POLICE AND VICTIMS OF CRIME

JSB284 – Policing in context

 Case study
The “Amanda Knox” case (Italy, 2007-present):
• Charged/convicted of 2007 murder of Meredith
Kercher in Perugia
• Case was subject of intense media scrutiny
• Eventually found not guilty in 2011 (& released
from gaol); fully exonerated by Italian legal
system in 2015
• Knox is now a published author, activist, and
journalist, and continues to make regular media
appearances to talk about her experience
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqB5zTl4NDw
 • In 1985, the United Nations made the Declaration
of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime
– “Victims” means persons who, individually or
collectively, have suffered harm, including
physical or mental injury, emotional

UN suffering, economic loss or substantial

impairment of their fundamental rights,

Declaration through acts or omissions that are in

violation of criminal laws operative within
Member States, including those laws
proscribing criminal abuse of power.
– A person is a victim regardless of whether
the perpetrator is identified, apprehended,
prosecuted or convicted.
• The key principles outlined by
the Declaration are to facilitate
the victim attaining:
– access to justice and fair
treatment;
– restitution (from the
offender); UN
– compensation (from the
state if it is not otherwise Declaration
available from the
offender); and,
– practical, medical and
other assistance.
 • In all Australian jurisdictions, there is
legislation which articulates the way that
victims should be treated by and within the
criminal justice system as well as financial
assistance
• Some jurisdictions have a specific position
dedicated to this:

Victim – SA Commissioner for Victim Rights

(2001)
– ACT Victims of Crime Commissioner
Rights (2011)
– NSW Commissioner of Victim Rights
(2013)
– WA Commissioner for Victims of Crime
(2013)
– VIC Victims of Crime Commissioner
(2015)
 Fundamental Principles of
Justice (QLD)
Fair and dignified treatment
The victim must be treated fairly and shown dignity, respect,
compassion and courtesy. The government entity must take
in to account and be responsive to the particular needs of the
victim relating to the victim’s age, sex, race, cultural identity,
impairment, sexuality or religion.

Privacy of victim
A victim’s personal information, including their address and
phone number, must not be disclosed to any unauthorised
persons.

Information about services

The victim must be given timely information on relevant
services available to them, including welfare, health,
counselling, legal help and financial assistance.
 Fundamental Principles of
Justice (QLD)
Information about investigation of offender
If the victim asks, they should be given information
about the investigation of the offender where possible.
Information given to a victim may include the progress of
the investigation or the name of the person charged.

Information about prosecution of the offender

If asked by the victim the prosecuting agency is to give
the victim details about the crime committed against
them including when the victim may attend a court
proceeding, notice of a decision to change a charge, or
notice of the outcome of a court proceeding.

Victim to be advised on their role as a witness

A victim who is to be a witness for the prosecution in the
trial for the crime committed against them, is to be
informed by the prosecuting agency about the trial
process and their role as a witness.
 Fundamental Principles of
Justice (QLD)
Minimal exposure to and contact with the offender
As much as possible, relevant agencies present at court
are to ensure the victim has minimal contact with or
exposure to the offender during court proceedings or in
the court building.

Victim Impact Statements

During sentencing of the offender the victim has the
right to give details of the impact and harm caused to
the victim by the offence to the prosecutor as an impact
statement. Find out more information about
completing a victim impact statement.

Information about the convicted offender

If an offender is convicted and imprisoned and the victim
asks for information about the convicted offender they
should be given notice of it. This includes information on
the sentence, an escape from custody or day of release.
 Police and Victims

Police can be seen as gatekeepers to the

criminal justice system

First point of contact for victims in making

a complaint or reporting a crime

The interaction between victims and police

is significant in terms of the satisfaction of
the victim with the criminal justice process

Previous experience will influence future

interactions
 Case study: Child sexual abuse
“Abuse victims speak out in the expectation that society will
bear witness to their experiences. But the history of sexual
assault in Australia is for the most part one of a refusal to
acknowledge. This nation is blighted by a confederacy of silence
that prevailed throughout most of the twentieth century and still
persists in sections of the community. Thus the standard reaction
to historical sexual abuse allegations has long been discomfort
manifested in a series of retaliatory accusations: ‘Why now?’
‘Why have you waited so long?’ ‘Why didn’t you say something
back then?’ The attitude is frequently one of scepticism, as if the
passing of time has somehow shifted culpability from accused to
accuser. Any significant delay between the acts and the reporting
of them is often held to be inherently suspicious” (Biron, D.
(2019). “Ordinary people: On historical sexual abuse”, Meanjin,
78/1.
 • Procedural justice has four main
elements:
– Neutrality
– Respect
– Trustworthiness
Procedural •
– Voice
Murphy and Barkworth (2014)
justice investigated whether procedural
justice was more important to victims
than the outcome of their report.
 • Murphy and Barkworth (2014)
found that “victims of crime
appeared to be less concerned
about whether the outcome of
their recent encounter with
police was favorable. Instead
they appeared to be more
Procedural concerned with police use of
procedural justice and/or police
Justice effectiveness when deciding
whether to report the crime” (p.
195)
• Explored across different crime
types (burglary, vandalism,
domestic violence, motor vehicle
theft and physical assault)
 • In modern policing, victims can be
seen as
– An individual in need
• Requiring assistance
(medical, legal, emotional)
– As a source of evidence
Relationship • Police must be careful to
protect, preserve and
between document what they can to
police and establish their case
– As an agent of justice
victims • They have rights which
must be addressed by
police
• Victims play an important role in the
investigation, building of a case, and
many pre-trial decisions
• Police prosecute alleged offenders
on behalf of victims
 Secondary
victimisation
• Can occur as the result of
institutional and systematic abuse
of victims seeking to complain
about a criminal act
• May be perpetrated by individual
personnel (such as police) as well
as institutional structures (modes
of prosecution, plea bargaining)
• Revictimisation occurs when the
victim is excluded from the process
or their version of events is unduly
dismissed, challenged as unreliable
or defames them
 Case study
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VPb9TFUCy0
 Restorative
justice
• Restorative justice and alternative
dispute resolution methods may
provide better ways of engaging
with victims than the adversarial
process
• It can lessen the trauma
experienced as well as increasing
recovery and overall satisfaction
with the criminal justice process
• It brings together victims,
offenders, police and other
support persons to discuss the
incident
Theories of victimisation

• Victimology emerged in 1940s

• Substantial amount of research has focused on the role of the
individual victim and their part in causing or contributing to
their victimisation
• Different categories of victimisation, all which focus on the
culpability of individuals in relation to their circumstances
• Victim precipitation: examines the role of the victim in what
happens to them through their actions and behaviours
– Can lead to victim blaming
Discussion question: “Victimless crimes”
Consider the following as examples of so-
called “victimless crimes” … do you agree
with that categorisation?
• Driving without a seat belt
• Prostitution
• Recreational drug use
• Unlawful gaming
• Assisted suicide
• Mendelsohn proposed one of the
earliest victim typologies:
– those who are completely
innocent,
– those with minor guilt and
responsibility from their own
ignorance,
– those who are as guilty as the
offender and share equal
responsibility,
– those who are slightly guiltier
than the offender (in terms of
Victim
provocation),
– those who are exclusively
responsible for their
typologies
victimisation,
– imaginary victims, who suffer
no actual harm but falsely
accuse another party
• Many victim classifications
are based on the notion of
innocence versus blame
– Attributes a level of
responsibility to the

Victim
victim
– Implies that they should
have been able to
avoid/prevent their
victimisation typologies
• Established in studies of
homicide (von Hentig, 1948)
and rape (Amir, 1971)
• These explanations continue
to exist today
 Who is the Ideal
Victim?
• Christie (1986: 18) put forward the concept
of an ideal victim:
– ‘a person or a category of individual
who – when hit by crime – most readily
[is] given the complete and legitimate
status of being a victim’.
• The ideal victim has the following elements:
– He or she is weak
– Carrying out a respectable project
when the crime occurs
– Can by no means be blamed for being
where he or she was when the crime
happened
• In addition, the offender should be big and
bad and have no personal relationship to
the victim
• His example is of a little old lady being
mugged on the way home during the day
after caring for her sick sister.
 Case study: R v Robyn Bella Kina (1988)
• On 5 September 1988, after a trial which lasted less than a day,
Kina was convicted in the Supreme Court of Queensland of
murdering one Anthony David Black, and was sentenced to
imprisonment with hard labour for life
• The trial judge ruled that there was insufficient evidence to justify
leaving provocation for the consideration of the jury
• In the court of appeal (1993) evidence was presented to show that
for several years Black violently abused Kina, physically and
sexually; he would often tie her to the bed in her room and
forcibly rape her; in the lead up to Kina stabling Black he punched
her in the face and raped her
• The appeal court found that there had been “a miscarriage of
justice arising from the fact that in the material now before the
Court there is evidence which if presented at the trial would have
raised a significant possibility that a verdict of guilty of murder
would not have been returned
 • Different groups of
victims face various
challenges and
barriers to reporting
Challenges crime victimisation
to – Issues of
vulnerability
reporting – Type of crime
experienced
– Relationship to the
alleged offender