The Court for Sexual Offences: perceptions of the families of the victims of sexual offences

This article aims to evaluate the degree to which the Court for Sexual Offences in Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa and associated auxiliary institutions meet the needs of the families of the victims of sex-crimes. The perceptions of 24 family members of victims were obtained. These individuals generally perceived the functioning of the Court and its auxiliary institutions in a positive light. However, perceptions of the time that cases took to come to trial and the standard of post-trial interaction between the Court and the families was not positive. A need for more effective victim-care at both social and psychological levels was identified. Future psycho-legal research possibilities in this largely neglected field are highlighted.