Inside Crown Court by Jacobson Jessica Hunter Gillian

Author:Jacobson, Jessica, Hunter, Gillian [Jacobson, Jessica, Hunter, Gillian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Criminology, Penology
ISBN: 9781447321187
Google: RCOPDAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Policy Press
Published: 2016-06-01T05:30:28+00:00

Getting to court

The investigation of a reported offence is usually a complicated process in itself. Once a defendant is charged, the complexities of bringing the case to court – especially where the defendant has pleaded not guilty and a trial is to be scheduled – can hardly be overstated, given the legal and administrative procedures that must be followed, the evidence of varying kinds that must be collated, prepared and disclosed, and the array of different characters who must be brought together for proceedings to commence.

We ourselves, as observers at court, were drawn into the atmosphere of uncertainty and waiting that pervades the Crown Court setting. We would often sit in dimly lit corridors or the sparse court café – sometimes alongside bored-looking defendants and their supporters, or distracted counsel leafing through papers – waiting to find out whether or not cases were going ahead as scheduled, during lengthy adjournments, or while juries were deliberating. We observed the contrasting scenes of anxiety and fear, tedium and reassurance among victims, witnesses and Witness Service staff and volunteers during our fleeting visits to the Witness Service offices in the court buildings. We were asked to exit courtrooms along with other observers in the public gallery while ‘special measures’ provisions were put in place for vulnerable or intimidated witnesses or as the court rose at the end of each session, and we often walked past court users waiting, smoking or chatting outside the court building at the beginning and end of each day.

Given the intricacies of executing proceedings in the Crown Court, they are bound to have their glitches; but the main reason we bring attention to them here is because of the significant human costs they bring to bear on the court users involved, whose anxiety, uncertainty or frustrations relating to attending court can be exacerbated by delays to, and confusion within, the proceedings.

Routine court data for England and Wales collated by the Ministry of Justice2 shows that between April and June 2013 it took an average of 42 weeks (based on 22,961 cases which concluded in the Crown Court) from the time of the offence to case outcome; this included an average of two weeks between the charge and the first hearing in court, and a further 22 weeks between the first hearing and the outcome of the case. Among the cases in which our victim and witness respondents were involved, the period of time from when they first reported the offence to sentencing ranged from three months to nearly two years.

The scheduling or listing of trials in the Crown Court is a judicial responsibility and function; it is the resident judge at each Crown Court who is responsible for deciding listing practice at that court.3 Listing of trials must take a number of factors into consideration, including the needs of victims and witnesses and their ages, the time required by prosecution and defence to prepare for trial, and more practical considerations such as the number of courtrooms in the court and the facilities available in each.

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