U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Victims and Witnesses in Criminal Investigations (From Handbook of Criminal Investigation, P 450-465, 2007, Tim Newburn, Tom Williamson, and Alan Wright, eds. -- See NCJ-220829)

NCJ Number
220843
Author(s)
Nicholas Fyfe; Kevin Smith
Date Published
2007
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This chapter assesses the impact and implications for criminal investigation of recent significant changes in British policy and practices regarding how witnesses are treated within the criminal justice system.
Abstract
The authors argue that the vital role played by witnesses (both victims and nonvictims) hinges not just on how the police interact with witnesses during an investigation, but also on witnesses' broader experience of the criminal justice process as a whole. It is this wide context of witnesses' experiences that influences whether a person is willing to be a witness on another occasion. The chapter first reviews some key findings of research regarding why people decide to become, or not to become, a witness. This highlights some of the key challenges faced by the criminal justice system in providing appropriate support and protection for witnesses. The chapter shows that these challenges have only recently been addressed, as it traces the history of how witnesses have in the past been "the forgotten soul" of the criminal justice system. The chapter then uses the findings of evaluative research in assessing the impacts and implications of recent initiatives designed to encourage witnesses to come forward and assist police investigations and deliver evidence in court. 23 references