A joint Criminal Justice Inspection (CJJI) undertaken by His Majesty’s Inspectorates of Constabulary, Crown Prosecution and Probation has this week released a report on victims of crime, not specifically related to mental health but I was obviously keen to see what it said about this. Some years back, various universities were commissioned to look at victims’ experience of the whole criminal justice system – ie, not just the police part – and it was fairly damning. The 2014 report commissioned by Mind was called “At Risk, Yet Dismissed” and it’s still well worth reading. Amongst other findings, it pointed out those of us living whilst affected by our mental health were three times more likely to be victims of crime than those who are unaffected and women affected by their mental health were ten times more likely to be victims of violent crime, than women who were unaffected.
TEN TIMES! … and those women are far less likely to secure justice because of their mental health problems.
The Mind report outlined how victims were more likely to find their report to the police was concluded without further action than similar victims unaffected by their health, and the higher attrition rate continued at the CPS and at the Court stage, as victims fell away. Oddly enough, there was a significant finding that confidence in the criminal justice system and its component parts was lower.
I do recommend you read the report in the context of this latest publication from HMIC.
SO WHAT DOES IT SAY?
Well, the new report is very light, to say the least, on actual decision-making around criminal investigations and whether or how they progress further in to the CJ system. It doesn’t really touch on the factors which may or may not be contributing to the kinds of outcomes and attrition highlighted by Mind almost a decade ago. Given everything policing has been through in the last ten years, it would really surprise me to find the attrition rate has improved – I fear the opposite.
The report is more about whether investigating officers comply with the Victim’s Code and the associated requirements which flow from it and how victims are supported thereafter. All victims of crime are supposed to receive a Victim Needs Assessment and in their regular inspections of police forces, HMIC found they often don’t occur, where they do they are often lacking in detail and that victims often aren’t updated about the progress of investigations.
Well, the word ‘mental’ only appears in this report three times, and only twice in respect of policing. Both instances relate to police Victim Care units – these are departments which support victims after the crime and / or through the longer criminal justice process. One reference to mental health was about the forces’ very limited ability to offer additional support to victims with mental health problems and that where they could try to do so, there were very long waiting lists; another mentioned witness care staff having some additional training on mental health and suicide awareness.
MENTAL HEALTH IN VICTIMS
The report focussed upon five police forces – Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Dyfed-Powys, Dorset and West Yorkshire and it was mainly on the victim care side of things so and whilst it may be representative to some degree, there is obviously plenty of stuff going on in the other thirty-eight forces.
We know there is much more to victims and mental health than is covered in this report or, for that matter, the Mind report. In domestic homicide reviews we often learn victims have mental helath problems or that the offenders who killed them had such problems. Some years ago, I recall a sergeant ringing me up to tell me what he’d found in an analysis he’d done of many DHRs – he found victims had established MH problems (ie, known to secondary care, specialist MH services) in more than half of those cases and offenders were known to have problems in almost half. There was usually a history of disengagement by the offenders and various other complexities.
I would argue we need to know much more and do much more about attrition rates. There was a stated case some years back which gives us an insight in to the problems victims have in securing justice after being victims of crime. In the 2009 case R(B) v CPS the victim had suffered 18 GBH injuries when his ear was partly bitten off. As the trial was about to begin, prosecution counsel dropped the case on the basis of a psychiatric report, arguing that that the victim would be an unreliable witness. There was little objective reason to suppose unreliability, the main emphasis being the victim’s diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. In bring a judicial review, the victim successfully argued that his rights were violated under disability discrimination law and under Article 3 of the European Convention. You can read the full court judgment if you need more detail.
The CJJI report outlines most victims are being let down and I suspect victims with mental health problems are doubly disadvantaged and the report does nothing to suggest otherwise … and there it is — so much more to do and understand about all this.
Winner of the President’s Medal,
the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Winner of the Mind Digital Media Award
All opinions expressed are my own – they do not represent the views of any organisation.
(c) Michael Brown, 2023
I try to keep this blog up to date, but inevitably over time, amendments to the law as well as court rulings and other findings from inquests and complaints processes mean it is difficult to ensure all the articles and pages remain current. Please ensure you check all legal issues in particular and take appropriate professional advice where necessary.
Government legislation website – www.legislation.gov.uk
Mental Health Cop 