Delayed Complaints in Childhood Sexual Abuse Prosecutions—A Comparative Evaluation of Admissibility Determinations and Judicial Warnings

This article reviews legal responses to delayed complaints in child sexual abuse prosecutions in Australia, Canada, the United States, Ireland, and England and Wales, focusing on recent legislative and judicial modifications to the historical common law requirement for early or recent complaint. Consideration is given to three legal mechanisms regulating the jury's access to information about delayed complaints: cross-examination of the complainant on the issue of delay, the admissibility of a late complaint for the prosecution, and judicial warnings indicating how, if at all, jurors should incorporate the fact of late complaint into their deliberations.