Recent Book: The Police and the Law
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X8605900416 |
| Published date | 01 October 1986 |
| Date | 01 October 1986 |
| Subject Matter | Recent Book |
JOANNA
SHAPLAND,
JOB
WILLMORE
and PETER DUFF:
Victims in the Criminal Justice System.
Aldershot. Gower Publishing Company Limited.
Before police forces were set up in England during the first half of the nineteenth
century, the victim of a violent crime - a physical assault, sexual assault or
robbery - was usually responsible for the prosecution of the offender. It was an
unsatisfactory method of law enforcement but it did at least provide the victim with
a very clear and important role in the criminal justice system. Now that the police
have taken over the task of initiating aprosecution which is then fed into a legal
bureaucracy, the victim has been to some extent pushed into the background by the
professionals - police and lawyers.
This can, and often does, result in the needs and feelings of the victim of violent
crime being ignored in the interests of expediency and, as the authors of this timely
and helpful book make clear, the victim is often truly the forgotten man.
The authors have based their conclusions on research carried out in two
Midlands towns between 1979 and 1982. Through the eyes of 276 victims of violent
crime, they looked in turn at each of the components in the criminal justice system,
starting with the police, then the courts and finally the Criminal Injuries
Compensation Board.
For the police, perhaps the most significant point to emerge from this research
was the extent to which victims resent not being told what has happened. Victims
do want to know if their assailant has been caught and what has happened to him
- whether the victim is required as a witness in court or not. Not surprisingly,
given the way in which Crown Courts deal with witnesses, attendance at such
courts was found to cause a considerable amount of inconvenience and stress to
victims. Magistrates seem to have fared rather better unless they gave the offender
too lenient a sentence.
What must undoubtedly concern the police is that the research showed the extent
to which contact with the police damages the image of the police in the eyes of
victims. To an emotionally disturbed victim of crime, the police too often appeared
impersonal, intimidating or oppressive so that although in many cases, police
officers were seen to be efficient, helpful and pleasant, the adverse effects
outweighed the positive ones. There are lessons to be learned from this "victim's
eye-view" of the Service which includes an unusual but very welcome feature in
that it contains some practical suggestions as to what could be done to improve
matters. To a large extent, as far as the police are concerned they seem to add up to
remembering that the victims of violent crime are human beings who have been
wronged and feel hurt, aggrieved and isolated.
This isa book which should be in every police library.
It
is thought-provoking,
well written and, whilst many of the issues it raises are outside the scope of the
police, there is enough here to suggest ways inwhich the police can make the world
seem a more civilised place for the victim of violent crime. M.E.D.
CHARLES
WEGG-PROSSER: The Police and the Law
London: Longman Professional. £6.95.
This is the third edition of a book in the "It's Your Law Series" written by a
solicitor whose practice has brought him into contact with the police over a
number of years.
It is, in effect, a commentary on the British Police, embracing the laws which
they are in office to enforce, the rules by which they are controlled and the climate
in which they operate. Its purpose is to provide people with information about the
Police Service, an objective in which the author undoubtedly succeeds, whether his
readers are members of the public, lawyers or police officers. All should find the
contents to be of interest and of use.
Since the last edition in 1979, serious disorders have occurred in various parts of
the country, ranging from riots in inner city areas to violence on the picket line
366 October /986
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