Victim care or defendant rights? Assessing public attitudes towards special measures designed to support vulnerable witnesses at trial
The introduction of ‘special measures’ within England and Wales (i.e., provisions for vulnerable and intimidated witnesses at court) marked a significant change in legal tradition and trial procedures such that victim and witness care was repositioned as a primary concern alongside the longstanding rights afforded to defendants. As public perceptions towards the legitimacy of criminal justice procedure remain a key concern among legal scholars and social scientists, this study aimed to examine individual differences in attitudes held towards the rights afforded to complainants and defendants within English courts. Adopting a cross-sectional study design, 114 UK adults were recruited to take part in an online survey. Questions centered around the importance of providing adequate witness care whilst protecting defendants’ rights to a fair trial. A new measurement tool was developed to allow these attitudes to be systematically assessed and understood, termed the Attitudes Towards Vulnerable Victims Scale (ATVVS). Results indicate that respondent age, gender, level of education, and belief in a just world are important determinants of public support for the use of special measures at trial as well as perceptions towards complainant and defendants’ rights. Taken together, findings indicate that misconceptions about vulnerable victims appear to underlie a lack of support for the use of special measures.
History
School
- Social Sciences and Humanities
Department
- Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy
Published in
Social SciencesVolume
13Issue
4Publisher
MDPIVersion
- VoR (Version of Record)
Rights holder
© the authorsPublisher statement
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Acceptance date
2024-03-16Publication date
2024-04-02Copyright date
2024ISSN
2076-0760eISSN
2076-0760Publisher version
Language
- en