Delays in Trials: the implications for victim survivors of rape and serious sexual assault

Published: August 2020

Covid-19 has significantly disrupted the operation of the criminal justice system in Scotland and elsewhere, causing considerable strain to the system, as well as uncertainty for those who are caught up in it as victims and alleged offenders. The cessation of jury trials for three months during lockdown has contributed to a significant backlog of cases with lengthy delays before trials can take place.

In the situation where courts are unable to process cases at their normal capacity and, as more cases continue to come into the system, the backlog of sexual offence cases is continuing to increase. This is a real cause for concern for victim-survivors of sexual violence and their advocates, as well as policy makers, lawyers and academics.

This paper outlines the implications of these delays for those reporting rape and serious sexual offences. It draws on the research literature on the impacts that delays to the operation of the criminal justice system have on those who have experienced rape and sexual assault, and from testimonies from victim-survivors about the effects of delays, gained from their participation in two recent research studies on their ‘end to end’ experiences of the Scottish criminal justice process: Evaluation of the National Advocacy Project (Brooks et al., 2018) and Justice Journeys (Brooks-Hay et al., 2019); and from recent victim-survivor correspondence with Rape Crisis Scotland about the impact of the pandemic on their cases.

Authors / Editors

Prof Michele Burman

University of Glasgow

Dr Oona Brooks-Hay

University of Glasgow

Research Themes

Courts and Sentencing

Gender, Crime and Criminal Justice

Criminal Justice Process and Institutions

Related Publications

December 2021

Delays in Trials: the implications for victim-survivors of rape and serious sexual assault: an update

In contrast to other types of crime recorded by the police in Scotland, the numbers of sexual crimes have been […]

August 2019

Justice Journeys Informing policy and practice through lived experience of victim‐survivors of rape and serious sexual assault

This report documents the journeys of the victim-survivors interviewed as they navigated the Scottish criminal justice system. It begins with […]

January 2018

Evaluation of the Rape Crisis Scotland National Advocacy Project, Final Report 2018

Oona Brooks-Hay, Michele Burman,  Lisa Bradley and Deborah Kyle This is the final report detailing findings from the evaluation of […]