{"id":144872,"date":"2023-12-19T02:39:48","date_gmt":"2023-12-19T02:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theprojectsworld.com\/?p=144872"},"modified":"2023-12-19T02:39:48","modified_gmt":"2023-12-19T02:39:48","slug":"victims-rights-are-being-treated-as-a-box-ticking-exercise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theprojectsworld.com\/world-news\/victims-rights-are-being-treated-as-a-box-ticking-exercise\/","title":{"rendered":"Victims&apos; rights are being treated as a &apos;box-ticking exercise&apos;"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1> Victims&#8217; rights are being treated as a &#8216;box-ticking exercise&#8217; by the criminal justice system, watchdogs warn<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Report found police sometimes failed to carry out assessments of victims&#8217; needs<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The criminal justice system is treating victims&#8217; rights as a &#8216;box-ticking exercise&#8217;, watchdogs have warned.<\/p>\n<p>A report, published today, revealed that in some cases, police bickered amongst themselves about taking responsibility for an investigation, leading to delays.<\/p>\n<p>Numerous failings mean police and other agencies are letting down victims of crime, found a joint inspection by three criminal justice inspectorates.<\/p>\n<p>The report described how, in one force, crime reports received by the police control room were sent to a shared email inbox and then allocated to investigators.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;But we were told once the cases were allocated supervisors often then argued about which team should take the case,&#8217; it said.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/19\/01\/79109607-0-image-a-143_1702948702722.jpg\" height=\"446\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>There was also &#8216;poor communication&#8217; between different parts of the criminal justice system<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;This had resulted in delays to some investigations.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>The Victims&#8217; Code was first introduced in 2006 and the latest version sets out rights including a requirement on police and other agencies to keep victims informed about investigations and prosecutions.<\/p>\n<p>The report said: &#8216;We found that instead of trying to meet the needs of victims, the three bodies focused on whether they complied with the 12 rights set out in the Victims&#8217; Code.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;This focus on complying with the letter of the Victims&#8217; Code, rather than the victim&#8217;s individual needs, has resulted in an emphasis on process rather than quality.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;We saw some evidence in cases we reviewed that this victim&#8217;s right had been met.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;But this was often a &#8216;box-ticking&#8217; exercise with no evidence of the quality of the engagement with the victim or whether it met the individual victim&#8217;s needs.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>One victim of a violent crime described how they only learned of a court hearing by reading Facebook rather than being directly notified by police, while another said: &#8216;This lack of support severely impacted me.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>In another case, a victim spent time writing an &#8217;emotional&#8217; statement about the personal impact of a crime, expecting it to be read in court during the offender&#8217;s sentencing &#8211; but was &#8216;furious&#8217; to discover it was never passed to prosecutors by police, and had been left languishing &#8216;on somebody&#8217;s desk&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/19\/01\/79109651-0-image-a-144_1702948781418.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>One victim of a violent crime described how they only learned of a court hearing by reading Facebook rather than being directly notified by police (Stock Image)<\/p>\n<p>Police sometimes failed to carry out assessments of victims&#8217; needs &#8211; such as whether they were vulnerable &#8211; and some that were completed &#8216;lacked important details&#8217;, the report said.<\/p>\n<p>There was also &#8216;poor communication&#8217; between different parts of the criminal justice system, added the review by His Majesty&#8217;s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire &amp; Rescue Services, His Majesty&#8217;s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate and His Majesty&#8217;s Inspectorate of Probation.<\/p>\n<p>The Victims and Prisoners Bill, currently going through Parliament, will toughen the code by making it part of primary legislation for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>But the report warned that the measures would only help alongside &#8216;practical changes&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Care will need to be taken to implement the measures in the Bill in a way that does not reinforce the current emphasis on process without sufficient regard to quality,&#8217; it said.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/19\/01\/79109673-0-image-a-145_1702948857696.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Police sometimes failed to carry out assessments of victims&#8217; needs &#8211; such as whether they were vulnerable &#8211; and some that were completed &#8216;lacked important details&#8217; (Stock Image)<\/p>\n<p>Inspector of Constabulary Wendy Williams said: &#8216;The findings in this report are depressingly familiar &#8211; once again victims are too often not getting the service they are entitled to.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It is vital the whole of the criminal justice system works together to improve the service it offers to victims.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;If the recommendations in our report are implemented I am confident they will help to make sure that quality support for victims of crime is placed at the heart of the criminal justice system, where it belongs.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>The report, published today, made six recommendations including a series of new &#8216;minimum standards&#8217; which should be observed by police and other agencies.<\/p>\n<p>Katie Kempen, chief executive of charity Victim Support, said: &#8216;This report lays bare the reality that too many victims are being failed by the criminal justice system.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/19\/01\/79109729-0-image-a-146_1702949014492.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>A victim who spent time writing an &#8217;emotional&#8217; statement about the personal impact of a crime, was &#8216;furious&#8217; to discover it was never passed to prosecutors by police (Stock Image)<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Time and again victims aren&#8217;t being referred to vital support services, given the chance to make a Victim Personal Statement, or updated about their case. This isn&#8217;t good enough.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Criminal justice agencies &#8211; including the police &#8211; must be held to account for the service they deliver to victims.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;We urge the government to use the Victim and Prisoners Bill to strengthen victims&#8217; rights and make sure that they are monitored and enforced.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Victims&#8217; Commissioner for England and Wales, Baroness Newlove, said: &#8216;Complying with the Victims&#8217; Code must go beyond simple box-ticking.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Police, prosecutors and probation are prioritising process over helping victims. It re-enforces my own view that all too often our criminal justice system hits the target but misses the point.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-12879415\/Victims-rights-box-ticking-exercise-watchdog.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Victims&#8217; rights are being treated as a &#8216;box-ticking exercise&#8217; by the criminal justice system, watchdogs warn Report found police sometimes&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144871,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Victims&amp;apos; rights are being treated as a &amp;apos;box-ticking exercise&amp;apos; - The Projects World<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theprojectsworld.com\/world-news\/victims-rights-are-being-treated-as-a-box-ticking-exercise\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Victims&amp;apos; 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