The criminal justice system (including the Victim Friendly Initiative) appears to use the child as a tool to ensure that the accused is tried. There is no support given to the child after giving evidence. In most cases, children are being abused by people they know, including those they stay with. The accused is sometimes released on bail and they go back to the same environment with the victim and the family may also blame the child for causing the arrest of the accused. There are no alternative safe places for victims and survivors of abuse. For children and the guardians attending court from distant areas, there is no place to accommodate them during trial leaving the burden on the prosecutors and police who will have brought the complainants to court. 3.6. Settlement of Disputes at Family Level Respondents also highlighted the tendency to resolve cases at family level. This however can lead to children being abused in custody matters where there is no monitoring mechanism and stifle the reporting of child sexual abuse cases. In sexual abuse cases, which mostly involve people known to the victim, the adults tend to protect their family name and in some cases the perpetrator will be the bread winner. This is also being caused by poor delivery of service by the stakeholders with corruption allegations; the society has lost faith in the system. The traditional leader in Rusape indicated that most cases are brought to him initially and if he has no jurisdiction, he will refer the cases to the police. In non-serious cases, they can resolve the matter where the child can ask for forgiveness. In custody matters, it was indicated that children belong to the father in terms of customary law and the father should pay lobola so as to be granted custody of the children. 3.7. Religion Most of the respondents pointed out the high prevalence rate of child marriages among the apostolic sects. The respondents appreciated that such marriages constitute child sexual abuse but there is a challenge in applying the law to bring perpetrators to book. 3.8. Delays in Delivering Justice Cases of child sexual abuse and juveniles in conflict with the law take particularly long before they are concluded. The reasons given include the lack of resources to carry out 6