ABSTRACT
For many people, appearing in court is, or would be, a frightening prospect. Many people have never spoken in public, let alone been challenged in public. For victims of crime, the pain of victimisation will often be accentuated by both this prospect and the experience of giving evidence. A survey of witnesses in 2000 found that almost a fifth felt intimidated by the process, and in a further survey in 2002 33 per cent said they did not want to testify again (Whitehead 2001; Angle et al. 2003). Appearing in court can, in other words, amount to secondary victimisation. On the other hand, many victims want to tell their story and see ‘their’ offenders publicly brought to justice. If this does not happen then there may, again, be secondary victimisation. The problems that arise can be categorised as follows:
• How to give victims a voice or influence in the handling of their cases • How to enable victims to give a full and accurate account of their
evidence • How to make court buildings and courtrooms non-threatening, while still
enabling the accounts of victims to be challenged fairly.
