Article published in Criminology and Criminal Justice Journal

Dr Emma Williams from the Centre has had an article published with Dr Sarah Charman from Portsmouth University in the journal Criminology and Criminal Justice. 

There has been much in the news recently about the distribution of justice - particularly in relation to rape cases. The most recent figures show that whilst there were 52,210 rapes recorded by police in England and Wales in 2020, only 843 resulted in a charge or a summons – a rate of 1.6%. Whilst the problem of attrition in rape cases has been a long-standing problem for the police and other criminal justice agencies, these issues are rising to the fore again at a time when fairness, procedural and distributive justice are central issues for the police. Much research within this area has highlighted the complexity of the issues involved in rape cases over time, however, there has limited change in attrition figures. The evidence indicates that it remains the most vulnerable who are likely to have their cases dropped, withdraw their allegations from the authorities and/or under report offences to the police. 

This article was published online this week by Dr Emma Williams and Dr Sarah Charman from Portsmouth University in the journal Criminology and Criminal Justice. The paper explores the accessibility to justice through the lens of distributive justice. The paper examines police processes and the outcomes of police encounters using the analysis of data from three policing projects over a 16-year period. The findings indicate a remarkably consistent story of barriers to justice over this long period of time and highlights how police discretion can be driven by organisational pressures. Furthermore, this can influence a model of outcome focused ‘justice’.  You can read the full article here.