Social work forensic reports in South African criminal courts: Inevitability in the quest for justice

In this qualitative study the authors explored the views of 32 South African legal and police professionals (including judges, regional court magistrates, district court magistrates, prosecutors, private defence lawyers, Legal Aid lawyers and four inspectors from the Child Protection Unit).

Although participants were asked to provide recommendations regarding social work forensic reports and probation reports, the recommendations are also applicable to child protection social work reports.

The study reveals what these professionals feel, many social workers are notorious for:

1. Not keeping to submission dates.
2. Wasting the time of the court if the report is of poor quality to the extent that the court would be better off without the report.
3. Producing poor quality reports, in other words, reports that reflect:
   • No consultation with all the relevant stakeholders,
     
   • No corroborating information that you obtained from sources;
     
   • Poor writing style and grammar 🡪 seen as unfit for use in the legal context
     
   • A lack of evidence of critical thinking
     
   • A lack of proper writing principles