Victims' access to justice through English criminal courts, 1675 to the present

This interdisciplinary project examines public access to justice in England over three centuries - from the 1670s to the present. Bringing together leading criminologists and crime historians, it will assemble and analyse data on over 200,000 victims involved in trials over this period in order to enhance the rights of, and resources and services available to, victims today and in the future. It will construct a new evidence base to establish who these victims were, what relationship they had with offenders, how they came to be complainants, prosecutors or witnesses, how they made use of available legal and financial resources.

Since the 1980s, victims have been placed firmly on the criminological and public policy map. However, we know surprisingly little about past victims of crime. We do not know which victims were most likely to pursue which cases, or how prosecution outcomes (in terms of acquittal or conviction) map onto victims' profiles. We might imagine that servants lost out to their masters, women to men, workers to employers, poor neighbour to rich neighbour, migrant to long-term resident. But did they? What kinds of cases were brought to trial - by victims, by the police and by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS)? How did those involved in cases not brought to trial secure access to justice? Which groups had the most effective access to justice in what circumstances and how has that changed over time?

In the past, victims drove the criminal justice system in England. For much of the 18th and 19th centuries, they brought prosecutions as complainants, acted as their own prosecution lawyers, gave evidence as witnesses and put up personal rewards for the recovery of lost goods. Their active role declined dramatically in the later nineteenth century with their physical removal from court processes except as witnesses to be cross-examined and the rise of professionalised statutory policing and the creation of the CPS. From the 1980s on, efforts have been made on many fronts to re-centre victims within the justice system and to enhance their experience of, access to, justice.

Securing fair and effective access to justice is a priority for many states around the world. It concerns citizens' ability to seek formal acknowledgement and redress, within a given legal system, of wrongs, harms and offences committed against them. In states facing major political or economic transitions, strengthening access to justice is as a vital means of strengthening governance, resolving conflict and reducing inequalities. In England and Wales, this agenda has been driven, since the early 1990s, by efforts to promote human rights, to reduce social harms and to improve the delivery and quality of judicial services. Given recent political dialogue and debate, now is a critical moment to re-evaluate these long-term trends.

The team will draw out patterns and insights from the experiences of victims whose cases were heard in one of the nation's most important courts: the Old Bailey (London's Central Criminal Court). The results of this project will be used by national agencies working with victims, including the Victims' Commissioner, Victim Support, the National Policing Lead for Victims and Witnesses, and Witness Service leads within Citizens Advice. The research team's links with History and Policy, an organisation specialising in bringing historical evidence to bear in policy debates, will be very valuable here.

The project will make a significant contribution to wider work undertaken over the past two decades to improve access to justice and, thereby, to recommend strategies for reducing or closing 'justice gaps' where these exist. We have strong connections with criminal justice practitioners, policy makers and community groups and, in addition to our academic publications and training materials, will present our unique findings in lively and accessible formats to maximise potential impact and public engagement.

Our research findings will benefit individuals from a range of sectors, including those providing services and advice to victims, policy-makers, think-tanks, rights groups, the media and the general public.

* Victims' services: We have secured letters of support - and access to data - from key national stakeholders for this project. The Office of the Victim Commissioner champions the rights of victims across the policy spectrum. The National Policing Lead for Victims and Witnesses, similarly, champions their rights across police forces. Victim Support is the UK's leading agency working to minimise victimisation and its many harms. Citizens Advice recently assumed responsibility for the Ministry of Justice-funded Witness Service and works to ensure that witnesses are more effectively supported in criminal trials and other legal arena. We have engaged these stakeholders in the design of the proposal, and will continue to work with them as members of our Advisory Board throughout the project. Our datasets and findings will be used to enhance victims' future access to justice and to improve the services offered by key stakeholders.

* Policy makers will learn about the factors that have shaped past and present patterns within public access to justice in England. They will benefit from the project's broad overview of the impacts of the introduction - and withdrawal - of specific rights, entitlements and services that have shaped victims' experiences of criminal trials over time. These include the introduction of public prosecution mechanisms (1870s); legal aid (1940s); criminal injuries compensation (1960s); victim support groups (1970s); victim surveys (1980s); victim personal impact statements (2010s) and victim's code (2015). The research team's links with History and Policy, an organisation specialising in bringing historical evidence to bear in policy debates, will be very valuable here. We will engage with our contacts at the Ministry of Justice and HM Courts and Tribunal Service as well as with our key stakeholders to facilitate these discussions.

* Think-tanks and rights groups, such as Liberty, Howard League, Human Rights Lawyers Association and Demos, all have a strong interest in promoting greater public access to justice and could all benefit from the rigorous evidence generated by the study. The research will be publicized to these groups through invitations to events and through wider media coverage.

* The general public: many people have been or will be (in)direct victims of some form of crime over their life time. As a consequence, there is a high level of public interest in experiences of victimisation but very little public awareness of the longer and more complicated history of victimhood. Similarly, many people may experience the criminal justice system as consumers of a 'public service' but have less awareness of their right to access justice as citizens and the factors that have shaped that right over time. They will benefit from our proposed short film and white board animation outputs summarising the ebb and flow of public access to justice to be shared via the project website and YouTube. Further, many members of the public already use the Old Bailey Online - a free searchable site that generates thousands of hits each year. The site will be enhanced as a result of the project through improved site guides to searching for victims - as opposed to perpetrators - of crimes.

* The media: project findings (initial, mid-term and final) will be further publicized across a range of print, social and specialist media. We will issue regular media briefings and work with the media consultants employed by the British Sociological Association, British Society for Criminology and Social History Society to promote our work. We will also pitch proposals to our contacts in independent TV production companies specialising in historical/factual programming.