About the research
In the UK, the victim personal statement (VPS) scheme gives crime victims an opportunity to describe the wider effects of the crime, express their concerns, and indicate what information they want regarding case developments.
While research in this area generally indicates that few victims provide statements, there is limited research on what factors influence whether a victim is notified about the opportunity to provide a statement, and their decision to provide one. By drawing on four years of data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales, this project seeks to better understand these two concerns in hopes that the results can inform how the policy is implemented and utilised.
The results suggest that few victims report being notified of the opportunity to provide a victim personal statement, and few victims provide one. Several victim, offender, and offense characteristics influenced whether victims reported being informed of the VPS and whether victims decided to provide a statement. Understanding these results can inform both policy implementation and future practice.
Methodology
The study used four years of data from the Crime Survey for England to carry out two separate incident-level analyses (notification and utilisation). The dependent variables were whether the police gave the victim the opportunity to provide a victim personal statement, and whether the victim provided one. These analyses included victim, offender, and offense characteristics. A logistic regression was estimated for each analysis.
Publications
This research was published in the following sources:
Mastrocinque, J.M. (In press 2013) ‘Victim personal statements: An analysis of notification and utilization’. Criminology & Criminal Justice. doi: 10.1177/1748895812469382
Mastrocinque, J.M. (2010) Victim statements and satisfaction: An analysis of victim personal statements, Ph.D. dissertation, University at Albany, State University of New York.