The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is holding a series of public roundtables in April to discuss a range of criminal justice issues with invited participants.
The public roundtables follow March’s public hearing into criminal justice issues.
Royal Commission Chief Executive Officer Philip Reed said the public roundtables will discuss adult sex offender treatment programs, Director of Public Prosecution’s (DPP) oversight and complaint mechanisms and reporting offences.
“These roundtables will invite comment and discussion from a range of participants, including police, public prosecutors, criminal justice policy officials, academic and practitioner experts and others,” Mr Reed said.
“Consultation through these public roundtables will help inform the Royal Commission’s criminal justice policy work,” Mr Reed said.
The first public roundtable will discuss criminal offence for failing to report child sexual abuse, including the issue of blind reporting, where the alleged victim’s name or identifying details are not given to police.
The second public roundtable will discuss adult sex offender treatment programs, including current programs in Australia and internationally, as well as discussing the effectiveness of these programs.
The third public roundtable will look at DPP complaints and oversight mechanisms, including whether there should be avenues for victims to seek review of decisions not to prosecute and whether there should be external oversight of DPPs.
When: Wednesday 20 April (reporting offences) 10am-4pm Thursday 21 April (adult sex offender treatment programs) 10am-1pm Friday 29 April (DPP complaints and oversight mechanisms) 10am-4pm
The public roundtables will be streamed live via webcast.
