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Walking a tightrope? The implications the police and Independent Sexual Violence Advisor (ISVA) relationship
Fri, September 8, 3:00 to 4:15pm, Palazzo Affari, Floor: second floor, Affari 3Abstract
The importance of the Independent Sexual Violence Advisor/Advocate (ISVA) role in improving victim-survivor experiences of the criminal justice process, and their access to ‘justice’ in sexual offence cases, is consistently documented within international research. The relationship between ISVAs and the criminal justice system, however, is contentious and evolving. It has even been suggested that the VAW movement and the organisations that ISVAs are located within have been co-opted by the state to further a punitive, neo-liberal agenda. This paper examines the evolving relationship between the police and ISVAs through qualitative analysis of police and ISVA focus groups, as well as victim-survivor consultations undertaken as part of Operation Soteria in England and Wales. More specifically, it will consider the implications of the police-ISVA relationship and the tensions within it for ISVAs and their organisations, the policing of sexual offences, and victim-survivor access to justice.
Findings highlight a complex set of tensions that ISVAs and the police navigate when attempting to work in partnership with each other, grounded their differing remits, justice goals, relationships with victims, power and status. They also trouble the simplistic notion that the VAW movement is punitively focused or passively co-opted by state institutions, highlighting ISVAs attention to non-carceral justice goals and the ways in which ISVAs actively challenged and resisted police practices. However, undertaking the ISVA role and working to improve the experiences of survivors can have a detrimental impact on the individuals who do so, and the organisations that they work within. Hence, ISVAs ‘walk a tightrope’ in maintaining their relationship with the police. The paper will conclude by reflecting on what the police-ISVA relationship may look like in future.