The Role of Victim Advocacy in Criminal Justice Reform in England and Wales

Abstract

The victims of volume crime in England and Wales are aided by a major institution, Victim Support, but their voices are rarely heard when policy matters are discussed. Many victims of traumatic crimes are organized and purposeful, but they have not come together into a united front. It is the English and Welsh groups supporting abused women, groups amounting to a social movement, that have made the most visible impression on the politics of criminal justice reform at a time when there were widely publicized killings of women and a bill on domestic violence was passing through Parliament at the end of 2021.