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Recent initiatives have been directed at helping, advising and protecting victims and witnesses of crime from subsequent intimidation. However, there has been relatively little research into the extent and nature of victim and witness intimidation in England and Wales. The 1994 and 1998 sweeps of the British Crime Survey (BCS) directly asked victims and witnesses of crime if they experienced any harassment or intimidation following the original offence.

Title: Victim & Witness Intimidation: Key Findings from the British Crime Survey
Authors: Roger Tarling, Lizanne Dowds and Tracey Budd.
Series: Home Office Research Findings No 124
Number of pages:
Date published: September 2000

The key findings from the 1998 BCS are reported here.

Key Points

Victim intimidation

• In the 1998 BCS, 8% of all incidents led to victim intimidation. This rose to 15% for incidents where there was potential for intimidation (i.e., where the victim had some knowledge of the offender)

• Intimidation was more likely to follow offences of violence and vandalism. Women were particularly likely to experience intimidation following a violent offence (26%). Many of these incidents involved domestic violence.

• The harasser was the original offender in most cases (85%). In others it was the offender’s family or friends. Where the harasser was the original offender, 41% of women who experienced intimidation did so from a partner or ex-partner.

• Nearly three-quarters of intimidatory incidents involved verbal abuse, 16% physical assaults and 9% damage to property.

• Victim intimidation occurs for many reasons. Only a minority (8%) of those intimidated said it was to deter them from giving evidence to the police or in court.

Witness intimidation

• About one-third of respondents said that they had witnessed either an act of vandalism, car crime or a serious fight or assault in the last five years. Of those who witnessed any of these crimes, only 8% experienced some form of intimidation.

• Witnesses were most likely to have been intimidated by the original offender – about three-quarters.

• One-fifth were intimidated by the offender’s family or friends.

• As with victims, the majority of incidents (69%) involved verbal abuse. Physical assaults and damage to property were relatively unusual (16% and 13% respectively).

Extent of the problem

The extent to which victims and witnesses of criminal offences are subject to harassment and intimidation has become a matter of increasing debate. There has also been concern that the willingness of victims or witnesses to report to the police may be undermined by fear of intimidation. As a consequence, efforts have been made to improve provision of help and advice for those who have been intimidated, or are afraid that they might be. Two offences in the 1994Criminal Justice and Public Order Act (intimidating a witness and harming or threatening to harm a witness) aim to combat the problem. In addition, an interdepartmental working group report on the treatment of vulnerable or intimidated witnesses (Home Office, 1998) made recommendations for tackling intimidation and supporting witnesses. Those measures requiring legislation were included in the1999 Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act.

Conclusions

The BCS is an important source of information about the extent and nature of victim and witness intimidation in England and Wales, which is relatively rare. Victim intimidation occurred in 8% of criminal incidents measured in the 1998 survey, while 8% of witnessed incidents also led to intimidation. Much intimidation experienced takes the form of verbal abuse or threats. Physical assaults are relatively unusual.

It is often thought that intimidation occurs because offenders want to deter victims or witnesses from giving evidence to the police or courts. However, the findings from the BCS suggest that intimidation is far more complex than this. In only 8% of incidents of victim intimidation did the victim feel the offender was seeking to prevent them giving evidence. Furthermore, intimidation is particularly likely following an incident of domestic violence. This suggests that further consideration should be given to different forms of intimidation and how they can be best tackled.

The 2000 BCS includes questions on victim and witness intimidation to further monitor the situation. Future sweeps of the survey could also be used to explore in more detail the different forms of intimidation experienced. However, there are limitations to what information the BCS can collect, and further research should also be considered.

Getting a copy

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