only 25.3 per cent of cases were finalised in the ACT. The best result nationally for case finalisation was Western Australia, with 47 per cent.
In mid-2020 ACT Policing introduced an online option for victims to report historical sexual assault at a time and location of their choosing.
Similar to the revamped NSW police system, the ACT system allows victims to express what has happened and if they would like an investigation to take place.
Sex assault victims from multicultural backgrounds can be wary of reporting or speaking to police and being exposed to a legal process they don't understand so the latest NSW online reporting system goes further by allowing female victims to report in their own language, with the new community portal available in 12 languages, while releasing victims of the obligation to to participate in further lines of police inquiry.
Another option offered online to NSW victims allows screenshots from social media or dating app profiles, or SMS exchanges, to be uploaded.
A report by the Australian Institute of Criminology, released in October last year, examined the prevalence of sexual harassment and aggression displayed via online dating apps.
Three in every four respondents to the AIC survey had been subjected to sexual violence facilitated via dating apps in the last five years. Sexual harassment was the most common form of behaviour reported, as well as abusive and threatening language, and unsolicited sexual images.
The robust nature of the legal process is regarded as a significant impediment to cases proceeding to court.
"High attrition rates are common across a range of crime types in the ACT and nationally, however, when comparing attrition rates for different crime types in the ACT, it is evident poorer outcomes are reported for sexual assaults than many other crime types," the ACT steering committee report found. One of the recommendations of the report was an "independent cross-agency taskforce to undertake a review of all sexual assault cases ... not progressed to charge" from July 2020 onwards. That review is still in progress.
Sex assault investigations are also hamstrung by other complications, such as significant delays in processing forensic samples. Some samples, the report found, take more than six months to be processed.
Detective Inspector Marcus Boorman said ACT Policing "regularly discusses initiatives taken by our interstate colleagues, and the ability to report sexual assaults online in NSW will be no different".
"We understand that reporting a sexual assault can be a highly daunting experience. Online reporting allows victims to report on their own terms," he said.
"The reporting of historic sexual assault online, instead of more recent matters, was chosen as ACT Policing's first method for reporting crime online, as in those cases, forensic evidence most likely no longer exists.
"We urge any victim of sexual assault - recent or historic - to report it."
The police Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Team (SACAT) makes up about 25 per cent of the entire ACT crime investigation cohort and the volume of work far exceeds the resources they have available to them.
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