Victim Support and the Criminal Justice System - Essay Example

?Victim Support and the Criminal Justice System Introduction This paper will argue that the current approach of the government to victim support is severely lacking, despite recognitions that improvements need to be made. While report after report promises to improve services provided to victims, reality shows that this is not actually the case. It will be argued that the lack of support for victims is due to the punitive approach of the government to crime, and that a criminal justice system that hopes to provide satisfactory levels of support to victims has to take a more restorative justice approach towards crime. Previous Governmental Approaches to Victim Support Over the years, the government has created a great deal of reports on the issue of victim support particularly in relation to domestic violence. The main aim of its 2003 report stated that it was “determined to prevent domestic violence happening...and to protect and support all victims”.1 As the years have passed, governmental approaches towards victim support have recognised that victims need to be given greater access to and degrees of support, yet this has so far failed to be implemented. It is evident however that the government’s focus on making “the sentence reflect the crime”2 has caused it to place more focus on the offender’s punishment rather than the victim’s need for support. This is particularly the case in instances of domestic violence. Endless references have been made which recognise the need to support victims in order that they be given help to “rebuild their lives”,3 yet interest in and focus on this need has been sporadic and never a central aim of the government in the past. However, 2009 saw a renewed need to support women and girls who were victims of domestic violence in particular, and the government once again quoted an onslaught of promising plans and strategies to increase access to support, advice and services.4 Arguably, these were never properly implemented, or were applied in a piecemeal fashion, causing support for victims to be patchy and incomplete at best. The approach of the government has certainly not been without its critics; it has been often commented that years after plans were published, they still have yet to be properly implemented in order to provide the support that victims so evidently need.5 There is evident focus placed on the criminal justice aspect of crime, which greatly derogates attention from providing victims with the requisite support. Indeed, it is often claimed that the government has missed the point in attempting to support victims,6 a result of its mistaken assumption that “the criminal justice system alone can deal adequately” with victims of crime.7 The reality of proposals and plans is greatly different from the theoretical promises of those plans; funds have been pumped into arresting offenders while victim support services took a step back due to lack of funding and importance. For example, despite research proving that refuges for victims has a major positive effect, minimal funding was assigned to the creation and maintenance of refuges for victims of domestic violence in particular.8 There is blinding evidence that funding has been improperly directed towards offenders rather than victims; promises to increase the number of Rape Crisis centres have actually resulted in many centres being closed down due to major underfunding.9 The government has placed much focus on and investment in convicting offenders, while studies show that over 90% of victims who were given access to shelters felt that they had majorly improved access to safety.10 The acts of the government and its plans and promises have simply not be implemented in reality: victims still stand in the shadow of inappropriate focus placed on offenders and criminal justice.11 There is little doubt that the approach of the government has been unorganised, unstructured and incomplete, despite reports recognising that it should be the complete opposite.12 Such failure on the part of the government has caused its few achievements to be entirely ignored or overlooked,13 because its strategies have simply not been able to support victims in reality which begs the question: is victim support so difficult?14 One may be tempted to overlook the severity of the government’s failures to implement victim support effectively if one’s attention could be drawn to the successes achieved by its blinkered criminal justice approach. This is however not the case; conviction rates for rape and sexual assault for example were terribly low at 5% in 2009.15 Time and time again the government has failed to “grasp a historic opportunity to change the face of criminal justice.”16 Is there any hope for the future? Can victim support be a plausible aim for the criminal justice system? On the Importance of Restorative Justice It has already been suggested that a mainly punitive approach to crime fails to recognise the needs of victims, who largely “remain invisible to the agencies of the criminal justice system”.17 While any plausible criminal justice system must be able to effectively detect and punish offenders, it must also be able to implement strategies which do not leave victims unnoticed once an offender has been caught. It is often argued that a largely punitive criminal justice system cannot adequately employ victim support aims; that rather appeals to support victims are simply sideline empty promises. Indeed, there is evident “a destructively punitive approach inherent in criminal justice”,18 but does this mean that adequate importance cannot be placed on supporting victims? It will be shown that even the harshest punitive system can effectively employ principles of restorative justice, so that the punishment of the offender becomes connected to the support and needs of the victim. By adopting a an approach to justice which embodies aspects of restorative justice, the proper aim of the criminal justice system can be located. If implemented effectively, a restorative approach to justice will prevent victims becoming an afterthought, as attention will be placed on both he offender and the victim. Restorative justice was formed as a response to the inherent problems posed by purely retributive and other forms of justice. Such a system attempts to recreate the issue of justice by placing focus on the significance of the victim which requires that harm inflicted upon them be acknowledged and/or corrected as far as possible. Restorative justice thus proposes to situate the victim more centrally within the criminal justice system, allowing them to have direct influence on the definitions of and repercussions of criminal behaviour. Critics indeed suggest that the near-sighted focus on retribution in order to formulate principles of justice does not achieve what it primarily aims to achieve: the reduction of recidivism rates.19 Such critics thus claim that a victim-oriented approach to crime and criminal justice is necessary.20 This requires that victims be given rights, and be placed properly within the criminal justice system, because the “provision of such rights can improve their position within the criminal justice system”.21 Restorative justice proposes that the harm caused to victims should be remedied through the creation of (a) support systems provided by the state and (b) direct contact between the victim and the offender. Although traditional concepts of restorative justice have been linked to aims of reconciliation, it is not confined to this, and its general attempt to place focus on the victim is a more accurate depiction of the approach.22 This also allows the community to have a greater role in responding to the offender, as well as being more aware of the victim.23 Meetings between the offender and the victim are possible, which allows the victim to achieve perhaps some satisfactory aim, be it causing the offender to realise the effects of his actions or simply to arrange restitution.24 Counselling for the victim is a main implementation of restorative justice, so that he/she may be able to express, process and understand the traumatic experience he/she suffered. Community service is also given to the offender, which keeps him in the community and makes visible to society and the victim the process of his punishment rather than the hidden ‘punishment’ he receives in prison.25 It is suggested by Braithwaite that efficient restorative justice systems should be able to reinstate human dignity, property loss, communities, and victim confidence in the system.26 Studies indeed show that both victims and offenders expect and desire these elements in a restorative justice system.27 Yet is this, or any other system of victim support effectively in place in the UK today? Certainly the criminal justice system is not without its critics, who claim that victim support is implemented irregularly throughout the UK, while little research has been carried out to study what contributes effectively to helping victims overcome crime.28 Dunn, a member of Victim Support, has claimed that conflicting confidentiality legislation in the UK has resulted in restrictions on the number of referrals and effective investigations it can undertake.29 While the House of Commons Report states that “victims of most crimes can expect the police to pass on their details to Victim Support”,30 reality shows that the police are now reluctant to for fear of breaching the Data Protection Act 1998. Similarly, knowledge on the types of victims that are in greater need of support is greatly lacking; while the government has arguably focused on the need for support of female victims of sexual assault, it has missed the arguably greater need to support male victims of sexual assault.31 It is not known what male victims of sexual assault need,32 and after so many years of dependence of Victim Support on volunteers, it is arguably time to take more active steps towards proper provision of support. Some claim that the inability to provide adequate services to victims is a result of most violent offences not being reported, as well as a lack of framework for implementing proper victim help, and lack of knowledge of what to do among victim helpers.33 It is clear that a completely new approach to victim support is needed which puts more funding into programs designed to help victims, as well as takes on a greater degree of willingness to implement restorative justice programs which put the victim first. While “highly sophisticated theoretical models, indicating various risk factors...and protection factors” the applicability of such models in reality is almost non-existent.34 While studies similarly show that most victims are able to cope with and overcome their experiences,35 this increases the need to highlight those who are in dire need of support. Considerable focus has been placed on the concept of restorative justice; this is because it has been shown that such programs provide great degrees of support for the victim, whilst not fully derogating from the importance of punishing the offender.36 While some are sceptical about the effect that restorative justice approaches can have on victim support, it is clear that more importance would be placed on victims than is currently the case. This would avoid the dependence of access to victim support on police referrals, hence reducing the difference in approaches depending on the area within which police work.37 It can thus be concluded that current focus on victim support is mere window-dressing, and does not aim to properly implement what is needed. A more restorative-based approach to criminal justice would help to improve the quality of victim support greatly. Bibliography Books and Journals DA Andrews & J Bonta, The Psychology of Criminal Conduct (2nd edn, Anderson 1998); P Gendreau, T Little & C Goggin, ‘A Meta-Analysis of the Predictors of Adult Offender Recidivism: What works!’ [1996] 10 Criminology 34. C Annesley, F Gains, & K Rummery, Women and New Labour: Engendering Politics and Policy? (Policy Press 2007). A Ballinger, ‘Same as it Ever Was?’, in R Coleman, J Sim, S Tombs & D Whyte (eds), State Power Crime (Sage 2009) p. 21; Fawcett Society, ‘Engendering Justice: From Policy to Practice’ [2009] pp. 9, 49. Source: ttp://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/index.asp?PageID=933. Accessed: 4-12-2011. A Ballinger, ‘New Labour and Responses to Violence Against Women’, in Silvestri, A (ed), ‘Lessons for the Coalition: An End of Term Report on New Labour and Criminal justice’ [2011] Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, London. J Braithwaite, ‘Setting Standards for Restorative Justice’ [2002] 2 BJC 42 M Davies, ‘Male Sexual Assault Victims: A Selective Review of the Literature and Implications For Support Services’ [2002] Aggression and Violent Behaviour 7. P Davies, ‘Criminal (In)Justice for Victims’ , in P Davies, P Francis & C Greer, Victims, Crime and Society (Sage 2007) AJM Denkers, Psychological Reactions of Victims of Crime (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam 1996) P Dunn, ‘Victim Support in the UK – Its History and Current Work’ 123rd International Senior Seminar (Victim Support National Office 2003) H. Fenwick, ‘Procedural ‘Rights’ of Victims of Crime: Public or Private Ordering of the Criminal Justice Process?’ [1997] 60 MLR 3 Gill, A & Radford, L, ‘Domestic Violence Policies Under New Labour: Wasted Years?’ in Roberts, R & McMahon, W (eds), ‘Social Justice and Criminal Justice’ [2007] Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, London. T Hall & D Whyte, , ‘At the Margins of Provisional Domestic Violence, Policing and Community Safety’ [2003] 13 Policy and Politics 1 L Kurki, ‘Restorative and Community Justice in the United States’, in M. Tonry (ed.), Crime and Justice: A Review of Research (University of Chicago Press 2000). TF Marshall, ‘The Evolution of Restorative Justice in Britain’ [1996] 4 European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research 4 May, T, ‘Labour’s Failure to Tackle Violence Against Women’, The New Statesman, 7 January 2009. Source: http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2009/01/rape-women-violence-government. Accessed: 4-12-2011. H Messmer & HU Otto (eds.), ‘Restorative Justice: Steps on the Way to a Good Idea’, in Restorative Justice on Trial (Kluwer Academic Publishers 1992). J Nuffield, Diversion programs for adults: User Report #1997-05 (Solicitor General 1997). SB Perrott and N Webber, ‘Attitudes Towards Male and Female Victims of Sexual Assault: Implications and Services to the Male Victim’ [1996] Journal of Psychology and Human Sexuality 8. Radford, J, Freidberg, M & Hame, L, Women, Violence and Strategies for Action: Feminist Research, Policy and Practice (Open University Press 2000). G Richardson & B Galaway, Evaluation of the Restorative Resolutions project of the John Howard Society of Manitoba (Ministry of the Solicitor General 1995). J Shepherd & C Lisles, ‘Towards Multi-Agency Violence Prevention and Victim Support: An Investigation of Police-Accident and Emergency Service Liaison’ [1998] 38 BJC 3 T Skinner, M Hester & E Malos (eds.), ‘Methodology, Feminism and Gender Violence’, in Researching Gender Violence: Feminist Methodology in Action (Willan 2005) H Strang, Victim Participation in a Restorative Justice Process: The Canberra Reintegrative Shaming Experiments’ (Australian National University 2000). MS Umbreit, Victim Meets Offender: The Impact of Restorative Justice and Mediation (Willow Tree Press 1994). MS Umbreit, RB Coates & B Kalanj, Victim Meets Offender: The Impact of Restorative Justice and Mediation (Willow Tree Press 1994). M Vanstone, ‘New Labour and Criminal Justice: Reflections on a Wasteland of Missed Opportunity’ [2010] 57 Probation Journal 3 FW Winkel & A Vrij, ‘Who is in Need of Victim Support?: The Issue of Accountable, Empirically Validated Selection and Victim referral’ [1998] Expert Evidence 6 M Wykes & K Welsh, Violence, Gender and Justice (Sage 2009). Reports Home Office, ‘Safety and Justice: The Government’s Proposal on Domestic Violence’, [2003] Home Office, the Research, Practice and Statistics Directorate, London. Home Office, ‘Together we Can End Violence Against Women and Girls: A Strategy’ [2009] Stationery Office, London. House of Commons, ‘Helping Victims and Witnesses: The Work of Victim Support’ [2003]HC 635 Victim Support, ‘Summing Up: A Strategic Audit of the Criminal Justice System’. Source: http://www.victimsupport.com/About%20us/News/2011/06/~/media/Files/Publications/ResearchReports/Strategic%20Audit-lo%20res-Amended. p.2. Accessed: 6-12-2011. Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence, ‘Domestic Violence Survivors Report that Services Save Lives’ [2009]. Source: www.wscadv.org/docs/Media_PressRelease_ShelterStudy.pdf. Accessed: 2-12-2011. Newspaper Articles ‘Victim Support ‘Should be More Competitive’, The Telegraph, 23 Oct 2002. Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1411049/Victim-support-should-be-more-competitive.html. Accessed: 5-12-2011. Read More