Unless you have been a victim of crime it may be hard to comprehend what a victim experiences. Crime not only affects victims but also drags family and friends into its tangled web and ultimately damages society.
Our criminal justice system
To understand the role our justice system plays, we should accept that there is no such thing. It is a legal system and both Scottish and English law take an adversarial approach. This may help to explain why victims often think they have no strong voice within our legal system and are not considered a priority.
Victim of false accusations
The BBC drama and documentary about Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe illustrated what it is to be arrested for something you did not do and to become victim of false accusations. The confusion, horror, and utter helplessness portrayed and narrated in the documentary illustrate powerfully how a victim feels and what they endure.
The agenda
Victims may have allegations laid at their door for many reasons – some simple and some complex. Whether it be for monetary reasons, revenge, victim dislike, or an accuser’s agenda; the outcome is the same, the destruction of innocent lives.
The consequences
Victims of crime, usually have no previous experience of the law from a criminal perspective. By that I mean, unless they have worked in or for a criminal legal service, they have no idea of the rules they, and the police, should conform to.
For example, it is their right to inform the police only of their name, address, date and place of birth and their nationality. It is also their right to see a solicitor and to say nothing without a solicitor present. People often say things in all innocence that may come back to haunt them!
Lack of legal knowledge
Without this knowledge victims often fail to seek immediate legal help thinking mistakes will be rectified as they believe in truth and justice and wait for those to arrive. It can come as a shock when neither front up and the shame of being caught in the criminal system can be hard to deal with. Plus, trying to explain to others the baffling, often preposterous, reason for their arrest, can be mission impossible.
Many victims feel overwhelmed, helpless, often encountering a lack understanding by some who may think “There`s no smoke without fire.”. To add to their disquiet, comments like, “Police do not arrest without justification!” may be voiced. Press coverage and bail conditions can leave a victim despondent with the legal presumption of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ often overwhelmed by speculation.
Weapons of ‘mass destruction’
False accusations have a devastating effect on victims. They touch every aspect of life, destroying personalities and life once known. They have a detrimental effect on mental and physical health, with sleep deprivation adding to the trauma. Police interrogations, a continuous assault on their previously good name, the prospect of loss of employment, freedom and relationships, reinforce the victim’s traumatic situation. Those around them are also drawn into the maelstrom, becoming victims themselves.
False accusations are weapons of mass destruction; destroying everything in their path; wreaking havoc and sucking in all that is good and right.
Alibis
The killer blow is when well planned criminal false accusations, made with malicious intent, come as a bolt out of the blue finding the victim unprepared. Innocent people do not have ready-made alibis contrasting with those planning a crime who take time to cover all angles to back up their story! This makes it almost impossible for the victim to counter the lies.
Arrest and court appearance
Few will have experienced what it is like to be charged, arrested, taken from their comfortable environment and confined to a jail cell. Time in custody followed by a journey to court in a claustrophobic prison van is an experience most would forgo. Being kept in a holding cage with other detainees awaiting a traumatic court appearance in an unwashed, shocked, and disheveled state it on no-one’s to-do list.
A life-changing experience
Victims of false accusations find their lives on hold, totally disrupted; their world becomes a living nightmare. They come to know what it is like to live in fear, afraid of their shadow, and trusting no-one. Most who fall into the hands of the criminal justice system had considered themselves to be self-reliant, reasonably well-adjusted people; able to deal with all that life could throw at them. The lies of accusers create a whirlwind of confusion; a torment that no law-abiding citizen should ever have to deal with. These experiences persist and are devastating, invasive, soul destroying, freedom-taking and downright terrifying. Every aspect of life is touched, and the result is a change in a victim’s view of themselves, the world, and especially the justice system.
The aftermath
Life moves into a different mode as the experience continues to impact on a victim without respite. They start to question their judgement, decision making, and belief in their own worth. It can remove the joy of life and destroy their sense of humour. Long held beliefs and values are questioned; confidence shattered and replaced by despair.
Trauma lies dormant, it does not disappear. Past events are recalled and replayed in unexpected and disturbing flashbacks, often caused by nothing specific, or on seeing a police car, a prisoner transporter, hearing a trigger word or a particular noise. The stress and trauma can unearth long forgotten and buried memories to haunt and taunt. Something more a victim must come to terms with.
Public accusations require public vindication
Often victims who have been publicly accused, seek a public platform to clear their name: to bring everything into the open, to hold those responsible to account, and to invalidate the speculation that ‘there’s no smoke without fire’. And, that the false accusations were made by accusers to satisfy their agenda with the victim a means to their ends.
Victims may battle for years to find justice, restore their reputations and regain their freedom while simultaneously trying to keep relationships and sanity intact. Many on this journey try to put their experience to good use. They embark on a mission to show the world what victims suffer and seek to ensure no-one else has to endure the same. They try to find the good in a bad situation and fight to place justice and victim recognition, centre stage in our legal system.
For victims, justice is the road to recovery.
More on society:
CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT THE BYLINES NETWORK CROWDFUNDER!
