Sentencing trends & issues

Number 44 — Sentencing for the offence of sexual intercourse with a child under 10

Sentencing trends & issues
Date
July 2015
Authors
Patrizia Poletti
Pierrette Mizzi
Hugh Donnelly

Sentencing for the offence of sexual intercourse with a child under 10

This publication focuses on sentencing for the offence of sexual intercourse with a child aged under 10 (s 66A Crimes Act 1900) for the period from 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2014. It also compares past and present sentencing practices.

The Judicial Commission has recently supplied the NSW Sentencing Council, the Joint Select Committee on Sentencing of Child Sexual Assault Offenders and the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse with comprehensive information concerning sentencing for this offence. This publication builds and expands upon that material. The Joint Select Committee recommended that sentencing information about child sexual assault should be made more readily available to the public. Since that report was published a Judicial Commission study found that NSW had harsher sentences of imprisonment than Victoria and Queensland for sexual assault of a child under 10.