The social work competency report as an aid in court cases on child sexual abuse

Abstract

Social work competency reports are reports submitted by forensic social workers to criminal courts to assist the court in assessing the competence of the child witness in cases of child sexual abuse. The purpose of the research was to establish the views of magistrates and public prosecutors regarding social work competency reports submitted to criminal courts. A qualitative research approach was used to collect the data from the relevant court officers. The data collection instrument used was an interview guideline for conducting semi–structured interviews with the respondents selected by means of purposive sampling. The results indicated that the establishment of the competence of the child witness is important to magistrates and public prosecutors in court cases on child sexual abuse. Two aspects they considered important were whether the child could distinguish between the truth and lies, and fantasy and reality. The respondents in the research project were generally satisfied with competency reports submitted to the courts. It was recommended that forensic social workers establish the expectations of magistrates and public prosecutors in their areas regarding the content of competency reports.