How can children and vulnerable people be better understood by the justice system?

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-03-18 03:00

Australia; QLD; SA; TAS

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The criminal justice system can be hard to navigate for children and adults with disabilities that make communication difficult. In 2016 the South Australian Government introduced a communication partner scheme where trained volunteers assisted defendants and prosecution witnesses who needed help, but this scheme was not used often and ended at the start of 2020. The researchers interviewed 23 professionals involved in the SA criminal justice system about the scheme; how useful it was and what they thought the state needed to improve communication for children and vulnerable groups. The researchers say there was unanimous support for some kind of government assistance for these groups with high rates of people with disabilities within the criminal and youth justice systems. However, the participants generally believed the use of volunteers was inappropriate, and either volunteers or paid staff involved with a system like this would need more knowledge and ability to help each person with more tailored assistance.