Testimonial Injustice? Police decision-making in sexual offence cases in which the victim/survivor has learning disabilities and/or neurodiversity

• In Event: Gender, Crime and Justice Working Group Panel 5: Sexual violence

Abstract

People with learning disabilities and/or neurodiversity are at increased likelihood of sexual violence yet much less likely to disclose this to police. When they do report, their cases often drop out of the criminal justice system at the investigative stage and they are much less likely to see a charge or a conviction. Our previous work examined how the criminal justice system is experienced by people with learning disabilities and/or neurodiversity who report sexual violence. We found that ‘being believed’ was a key issue for victim/survivors and one which shaped their experiences of reporting and giving evidence. Practitioners considered police concerns about witness credibility a key reason for case attrition.
Building on this previous work, we sought to understand perceptions of credibility and how these impacted police decision-making in cases of sexual violence where the victim/survivor had a learning disability and/or neurodiversity. Working in partnership with a local force, we were granted access to the police records of 36 closed sexual offence cases. This data was thematically analysed to capture the information which officially informed and justified police decision-making.
The findings are presented in this paper. We found that communication difficulties, victim/survivor behaviour or the presence of contradictory testimony affected police perceptions of credibility, and this was a significant factor in cases which did not progress. We argue that standard measures of credibility may not be suitable for victim/survivors with different frames of reference and that communication may be impacted by learning disabilities/neurodiversity. Support is available to mitigate these difficulties and facilitate understanding, although these were poorly utilised in the case data. The result denies access to criminal justice and increases vulnerability to further victimisation rendering the justice system inherently discriminatory.

Authors

• Helen Williams, University of Sunderland

• Alison Jobe, Durham University