The Crime
Survey for England and Wales confirms that two thirds of people have confidence in
the fairness of the criminal justice system. Just under half have confidence in its
effectiveness. The Ministry of Justice recently noted, with modest
satisfaction, that these figures had very marginally increased. However, these
metrics also mean that millions of people still don’t have confidence in something
so central to a healthy state.
The Crown Prosecution Servicerecently published
its own survey, finding that half of all victims and more than a third of
witnesses feel unsupported while giving evidence. This should be a grave cause
for wider concern too.
This digest of a remarkable and insightful major piece of
work by the Institute for Criminal Policy Research, funded by the Economic and Social
Research Council and newly published by Policy Press as Inside Crown Court, illuminates
brilliantly the actual impact Crown Court hearings have on victims,witnesses and
defendants. While it acknowledges that many trials and other hearings are concluded
satisfactorily, it also highlights the human distress and frustration caused by
a courts system that too often appears to operate with all the efficiency of
the nineteenth century in the first half of the twenty-first.
The Crown Court
is, of course, just one part of our judicial ecology. However, as a crucible
for the resolution of much of the worst criminal activity it has a particularly
high profile in our public consciousness. That’s why it matters so much.
The
Criminal Justice Alliance – which works in partnership with our 90 member organisations
promoting better outcomes across the criminal justice pathway – has added
to these research findings its own recommendations for a range of agencies from
the Ministry of Justice to the Courts and Tribunals Service. If each rose
to the challenges this report offers, not only would the experience of
thousands of court users improve but public confidence in our whole criminal justice
system might well be materially enhanced.
Over to the read to look at the report and decide. As ever, constructive comments are welcome.
— Francis FitzGibbon (@ffgqc) November 4, 2015
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