Where are the boys? Gender differences in child sexual abuse victims' possibilities to advance within the legal system
Short description
The project aim to investigate possible differences in how child sexual abuse (CSA) cases are handled by the legal system depending on the child's gender since previous research has found that boys may be disadvantaged during the legal process. To explore possible gender differences, we will examine preliminary investigations and court verdicts, including boys and girls, respectively, as CSA victims. Further, we will conduct focus groups with active prosecutors handling CSA cases to gain further knowledge regarding their experiences.
Both boys and girls are at risk of being exposed to sexual abuse during childhood and should have the same right to be heard and have their cases investigated during the legal process. However, there are indications that boys, regardless of age, who are suspected of being subjected to sexual abuse are given poorer conditions to advance within the legal system. For example, previous research has found that boys, compared to girls, are less often heard in a forensic child interview during the preliminary investigation, that cases involving boys as victims less often result in prosecution, and that the suspected perpetrator is less often convicted in court or receives a lighter sentence if they abused a boy compared to if the victim had been a girl. Despite this, to our knowledge, no psychological research examines the problem more closely, and there is a lack of research on the decision-making of prosecutors and courts in cases of child sexual abuse (CSA), depending on the sex of the victim.
Therefore, the purpose of the current project is to map differences between how suspected cases of CSA are handled and assessed by the legal system depending on the gender of the crime victim. We intend to review preliminary investigations and court verdicts to compare how the cases are handled and assessed depending on the gender of the child. Further, we intend to conduct focus groups with active child prosecutors to discuss their experiences investigating these cases.
The goal of the project is to strengthen the knowledge about boys as CSA victims and protect the right of all victims to be heard during the investigation. In addition, we hope that the project's results will benefit the legal certainty of children who are exposed to sexual offenses as well as aid professions that work with investigating CSA cases.
