Bridging the justice gap in the prosecution of acquaintance child sexual abuse : a case of South Africa and Uganda

Abstract

This thesis addresses the problem of acquaintance child sexual abuse (ACSA) in South Africa and Uganda. The deficit between incidence and conviction (consistently termed the justice gap) in child sexual offending is demonstrated. Early in the thesis, it is demonstrated that unlike child sexual offending by strangers, ACSA has unique characteristics that merit special measures in the prosecution process if the justice gap is to be effectively bridged. The study propounds three prerequisites for the successful prosecution of ACSA. These are: