Criminal Disposition Time for Child-Sexual-Abuse Cases in a Large Urban Court

This study compared criminal disposition time for child-sexual-abuse cases and other felonies in the Arizona Superior Court for Maricopa County. Of those resolved, the majority of both child-sexual-abuse cases (59 percent) and felony cases (85 percent) were disposed within the target time frame of 180 days. However, nearly one in three child-sexual-abuse cases took more than two years to reach disposition or were pending. The average pending time for child-sexual-abuse cases were two-and-one-half times that for all pending felonies in general