Child sexual assault sentencing

On 3 June 2015 the Attorney General asked us to produce a snapshot of sentencing for child sexual assault offences. This was a response to the 2014 report of the Joint Select Committee on Sentencing Child Sexual Assault Offenders which noted that community perceptions of sentencing decisions were influenced by limited available information, which may not reflect the complex considerations and sentencing principles that guide sentencing decisions in this area.

Report

We transmitted our Report: Sentencing for child sexual assault (PDF, 562.5 KB) to the Attorney General on 13 November 2015.​ It was released on 25 May 2016.

Terms of reference

We received the following terms of reference on 3 Jun 2015:

The Sentencing Council is to conduct a review of sentencing in child sexual assault matters in New South Wales that:

1. provides sentencing statistics for child sexual assault convictions over a two year period (2012 and 2013), with a focus on serious child sexual assault offences,
   
2. provides information on the characteristics of the offenders, sentence type and length, and
   
3. provides background information, including: the key sentencing principles and reasoning employed by sentencing judges; the mitigating subjective features of the offender; and any other significant factors considered in the sentencing decision that explains how courts come to their final decision on sentence. This may be done using case-studies or collation of predominate themes across cases.