Abstract
As we learned in the previous chapter, victims’ families have a difficult set of emotional and practical challenges to navigate, particularly if the victimisation resulted in a loved one’s death. We also learned that some of these challenges can be exacerbated by unjust practices both within and outside of the criminal justice system. In this chapter, we explore this further by examining how victims’ families campaign for both institutional and social transformation. We begin by exploring families’ engagement with police press conferences and, taking an intersectional approach, examine how victims’ families experience trial by media and the impact that this can have. We then explore miscarriages of justice and, drawing on the example of the Lawrence family, discuss how wider change within the criminal justice system can be achieved through family justice campaigns.
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Notes
- 1.
The prioritisation of resources (including media resources) for police investigations is shaped by a number of factors, including the status of the victim (e.g. if a child or a police officer), whether the incident involves multiple victims and whether is of ‘grave public concern’.
- 2.
A notable example of media intrusion is when a private investigator employed by the News of the World, the UK tabloid newspaper, hacked into missing teenager Milly Dowler’s mobile phone to listen to (and delete) her messages during the first few days of her disappearance in 2002. Once the police identified that Milly’s phone was still being used after her disappearance, the police and Milly’s family assumed that she was still alive. As it turned out, Milly was killed on the day she went missing. Not only did these actions impede the murder investigation, they gave false hope to her family, causing them great suffering. Dowler’s parents eventually became part of the Hacked Off campaign group (see Sect. 8.2.1).
- 3.
Sometimes this questioning was direct, such as when a journalist for Sky News asked Kate McCann during a press conference: ‘‘How do you feel with the fact that more and more people seem to be pointing the finger at you? They’re saying the way you behave isn’t how people would normally behave when their child is abducted. They seem to imply that you might have something to do with it” (Sky News, 6 June 2007; cited in Greer and McLoughlin, 2012: 404).
- 4.
It is important to recognise that, much like our knowledge about crime more generally, our knowledge about miscarriages of justice is only based on cases that we know about. It is likely that most miscarriages of justice remain unexposed, with many individuals privately dealing with the consequences of wrongful conviction and/or a failure to convict.
- 5.
Lillian’s Law is named after Lillian Groves, who was killed when crossing the road in 2010 by a person driving under the influence of cannabis. Her parents, Michaela and Trevor Groves, campaigned to make it an offence to drive under the influence of substances, which would result in an automatic driving ban and a potential prison sentence. Lillian’s Law was legislated by The Drug Driving (Specified Limits) (England and Wales) Regulations (2014).
- 6.
Claudia’s Law is named after Claudia Lawrence who went missing from her home in York in 2009. Her father, Peter Lawrence, campaigned to create a new legal status of guardian for the families of those who go missing for more than 90 days. Claudia’s Law was legislated by the Guardianship (Missing Persons) Act (2017).
- 7.
Helen’s Law is named after Helen McCourt, who was murdered in 1988 but whose killer, who has since been released from prison, has refused to reveal the location of Helen’s body. Helen’s mother, Maria McCourt, has campaigned for parole boards to be legally required to consider the withholding of information when making decisions about release from prison. Helen’s Law was legislated by Prisoners (Disclosure of Information about Victims) Act (2020).
- 8.
One current example is the Covid Families for Justice group, which was formed by families who lost a loved one through the Covid-19 virus and who are campaigning for an independent inquiry into the UK Government’s handling of the pandemic. See https://www.covidfamiliesforjustice.org.
- 9.
A second campaign group, the Hillsborough Justice Campaign, was formed in 1998 by some of the families who were members of the Hillsborough Families Support Group following disagreements about the direction of the original campaign (see Scraton, 2016 for discussion).
- 10.
The National September 11 Memorial and Museum was opened on the site in May 2014.
- 11.
- 12.
Like so many similar incidents that came before it, the killing of George Floyd was recorded and (re)played around the world, producing not only a personal trauma for Floyd’s family, but a wider collective trauma for those who viewed it, particularly those from Black communities who recognised themselves in Floyd’s plight. As Smith points out, ‘The repeated, public and spectacular killing of black people by police reverberates. Communities, witnesses and family members suffer immeasurable, debilitating pain in the wake of these confrontations’ (Smith, 2017).
- 13.
In the same interview, Garner highlighted the death of Venida Browder, who died of a cardiac arrest in 2016 following campaigning about conditions at Riker’s Island prison. Browder’s son, Kalief Browder, killed himself in 2015 after spending three years at the prison, nearly two years of which were in solitary confinement, for allegedly stealing a backpack.
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Holt, A. (2021). The Campaigning Family: Victims’ Families Transforming Justice. In: Family Criminology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71169-6_8
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