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Supporting victims and witnesses, and treating them as central to the delivery of criminal justice, has been a key political and moral objective for many years.
Unfortunately in the past the rhetoric had continually fallen short of the citizens’ reality as they engaged as victims and witnesses with the criminal justice system. Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland (CJI) has rightly continued to focus on this critical issue and produced a series of reports highlighting the deficits in effective service delivery and the need for greater partnership working to secure improvements.
This is the fourth of a series of CJI reports and follow-up reviews into the care and treatment of victims and witnesses in the criminal justice system in Northern Ireland. Full inspection reports were previously published in July 2005 and December 2011, with a follow-up review in March 2008. The latter followed the 2005 inspection and this follow-up review looks at progress since their report in 2011.