Court sentences for offenders of child sexual abuse

Presentation of research on 200 verdicts by Dutch courts, in which suspects were convicted for 'hands on' sexual abuse of a child. The research has two main objectives: 1. Getting an insight in the nature of the crimes. E.g.... [ view full abstract ]

Presentation of research on 200 verdicts by Dutch courts, in which suspects were convicted for 'hands on' sexual abuse of a child. The research has two main objectives:

1. Getting an insight in the nature of the crimes. E.g. the sexual acts committed by the perpetrator, the duration of the abuse, characteristics of the offenders, characteristics of the victims, the relationship between the victim and the offender (e.g. family member, stranger) etc.
2. Getting an insight in factors related to the sentences imposed by the court. According to previous research by the Dutch Rapporteur (On solid ground, 2014 http://www.dutchrapporteur.nl/reports/on-solid-ground/), the Dutch courts imposed a custodial sentence in only 31% of the cases in which offenders were convicted for this type of crime. This research intends to find out why in the majority of the cases other (less severe) sentences were imposed.

Method:
A random sample of 200 convictions (2012-2013) for hands on sexual abuse of a children was taken out of a total of 816 cases. The 200 judgements were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. By means of an ordinal logistic regression we analyzed which factors contribute to the type of sentence. With a multiple regression we looked at the factors that predict the duration of the custodial sentence.

The qualitative analysis was focused on the reasoning of the court with regard to the sentence. All elements mentioned by the courts with regard to the sentences were extracted, classified and grouped, resulting in a qualitative analysis on the factors relating to the sentence.

Results and conclusions:
The results will be published in the first half of 2016.