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Alternative reporting options for sexual violence

Proposal Summary

The State Government should provide victim-survivors with an alternative reporting option for sexual violence incidents, as recommended by the VLRC Report on reponses to sexual offenses.

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1. The Victorian Law Reform Commission’s (VLRC) Improving the Justice System Response to Sexual Offences Report (2021) recommended an online reporting pathway (ORP) for sexual offences (recommendation 20). The VLRC also made recommendations to improve access to practical information on sexual violence via a central website (recommendation 18), and to allow for sexual assault services to receive and respond to disclosures online (recommendation 19).  

2. The Victorian Budget 2022-23 delivered funding to improve services for victim-survivors of sexual violence and harm in line with the VLRC's recommendations, including through designing an alternative online reporting model for reporting sexual offences.

3. The Department of Justice and Community Safety undertook an extensive consultation with the sector on this matter to determine the most appropriate model for delivery of what it called an Online Reporting Portal. The consultation report was never released. A first step could be to release the recommendations of that report.

4.  

   This proposal for an alternative reporting option is based on sound research findings and insights from years of research and analysis of unique datasets. Our project team found that informal reporting options could offer a positive and timely response to the persistent challenges in reporting faced by sexual assault survivors, including pathways to appropriate support and an opportunity to engage with police if survivors chose to formally report later on (Loney-Howes, Heydon, & O’Neill 2022). We also found that reports were sufficiently detailed to support police in crime mapping and intelligence gathering.

5. In addition to providing an informal reporting option for survivors who are not intending to file a formal complaint, members of our team have argued that if designed appropriately in line with best-practice interviewing questions (cf the Self-Administered Interview, Hope et al., 2013), online alternative reporting forms have the capacity to capture information from those making a formal complaint in time-lag situations, for example while they are waiting for a forensic examination or specialist support services, if they live remotely, or are reporting historical abuse (Heydon & Powell, 2018; see also Heffron et al., 2014; Lonsway, Archambault & Huhtanen, 2021).

6. Similarly, alternative written reporting options may help survivors for whom English is not their first language and who would ordinarily require an interpreter before making a formal complaint (Heydon & Lai, 2013; Lonsway, Archambault & Huhtanen, 2021). Given the challenges LGBTQIA+ survivors face when reporting to the police, including highly heterosexual and cisgendered scripts governing police understandings of sexual violence, it has been suggested that third-party anonymous reporting options may be a viable pathway (Murphy-Oikonen & Egan, 2021, p. 789). Recent research also indicates that online reporting options can assist with building trust and comfort for survivors, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic wherein survivors were unable to make reports in-person due to feelings of discomfort or a range of practical obstacles, including lockdowns and stay-at-home quarantine (Lonsway, Archambault & Huhtanen, 2021, p. 34). Lonsway and colleagues (2021) further suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic saw a significant increase in the use of online reporting portals by survivors and that this was likely to persist as people continue to limit their social contact or rely more heavily on digital communications technologies. 

7. Funding must be provided to enable incoming reports to be triaged by specialist sexual assault support workers, in line with victim-survivor preferences (confirmed by our research including a survey of 650 victim-survivors and interviews with 90 victim-survivors in 2024). 

8. WA Crimestoppers have developed a secure reporting platform that allows fully anonymous two-way communications between reporters and workers responding to the report. This is our recommended technological solution for this facility.  WA Crimestoppers can be contacted about licensing this platform which is called Safe2Say.

• Justice system responses – police
• prosecutions and courts