Charting Access to Justice for Victims of Murder and Manslaughter in England and Wales, 1997-2022.

• In Event: Exploring the Long-term Relationships Between Homicide, Politics, and the Environment.

Abstract

This contribution presents the results of a longitudinal analysis of case outcomes by various homicide subtypes in England and Wales. It will estimate variations pertaining to i) suspect identification ii) conviction and ii) types of sentencing outcome over 25 years, drawing on data from the Home Office’s Homicide Index (HI) from 1997-2022. We will chart the temporal relationships between criminal justice policy configurations, and access-to-justice for various homicide sub-types based on key characteristics of the offence, circumstances of the event and the relationships between the offender and victim. Pooling data over time as we intend to do here will allow us the requisite number of cases to deliver a rich quantitative analysis for an otherwise low-violence jurisdiction. Notably, homicide in England and Wales has not replicated the recent shifts in lethal violence observed elsewhere in the industrialised world and cannot be explained (as yet) by the same theoretical or empirical frameworks. We will provide significant and unique research evidence on which victims of murder and manslaughter have experienced reduced access-to-justice over time; and consider to what extent these trends can be explained by shifts in criminal justice policies and practice.

Authors

• Emily Gray, University of Warwick

• Stephen Daniel Farrall, University of Nottingham

• Andromachi Tseloni, Nottingham Trent University, UK