"[The survivor said] that the experience of going to trial was 'a hundred times more torturous than the experience itself'. 'I thought speaking up would be the right thing to do. I never imagined that this would turn into such a nightmare,' she added." https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/courts-crime/veteran-track-and-field-coach-jailed-for-21-months-for-molesting-teenage

It is absolutely heartbreaking to think that a system set up to hold sexual violence offenders accountable ends up hurting the survivor more than the incident itself. Yet for many survivors, the criminal justice system can be a source of further distress.

In the last few years, the government has introduced facilities such as the OneSafe Centre and enhanced their training for police officers dealing with sexual assault cases, to make the process less traumatic for survivors. However these process tweaks have not gone far enough.

They have now announced a review of the penalty framework. We believe the review should be more wide-ranging. (We're also concerned that penalties will be made unduly harsh to placate public anger. Studies have shown that harsh penalties are not necessarily stronger deterrents.)

With a more fundamental, comprehensive review, we can ensure that the criminal justice system does not further traumatise sexual assault survivors and deter the reporting of sexual crimes. We have many suggestions for each stage of the criminal justice process, including:

a) Designated specialist police stations to deal with sexual assault reports, where all the police officers are qualified and trained to deal with sexual assault cases. There should also be social workers on staff to provide victim support.

b) Specialised courts where judges are specifically trained to see sexual violence cases, processes are more judge-led and less adversorial, and the court process is expedited so that the case never lasts beyond two years (as opposed to the four-year timeframe we're seeing now).

c) Improved communications with survivors. Some survivors we've worked with only found out about the outcome of their cases from the media, instead of being privately notified beforehand.

A truly effective criminal justice system should be as victim-centric as possible. Survivors who use our system must be allowed to feel confident in the process. They should not expect to go through further pain when seeking redress. #AimForZeroSG