How Technology is Changing Victim Support

Supporting victims of crime is vital, especially in the aftermath of traumatising events. Research by Victim Support in the UK found that 61% of crime victims experienced psychological or personal impacts as a result of the crime.

The research goes onto say that following a crime, victims experience: anxiety (22%), loss of confidence (21%), safety concerns (21%), insomnia (19%), crying (16%), reduced social life (14%), fear or anger (13%) and financial hardship (11%).

With these statistics in mind, it’s understandable that seeking justice for the victims should be a priority for law enforcement and justice. However, initial response and the investigation that ensues have progressively become slower, leading to victims feeling isolated, retraumatised and, in worst case scenarios, dropping the case entirely from loss of faith in the justice system.

Technology, when used correctly, has the capability to empower law enforcement, justice and supporting victims. Leading to faster case resolutions, technology can be used to keep the victim at the heart of the investigation to ensure they are kept safe and communicated with effectively.

In this article we look at some of the ways technology can provide better support for victims in comparison to traditional methods.

Giving Victims More Control Over the Process

Post-incident, at least from the perspective of the victim, it can feel like they are losing control of their lives as more and more people get involved. They’ll likely need to give up more of their time to provide statements or attend court trials, taking them away from their family, friends and work.

Ideally taken as soon as possible after the incident, the victim statement is crucial in understanding how the incident occurred. This might traditionally involve the victim travelling to a police station, or police taking the statement where the victim is located.

Instead of this method of gathering victim statements, remote interviewing allows the victims to regain some autonomy. Victims can choose where it takes place, whether it’s at their home or at a trusted person’s house, they can decide where to provide the statement in a safe environment for them. They can choose a time that suits them, so it’s not interfering with their schedule of work, or taking time out of their day to travel to a police station. Finally, the victim can choose how they provide their statement. By offering the victim the choice to provide their account from the comfort of their own space, they will feel less anxious (which was the major problem post-incident for victims).

Reducing the Trauma of Repeating Their Story

Capturing statements is a top priority following an incident to get the ball rolling on an investigation if it’s required. Whilst this is happening, it may be necessary for multiple departments/agencies to interview a victim, often asking the same questions, therefore receiving the same answers. This is highly inefficient, but worse than that, this can be retraumatising for the victim, who is asked to replay and recount their experience.

Using modern technology, secure and trusted digital evidence systems can record and track the victim’s account, video interviews and digital statements. This can then be securely shared across departments or agencies without the victim having to repeat themselves.

Ensuring Their Evidence Is Heard and Used Properly

“Innocent until proven guilty” is a fundamental principle of law that places the burden of proof on the prosecution to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant/offender is guilty.

Whilst this is an incredibly important principle of legal systems, this leaves prosecution to collect, analyse and present evidence to prove the suspect guilty. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, budget cuts and negligence, poor handling of the evidence can lead to trial delays or even cases completely collapsing.

This may have nothing to do with the victim, but lies with the prosecution for failing to manage the evidence appropriately.

So instead of having evidence spread across multiple departments or agencies, across devices and flash drives, digital tools can hold all evidence in one place. Evidence management systems can store victim statements, video interviews, translated material, and photos of the scene of the crime. By having these accessible to investigators, this reduces the risk of technicalities in court that let suspects or offenders walk free.

Supporting Vulnerable Victims More Effectively

Vulnerable victims that have experienced highly traumatic incidents or those with disabilities may struggle to conduct interviews in the traditional process. This could include victims that don’t feel comfortable travelling or sitting in a confined room with people as they’ve been a victim of abuse. Those with physical disabilities may also struggle travelling to conduct their interviews and may rely on family or friends to transport them to police stations.

By enabling remote video interviews, and giving the vulnerable victims a choice, this can greatly support those that may not feel comfortable travelling to provide victim statements. Fortunately, there are interview platforms that offer voice-to-text transcription, real-time translation and live captions to improve accessibility and to make the whole interview process much more efficient, whilst saving on transportation costs for both parties.

Speeding Up Investigations So Victims Can Move Forward

Following on from our third point of mishandling evidence, the prolonging of investigations can leave victims in limbo, feeling like they have lost control of their lives as they wait for a verdict. It’s not an experience that anyone should have to go through, and it’s made worse if the case continues to delay due to insufficient evidence, court postponements or staff absences. As mentioned earlier, this can lead to the collapse of trials. Leading to offenders walking free, completely failing the victim as no justice is served.

Fortunately, technology can streamline evidence collection, speeding up case progress giving closure to victims sooner rather later, or worse, not at all. A digital tool that captures photos, video statements, audio interviews, documents and web page capture keeps all digital evidence in one place. This makes it easier to access, and offers evidential integrity so that the origin of the evidence cannot be contested.

Empowering Victims Through Innovation

As demonstrated in this article, technology can be used as a tool for good—not only for efficiency’s sake, but also to support victims. By giving victims the choice of where interviews are hosted, by speeding up investigations with effective evidence management or by ensuring victims don’t have to repeat the incident multiple times, technology can be utilised to effectively support victims of crime.

Does your agency already use technology to support victims of crime?