Brief review of contemporary sexual offence and child sexual abuse legislation in Australia

Abstract

The report provides an overview of the offences that an individual who sexually abuses a child in an institutional setting may be charged with in the nine Australian jurisdictions.

These include contact and non-contact sexual offences, child pornography offences and offences for which institutions and/or their representatives that were aware of child sexual abuse may be charged.

Prepared by the Australian Institute of Criminology for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

 

Contents

  • Introduction
    • Structure and scope of this report
    • Definitions
  • Contact offences
    • Contact offences involving a child below the legal age of consent
    • Contact offences involving a child above the legal age of consent
    • Contact sexual offences where the age of the victim is not specified
  • Non-contact offences
  • Child pornography offences: Production
  • References
  • Appendix A: Online access to current sexual offence legislature
  • Appendix B: Penalty units conversion