THE ENHANCEMENT OF APPROPRIATE MEASURES FOR VICTIMSOF CRIME AT EACH STAGE OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE PROCESS
Donald Yamasombi *I. INTRODUCTION
Papua New Guinea adopted its laws from the British common law in 1972 before independence in 1975
and did likewise with its policing and judicial practices.
Crime is governed by two sets of legislation:(i)	The Summary Offences Act, chapter 262, which deals with minor offences and carries sentencesfrom court fines to five years’ imprisonment; and,(ii)	The Criminal Code Act, chapter 262, which deals with serious offences and carries sentences fromfive years to life imprisonment.
These two sets of legislation recognize a range of offences which cover both consensual and nonconsensual activities and are designed to help prevent these crimes as well as to seek justice and safety forvictims or survivors.
However, in almost every part of the process most attention is given to the apprehension and processingof the suspect in order to secure a desired outcome in the courts. This is because all offenders are presumed
innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt before a competent court.
The victims or survivors of crime, though left out of the picture, are expected to assist the police and the
public prosecutor with corroborating evidence to support the charge against the accused. This dilemma hascreated an unfortunate situation for many victims and survivors of crimes.
In this presentation I will highlight the role of the police in the criminal justice system of Papua New
Guinea, and with the given major crime statistics of the last five years, will point out some of the challenges
faced by victims of crime in the criminal justice process.
I will then conclude by pointing out some measures currently being worked on to address victims ofcrime by making the process more user-friendly.

II. CRIME STATISTICS
Table 1: Major Crime Statistics between 2005 and 2009
Reported Crimes

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

All Murders
Manslaughter
Rape
Other Sexual Offences
Robbery
Robbery MV
Breaking (Commercial)
Breaking (Domestic)
Stealing (MV)587/12217/9
878/194
418/105
172/250
879/68642/71
879/72289/18614/17313/1
799/182
472/971605/252
797/42549/69705/80245/25514/16811/2
674/149
308/801170/206
583/30488/98442/56
197/15610/206
18/4
943/262229/601466/301
563/17389/55529/101
216/32619/25314/7
794/215
237/571306/288
654/21395/55538/87248/16* Chief Inspector, Director of Criminal Investigations, Crimes Division. Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary, Papua New
Guinea.

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Stealing
Fraud
GBH
Firearms
Drugs
Escape from CIS
Escape from Police
Arson
Abduction
Bribery
TOTAL CRIMES/TOTALARRESTS

716/149
196/881443/203
201/142690/732
242/76229/97284/18146/5
2/

902/235
186/831302/207
154/126
536/559
64/10
183/59276/18137/151/1

621/107
161/58828/120
108/117
663/777
23/27
208/68268/81109/9
1/1

1026/107
220/1111003/144
79/70
435/51418/9
90/46
284/50128/164/2

981/276219/1201204/177
98/90
585/720
22/21
124/77239/37
159/183/310459/2419

9540/2237

7448/2171

8511/2353

8765/2616

Note: The arrest figures are shown in bold type.

III. NATIONAL PROSECUTION’S SUCCESS RATE OF CASES PROSECUTED (2005-2009)
The prosecution’s records showed only the number of cases that were prosecuted and the successfulconvictions as percentages for each month over the five year period as listed below.
Table 2: Cases Prosecuted and Successful Convictions
Month / Year

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
AugustSeptember
OctoberNovember
December

71%
71%
71%
75%
72%
73%
71%
74%
75%
72%
70%
71%

74%
74%
71%
74%
70%
73%
72%
69%
70%
70%
69%
79%

75%
73%
79%
68%
74%
63%
62%
66%
73%
67%
67%
59%

76%
77%
79%
69%
70%
71%
77%
71%
Not recorded
59%
67%
69%

66%
56%
54%
63%
57%
62%
59%
72%
58%
45%
65%
71%

Papua New Guinea has serious concerns in its law and order problems. There are many crimes reported
daily but the attendance rate by police to these cases is very poor. This is further compounded by the poor
rate of convictions by investigators for the same reasons: lack of manpower and training.
The above table can be used as an illustration to show the number of victims whom the law has notprotected or to whom justice been denied for the reasons mentioned above.

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IV. THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA
The following flow diagram shows the Criminal Justice process in Papua New Guinea.
(i) Police Documents
Complaint

Offencecommitted on
victim

1. Police
Takes onComplaint(ii) Investigations ofAllegations(iii) Arrest of

Offenders

2. Prosecutions

Police Prosecutors – Summary Offences
Public Prosecutor – Criminal Code Offences

3. Court of Law
1. District Court – Summary Offences
2. Committal Court – Police Prosecutor
3. National Court – Public Prosecutor

Adjudication Process

Correctional Services(Prison)Figure 1.

							In the above process, there remain many inadequacies regarding accessibility to justice on the part of thevictims.
The key functions and duties of the individual agencies are highlighted below.

A. The Role of the Police
The Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary is the only recognized national agency of the country whose
primary functions are to:(i) preserve peace and good order in the country, and(ii) maintain and, as necessary, enforce the law in an impartial and objective manner,as per stipulated under section 197 of the National Constitution, chapter 1. As such, the police are the firstagency to be approached in any conflict or crime situation.
Complaints are registered on receipt into an occurrence register and allocated to investigators toinvestigate. Depending on the seriousness and nature of the crime, it may be delegated to the Criminal
Investigations Directorate to conduct detailed investigations before an offender is arrested and charged.
The Criminal Investigation Directorate comes under the Crimes Division and is the key functional
directorate in investigating and dealing with serious criminal offences.
In so doing the police initiate the whole criminal process as shown in Figure 1 above by documenting thecomplaint, then investigating the crime to establish the truth of the incident.
They are required to identify what law has been broken, identify the person(s) who may have committed

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the offence and gather necessary evidence to support the charges against that person before he or she isbrought before the court.
It is the responsibility of the police to seek and identify sufficient evidence on the complaints reportedby the victims to eliminate mere suspicions before a person can be arrested and charged with an offence.
Other minor offences are investigated and dealt with by the uniformed branch under the Public Safety
Division. The criminal investigators in the course of their investigations are also duty bound to ensure that
offenders or suspects of any offences are treated with due diligence as human beings until proven guilty by acompetent jurisdiction of law beyond reasonable doubt.
In so doing, investigators spend more time on investigation by establishing avenues of enquiries togather enough evidence to charge a suspect. The victims, on the other hand, are also placed in a position toassist police investigations with corroborating evidence, should it be medical reports, eye witness accounts
or other material evidence. The state gives little to no consideration at all to the victims in terms of theirsecurity, assistance to overcome traumas, assistance to free legal aid or the assistance to obtain medical
reports.
With the country’s population at about 6.5 million and the police manpower strength at 4,700, the ratio
is one police officer to every 1,382 people. Therefore, the crime statistics in Table 1 clearly show theinability of police to attend to and deal with all reported crimes because of the lack of manpower, which iscompounded with logistical, training and funding constraints.
Figure 2: Structure of the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary
The Police

Commissioner

DeputyCommissioner
Operations

PublicSafetyDivision

Criminal
Investigations
Directorate

CrimesDivision

DeputyCommissioner
Administration

6x Regional
CommandersIntelligence

Prosecutions

Logistics

Policy &Planning

Human
Resources

Finance &Administration

Fraud & Anti
Corruption

B. The Prosecution
Because of the court systems in the country, the summary or minor offences are prosecuted by Police
Prosecutors in the District Court, which is the lower court.
Serious criminal cases are firstly heard in a Committal Court presented by a police prosecutor before
a senior magistrate to determine the sufficiency of evidence on hand before it can be committed for a trial
proper in the National Court or be struck out.
When the cases are committed to the National Court, the Public Prosecutor then takes carriage of thematter as this is a higher court.

C. The Courts
The court system in the country is based on the burden of proof. The court is really an independent bodythat functions impartially on cases brought before it.

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All criminal cases are deemed to be the state’s case, hence the onus is on the state to present its casebeyond reasonable doubt to prove guilt of an accused, because the accused is presumed innocent until
proven guilty.

V. SOME ASSOCIATED CHALLENGES FOR VICTIMS AND SURVIVORS OF CRIME
Having briefly discussed the criminal justice process, the following are some obvious challenges faced by
the victims and survivors of crime.
• C osts involved at certain points of the process. These costs include medical bills for victims andmedical reports, transport fares to the nearest police stations to lodge complaints and even legal fees.
• D elays in the process. Police investigators most times delay investigations unnecessarily. As suchcases may get adjourned in the Courts over extended periods and sometimes get struck out. Lackof manpower and logistics may be some reasons for this; however this does not serve justice on thecomplainants or victims.
• D ifficulties with the Court administrative processes. Some case files get misplaced and lost in court
houses and other times cases are dismissed due to non-compliance with court procedures, processes
and rules.
• L ack of information and trust in certain points of the process. Inadequate awareness of the proceduresand processes of investigations and the Court processes leads to mistrust and ignorance.
• L ack of resources. This causes undue delay in the production of case files in the initial stage by thepolice, thus leading to undesired striking out of cases in Courts due to time limitations• L ack of adequate and affordable legal representation. Because victims cannot afford legal fees many
at times their cases are thrown out as the defence can afford legal counsel to adequately argue theircases in court.

A. Current Measures
In 2006 some attention was drawn to address the effect of crimes on the victims. They included issues as:
1. Victim Impact Statement
It is vital that at the trial of the matter, police and prosecutors must provide to court the impact of thecrimes on the wellbeing of the victim to assist the court in its decision making and imposition of appropriate
penalties. Recent meetings between the police and public prosecution on who should obtain victim impact
statements have agreed that the public prosecution obtains and presents these statements as part ofevidence in the court of law.
2. Medical Report
Victims experience significant problems as they have had to pay their own expenses after undergoing
medical treatment. Then they have to pay for medical reports to form part of the evidence of the crime
inflicted on them. Furthermore, the doctors’ affidavits are not always available to assist the courts.
On occasions that the doctors’ affidavits or statements were provided, they have been written in medical
terms difficult for laymen to understand.
A number of measures are now in place to address this situation, including:
1. Meeting with the Health Department authorities to formalize a pro-forma for medical officers’ affidavits tobe presented in a language easily understood by all;
2. Medical pro-forma prepared for victims of crime to be presented to the hospitals so that they are treatedat no cost;
3. Reception centres created within the hospitals to cater for victims of crime, especially women andchildren;170

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4. Reception Centres are established with trained officers at selected police stations and hospitals to deal
with the problems of victims of crime, especially cases involving women and children.
Reception Centers were introduced between 2005 and 2006 in the two major cities of Papua New Guinea.
The main reason for the establishment of these centres was to deal with the victims of crime against
women, child victims and sexual assault victims.
Women and children were seen as the most vulnerable group that cannot speak out in public of theabuses and traumas they have been through unless they have been treated with compassion and respect.
Although no formal training is provided in government institutions like the police, some workshops havebeen run by NGO groups and the United Nations Save the Children Fund to deal with the victims of crime.
At the police stations the staff of the reception centres are taught to deal with this vulnerable group more
attentively in order to make them feel comfortable and assist in the investigation process.
In hospitals, when these victims are referred, they are attended to in a separate set up from the main outpatient area.
These arrangements are basically to provide a more conducive environment for victims, especiallywomen and children, to be attended to compassionately and with care so that they are at ease andcomfortable in assisting the investigation process.
3. Working Collaboratively
Policing in Papua New Guinea is promoted as everybody’s business. Every individual and organizationin the community has a part to play in making the society safe. Thus, the Royal Papua New Guinea
Constabulary adopted the mission statement: “Securing a Safer Community in Partnership”.
Currently many non government organizations are advocating for the rights of all people from all forms ofviolence and this is beginning to get off the ground with considerations given to victims of crime. Unlike inthe past, victims had no support from the community around them and they feel cornered and helpless. The
police are collaborating with all these groups through the concept of Community Policing. In this concept,
people with respectable characters are identified from within the communities they live in and sworn as
auxiliary constables. They do not have the power to arrest offenders but they can mediate trivial conflicts
and resolve them using the accepted customary practices of the community.
It is essential that a collaborative effort is to be made to create harmonious environments for victims
of crime to feel at home and able to willingly support case officers or the courts. This working relationshiprequires all agencies and whole government approach and support, especially from key organizations that are
actively involved in handling victims of crime cases. They include the Office of Public Prosecution, Police,
Department of Health and NGOs, as in the case of Port Moresby; House Ruth (an NGO group) and othersafe passages or safe houses are made available to victims of crime by certain private companies including
Digicel, Protect Security and other stakeholders in the business community.
This collective effort by the community is really making an impact in actually providing the temporary
shelter needed by the women and children who are being abused or harassed at their homes.
4. Legal Aid/ Investigations Oversight
In Papua New Guinea victims of crime are at liberty to seek legal representation at will. However, thecost involved in seeking this service is very high.
Apart from the services of private lawyers, which are expensive, the Public Solicitors’ Office, which is agovernment agency, does provide some form of legal advice to victims of crime, though in most instances
they represent the defendants or suspects in court because they likewise cannot afford to engage private
lawyers.
One avenue that is really gaining momentum is the 2005 Memorandum of Agreement between the Police
and the PNG Ombudsman Commission. In this MOA, the Ombudsman Commission is obliged to oversee

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that reported cases are fairly investigated without fear or favour by the police and justice is delivered to theconcerned party.
Early September 2009, two murder cases, one alleging the involvement of a policeman and anotheralleging the involvement of a prominent businessman, were investigated under the Police Ombudsman
oversight arrangements as the cases were unnecessarily delayed by police investigators under suspectedundue influence by the suspects.
In November 2009, I investigated and charged a police officer for wounding another person using his
official firearm on a mere suspicion that he was a suspect in a stealing offence. The victimSection 0 s family
and relatives were very much overwhelmed by the action because it took a year before this action was taken
under the arrangement.
Under this same arrangement all witnesses and victims are protected from any threats or harassment by
the suspects or their accomplishes according to the existing law. Although no restitutions are imposed, any
threats, harassments and inducements on the victims or the witnesses are treated as new offences.
5. Court User Forums
In about mid 2006, the National Court Judges initiated and introduced the idea of running Court Users
Forums especially in the Port Moresby and Lae cities.
The key issue was to assist stakeholders of the Criminal Justice System to see the Courts as not only
a place where punishment is imposed on lawbreakers but a place where both parties, the suspects and thevictims, can access services more freely.
It was obvious that some court processes were very rigid and the judges, magistrates, police, thecorrectional services and lawyers needed to come together and discuss issues of common interest and makethe process more user-friendly.
Some positive outcomes from these meetings have been the understanding of the courts on extending
timeframes for case files to be prepared as agencies like the police do not always have resources available tocomplete investigations and case files on time.
Another outcome has been to address the previous yearsSection 0 cases dating back some five to sevenyears as this was seen as denial of justice to those who reported the matters.

VI. CONCLUSION
The approach to the Criminal Justice Process in Papua New Guinea has been concentrated on thehandling of the suspects, administering their rights and presuming that they are innocent of any allegations
until proven guilty by the competent jurisdiction.
It was only in 2005 that the measures I have briefly highlighted above were introduced and many moreconsultative meetings and workshops need to be held before more refined, practical and constructive
approaches are put in place to better treat and deliver justice to the people who fall victim to the hands ofcriminals in Papua New Guinea.
On the outset it is my firm belief that victims of crime and the criminals are part of the society thatallows the criminal justice system in PNG to remain a vibrant process; hence it is critical now that thevictims and survivors of crime be given similar if not better treatment by the government and its agents.
However, in order to do so, proper training must be conducted in all government law enforcement agency
institutions on the appropriate procedures and processes of receiving and processing the victims of crime.
Appropriate legislation also needs to be put in place to foster trust and confidence of the public and better
serve the victims of crime in Papua New Guinea.

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