Homicide - 4/03/25

Who are the victims of homicide?

• Overall, in the UK, the most likely victims of homicide are adults(9 out of 10 homicide victims), males (around 65%).

• Black people are significantly overrepresented among homicide victims: in the UK the most at-risk group for homicide are Afro- Caribbean men aged between 16 and 24 (with Black people = approx. 3% of the population but approx. 11% of homicide victims)

• “To be black… is to be subject to routine forms of miscalculated risk each and every day. Black people have every right to be angry as hell about being mistaken for predators when really we are prey” (Cooper, 2014)

  
  

Beyond the primary victim

• While homicide crime statistics are the ‘gold standard’ (Indermaur 2000), and accurate numbers of primary victims are available, quantification of the secondary victims is difficult (Ruback and Thompson 2001)

• Homicide-related trauma causes ripple effects felt throughout communities, friendships, work circles, and most acutely, for the surviving family of the primary victim (Evans and Hobdell 2002)

Co-victims and secondary victims

• Co-victims → those with familial links to the victim

• Broader group known as secondary victims, which additionally includes kin relations of the offender (Condry, 2010)

• Unlike illness, murder is unexpected, without forewarning, and immediately changes secondary victims’ lives

• Secondary victims must also deal with the possible uncertainty surrounding the murder. Homicide is a violent act that does not always have a rational explanation.

The impacts of bereavement after homicide

• Ania Moroz (2019) undertook research to identify the impacts of homicide over time:

The emotion and psychological long-term effects of homicide:

• Increase in anger and aggression over time

• Persistent anxiety and fear of violence and for the safety of their family members

• Feeling more protective and strict with the children

• Viewing themselves as permanently changed with no hope of life returning to how it was

• Long-term grieving process

The impacts of bereavement after homicide

• The crime had also long-term impact on bereaved family members’ physical health:

  • Acute pain

  • Change in cognitive function

  • Insomnia and occasional flashback

  • Drink and antidepressants dependency

• There were also many practical implications due to the loss including long-term financial impacts:

  • Costs resulting from giving up work or reducing hours at work

  • Financial impact of childcare end of becoming a guardian to victim’s children

  • Difficulties with day-to-day bills

• There were also impacts to their social relationships over time:

  • Reduced levels of social networks and interaction

  • Reduced tolerance and lack of trust towards other people

Ownership of the victim

• When an indictable crime is committed in the UK, the case no longer belongs to the victim or their family; instead, it becomes the property of the Crown (Christie, 1981). This means that the Criminal Justice System effectively assumes control over the case — almost entirely excluding victims and their families from the process:

  1. “Once the Crown takes over, they prosecute, and we become irrelevant. Our opinions don’t matter—we don’t even exist. That’s just how it is. They don’t prosecute for us; they do it because the Crown dictates that justice must be served. The Crown decides who must be prosecuted when a life is taken.” (Rob Holmes, whose son Colin was stabbed to death in 2003; in Thiel, 2013:16)

  2. “We wanted to see him [the victim], but they [the hospital] just said, ‘No, he’s dead.’ It was unbelievable. Even five or six years later, the shock hasn’t faded—it still feels the same. It’s like someone ripped my heart out. The pain was unbearable; I couldn’t eat or sleep. I kept waking up, thinking it was all a dream, but it wasn’t. No parent should ever have to bury their child. Every Sunday, without fail, I visit my son’s grave. I cry, I kiss his picture it just breaks my heart.” (James Bamforth, whose son James, aged 28, died from stab wounds in 2005; in Thiel, 2013:5)

“Tough. You get on with your life”

• Co-victims may feel victimised a second time by the CJS and legal
  process. Because homicide victims cannot assist the police in identifying the perp, defend themselves in court, or confront their attacker, co-victims have to take on these roles

• Co-victims often feel frustrated because of the lack of resources available to assist them with the emotional and financial problems
  that result from the death of the victim. Legal stipulations are in place to protect the offender; however, very few rights exist to
  protect the victim’s family, and they often need to advocate for themselves

• “But had that lad been found guilty, he would still have had the
  freedom to appeal. He would have had more say in his outcome
  than we did. Our outcome is this, ‘He’s been found not guilty’ and
  ‘That’s it now’- ‘Tough, you get on with your life’” (Laura Huntley; son, Matthew, died through stab wounds; in Thiel, 2013:11)

“I want to hold your hand”

• These issues start right at the beginning of a case. Co-victims can’t enter the crime scene → they want to care for, comfort, hold their loved one:

  1. Hospital: “They wouldn’t even let us see [our son] in the hospital. And then when we went to identify him… Silly things, they’d combed his hair wrong, you know, I wanted to put it how it should be... He looked perfect apart from this big bruise at the back of his neck and, I said, you know ‘He could be full of gunshot wounds, knife stabs, [but] I want to see him’. They said ‘Well no, he’s naked under there, you don’t want to see, and you can’t contaminate.’ But I just wanted to put his hair right and give him a cuddle you know... I mean it would have been just sort of saying goodbye physically” (Fiona Shearing, son Jonathan killed in a fight outside a nightclub, in Thiel, 2013:16)

  2. Coroner’s: “They wouldn’t let me go anywhere near him. I wasn’t allowed to touch him because of evidence. But I’m his mum, you know? I think that is such a ridiculous law, that you can’t touch them; your mum!” (mother of victim in Gekoski et al., 2013:316)

Closure

• Bodies are often kept for long periods of time to gather forensic
  evidence – in legal terms, the victim’s body ‘belongs’ to the coroner, who has legal property rights over the deceased (Rock, 1998). Victims often referred to as ‘the body’ or ‘the remains’ throughout the process:

  1. “I could not view the body…[until] week and weeks after!...It was horrible, weeks afterwards…and I mean the head was already starting to…deteriorate and everything” (partner of homicide victim, in Rock, 2010:206)

  2. “The coroner… refused to allow me to see her because she’d been lying in this cemetery for 3 weeks before she was found in all weather conditions and [they said] she would be unrecognisable to me… She [the coroner] said there is no way I am going to allow you to see your daughter, it is best that you remember her the way she was… I felt that, as awful as it would have been to see her, that should have been my decision. Being her mother, I felt that that’s my child and that’s my right… Not being allowed to see her body… [meant that] it took me longer… to accept the reality. I just thought that there
     had been a mistake and that she would still come home and whoever they had wasn’t actually her because I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes… I wasn’t able to grieve properly because I couldn’t believe she was actually dead” (mother of victim, in Gekoski et al., 2013:316)

Co-victims and the police

• Advice for bereaved families and friends following murder and manslaughter (Home Office, 2003)

• 2004 → Police must give victims certain info about the investigation, such as when a suspect has been charged or bailed

• FLO → Facilitate an investigation into the family’s loss by establishing as maintaining a sensitive, supportive, and appropriate relationship, which links the family and the enquiry team (Family Liason Strategy)

Partner of murder victim felt “completely lost. I wanted to know”; Parents: “we didn’t think they told us enough…we didn’t think they gave us the full facts. They didn’t give much away at all” (Gekoski, Adler & Gray, 2013: 312):

Co-victims and the police

• “I maybe said something like ‘I can’t believe this has happened. This is surreal’. And the policeman said, ‘Well, you know, people like that, sometimes they get what they deserve’. I just felt speechless. I just said, ‘People like what?’ And he said, ‘You know, people like that’. I went, ‘Right, okay, whatever,’. I do remember that distinctly. I thought, ‘You hard, cold- hearted bastard’… Something changed in me when he said that, my trust in people not to be judgemental changed” (friend of murder victim, in Gekoski et al., 2013:313)

• FLOs sometime singled out for praise, but often
  viewed as inexperienced and non-caring—no
  contact after trial.

Co-victims as suspects and witnesses

• Co-victims may also be questioned about their relationship to their victims, asked for an alibi etc.

• “I think that’s the most shocking thing, for her [my daughter and sibling of the victim] to actually be there [at the homicide], see it, try and save him, and, when you think about it, her trying to explain to me what happened on the night. And I’m not supposed to talk to her for two years? Upfront I should have said ‘Stuff you lot’ you know. I can’t change any evidence, how it happened is how it happened but, for her you know...” (Ben Shearing, in Thiel, 2013:26)

• If a long time exists between the murder and the trial, “old
  wounds that may have partially healed may be
  reopened” (Ahlin, 2010:844)

  
  

Co-victims and legal representatives

• Barristers are acting on behalf of the crown not the victim’s families:

  1. “When I got to the old bailey not one