ABSTRACT
As in America (Fraser, 1981) and most European countries (Doek, 1981), Canada and England have two sets of statutes that relate to child sexual abuse - civil statutes concerned with child protection and criminal statutes. While some cooperation and integration may occur between the adult court system and the child welfare system in some areas of the two countries, essentially they are separate entities, operating with their own mandate, polices and procedures. Only one system may be applied, or both, either concurrently or in either sequence (Dickens, 1984). The definitions of incest and related sexual offences and penalties, described in the criminal codes of the two countries, differ in some respects and are described below. As well, there are variations in the Canadian and British child protection legislation and in the systems that implement the laws, which will be apparent in the following discussion. The information describes what existed during the period of the study (1979-1984).
