Page 3110 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 15 September 1993
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VICTIMS OF CRIME - COMMUNITY LAW REFORM COMMITTEE REPORT
Paper and Ministerial Statement
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services): Madam Speaker, for the information of members, I present report No. 6 of the Community Law Reform Committee of the Australian Capital Territory, entitled "Victims of Crime". I ask for leave to make a ministerial statement.
Leave granted.
MR CONNOLLY: This report is the most detailed final report yet issued by the ACT Community Law Reform Committee. Mr John Kelly, QC, former judge of our Supreme Court and the chairperson of that committee, was its principal author. The wide range of written and oral submissions received has enabled the committee to work from a broad community base. Because of this extensive consultation, the report truly represents a community effort. The result has been a most impressive and comprehensive package of recommendations to the Government aimed at the best possible delivery of justice to victims of crime in the ACT.
It is only relatively recently that the interests and needs of victims of crime have been recognised. Historically, the interests of the offender have generally been considered a critical, if not central, concern of the criminal justice system. Vast amounts of evidentiary and procedural law aimed at ensuring fair trials for offenders have been developed in legal history. It is, of course, quite proper that our system seeks to protect the rights of individuals accused of crime. However, the lack of similar consideration of the rights of victims has been conspicuous in legal history.
Traditionally, the common law has given the victim little status. It was not until the 1960s that victims were considered as a general class by criminologists. Twenty years later a number of Australian State governments and, to some extent, the Federal Government have addressed the range of issues relating to the rights of victims. In the past decade attempts have been made to assist victims of crime in the ACT. Examples of this include the enactment of the criminal injuries compensation legislation and the provision for reparation under the Crimes Act. However, until the issue of victims of crime was referred to the committee, moves to improve the lot of victims tended to be piecemeal. This reference gives the ACT community, as well as the Government, its first opportunity to consider this issue in a holistic way.
The committee found that victims of crime often feel a sense of inequity, that what has happened to them in their contact with the criminal justice system is unfair. Many crimes are not reported. One of the most chronically unreported crimes is sexual assault, which only an estimated 25 per cent of victims report. There are many reasons for not reporting crime, including fear, family loyalty and misplaced self-blame. However, it must be faced that a lack of faith in the criminal justice system is also a motivating factor for not reporting this crime. Clearly, for the criminal justice system to work, reporting of crime by victims is essential. The testimony of victims will also be essential for the successful prosecution of offenders in many cases.
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