What's the law?

The most important considerations are:

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• Your needs for healing and safety.
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• The likelihood of that person who abused you re-offending without treatment. The community needs to be able to protect itself from being harmed by this person.
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• Your wish for justice.
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The investigative authorities are the NZ Police & Child, Youth and Family (CYF). These agencies have different purposes for collecting information.

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• The role of CYF is to assess care and protection concerns and ensure the safety of children and young people up to the age of 17 years.
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• The role of the Police is to investigate whether or not the person who has allegedly sexually abused should be prosecuted.
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It is possible that, for a number of reasons, a judicial system will not make the offender accountable for their crime. It’s good to be prepared for this in case this is the outcome.

Sexual abuse offences do not have to be reported straight away, although for the purpose of gathering evidence for an investigation the police would recommend that reporting is done sooner rather than later. Often families are concerned about a lack of evidence. Our response to this is that many investigations are made into historical abuse. Evidence includes the complainant's testimony.

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• This means that there is no time limit on when you need to make a complaint to the Police about abuse, but the sooner it is done the more effective it is likely to be.
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If you are thinking about contacting the Police there are many things to consider. Making a complaint with the hope of a successful prosecution is a difficult journey. Not all complaints lead to court proceedings, and not all court proceedings lead to conviction.

In New Zealand there is no statute of limitations for sexual abuse crimes. If you are looking to make a civil case there is a time limit. For more information, you can contact your local community law centre. Alternatively, if you're under 25 years of age, you can contact Youthlaw, a community law centre for young people living anywhere in NZ. They offer free confidential legal advice, advocacy and support.
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If you choose not to report at all, or if you do not yet feel ready to report immediately because you need time to understand what options are available, there are many supportive services to guide you through your decision making process. HELP can specifically guide you on next steps as you go through this journey.
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\nIf professionals hold serious concerns for a child's immediate safety within the home, or elsewhere, they will work with you to contact CYF to make a report of concern. This allows CYF to investigate the safety of a child. If the sexual abuse has occurred within your home then CYF will become involved to work with you to establish care and protection for that child.

In some situations, restorative justice might provide an alternative or additional route to justice. It seeks to put things right by bringing together survivors and their supporters, and those who have caused the harm. This offers the survivor a chance to tell her story, how he/she was harmed by what the perpetrator did, and to say what he/she would need for that harm to be healed. For it to be effective, it does require the person who caused the harm to be able to admit to this, and to give full and appropriate apology.

Because of the particular dynamics of sexual violence, a special process is undertaken to minimise any risks of harm, and maximise chances of healing while striving for justice. This is run by Project Restore, in collaboration with HELP and other specialist groups.