Los Menores Víctimas de Abuso Sexual en el Proceso Judicial: el Control de la Victimización Secundaria y las Garantías Jurídicas de los Acusados

Abstract

Child sexual abuse happens quite frequently and has serious consequences for child development. Disclosure of sexual abuse is often delayed; children often avoid telling because they are either afraid of a negative reaction from their relatives or of being harmed by the abuser. Child sexual abuse is often committed in private so there are rarely eyewitnesses and there is no external corroborating evidence. Therefore, in every case of child sexual abuse that goes to trial, it is often the child’s testimony that is the only one or the most crucial part of the prosecution’s case. In this paper several recommendations are proposed to deal with sexual abuse cases in order to improve the quality of children’s testimony, when minors are able to testify in court, and to protect vulnerable children from secondary victimization. At the same time protecting children in the Criminal Justice System must be compatible with the presumption of innocence of the accused. Some suggestions are raised to balance the rights of the accused and of the victim.