Law and Psychology Essay Topic
Word Limit: 2750 – 3000 words
Referencing style: Harvard style footnoting not in-text referencing and include a bibliography at the end.
Essay topic #5:
The 2017 Criminal Justice Report of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse http://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/policy-and-research/our-policy-work/criminal-justice has recommended use of “intermediaries” in police interviews (Recommendation 9(j)) and before and during court testimony (Recommendation 59).
Prior to the release of the 2017 Criminal Justice Report, current pilots of UK-style intermediaries schemes had commenced in Australia (in NSW and SA), and, many jurisdictions were actively debating the utility of such schemes (eg. Tas). Also, prior to the report, there was an existing system of “child communicators” under the Evidence ACT 1906 (WA), s 106F: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/wa/consol_act/ea190680/s106f.html .
Compare the psychological benefits of the WA system to the psychological benefits of the system of “registered intermediaries” available under the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 (UK) (see a relevant practice manual describing the UK scheme at https://www.cps.gov.uk/publications/docs/RI_ProceduralGuidanceManual_2015.pdf).
Discuss via relevant research literature any psychological and legal concerns you have about the WA scheme and the UK scheme, especially in terms of who is eligible for obtaining the assistance of an expert communicator or intermediary (eg. children only? vulnerable people? only witnesses or complainant witnesses but not defendants? etc etc).
Starter reference: Martine B Powell, Phoebe Bowden, and Michelle Mattison, ‘Stakeholders’ Perceptions of the Benefit of Introducing an Australian Intermediary System for Vulnerable Witnesses’ (2014) 48(4) Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology 498.
Please ensure that there is the same level of legal and psychological research in the essay. An in-depth analysis must be conducted of both the legal and psychological concerns arising.
