Lived Realities

About the Project

Background

The experience of giving evidence at trial as a victim-survivor of sexual violence is inevitably difficult and distressing, requiring the reliving of traumatic events and questioning about sensitive and private aspects of the victim-survivor’s life (e.g. their previous sexual experience and even information contained in counselling or other personal records). These challenges often result in secondary victimisation at the hands of the criminal justice system itself.

Fortunately, in recent years, there have been a number of law and policy interventions which have sought to improve the position of victims of crime within the criminal justice process and some specific reforms targeted specifically at sexual offence trials. While these changes are welcome, we know little of how they are operating in practice or if they have had a positive impact on victim-survivors’ experiences.

Aims

This project seeks the views of victim-survivors about their lived experiences of the trial process to identify best practice and areas where further reform is required.

Importantly, unlike other similar research which focuses on rape trials only, this project seeks the views of victim-survivors of all adult sexual offences, allowing for insights on experiences in the Central Criminal Court and in lower and regional courts where trials for sexual offences other than rape are heard.

Informed by the participants’ views, proposals for further law and policy reforms will then be designed which directly respond to the concerns raised by the research participants.

Project objectives

To amplify the voices of victim-survivors of sexual offences and determine their lived realities of the trial process;
To evaluate the effectiveness of recent law and policy reforms in the area of sexual offences and victims’ rights and their impact on victim-survivors’ experiences of sexual offence trials;
To compare the experiences of victim-survivors who participate in trials in the Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin with the experiences of victim-survivors in regional and lower courts;
To develop an understanding of what Irish victim-survivors perceive to represent justice in the administration of sexual offence trials;
To identify proposals for further reform of Irish law and policy on sexual violence, informed by victim-survivors’ lived experience and best practice from other comparable jurisdictions.

This research is funded by a Research Ireland COALESCE grant, which is sponsored by CUAN, the Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Agency.