Victims of crime wrongly arrested due to ‘huge gaps’ in language support with women hard hit

‘In the worst cases, victims are having their request for language support denied, while other times they are left to struggle because it is judged they can manage without,’ says expert

The report found language facilities were a postcode lottery (PA Archive)

Victims of crime who speak English as their second language have been unfairly arrested when seeking support from the police due to the criminal justice system’s “huge gaps” in language support, new research suggests.

A study, carried out by Victim Support, found this is a particular issue for female victims of violent crime who may be facing violence and abuse from their partners.

Researchers warn the lack of proper language facilities available for victims is resulting in inaccurate statements being recorded by the police, as well as eroding trust in officers and in the worst cases “mistaken arrests”.

The report found language facilities were a postcode lottery, with services “patchy”, and staff not properly trained up on the issue, or given sufficient resources to adequately support victims of crime who speak English as their second language.

Such victims were struggling to tell officers key details - with researchers drawing attention to a case where an alleged perpetrator who spoke English as his first language managed to trigger confusion by disrupting conversations between the victim and police. This led to the victim being unjustly arrested for the crime she was attempting to report, the research found.

Diana Fawcett, chief executive of Victim Support, who conducted the report alongside the Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research, and the Centre for Justice Innovation, said: “Our research shows that language services for victims are woefully inconsistent.

“In the worst cases, victims are having their request for language support denied, while other times they are left to struggle because it is judged they can manage without.

“This simply has to change. The Victims Code sets out victims’ entitlements – but too often rights that exist on paper do not exist in reality.”

Ms Fawcett argued the Victims Bill is “a once in a generation opportunity to enshrine the fair and compassionate treatment of victims in law”, in turn making sure that individuals who speak English as a second language are “treated with humanity, and get the justice they deserve.”

Researchers, who looked into 750 cases where the organisation supported victims who spoke English as a second language, found the majority were female victims of violent crime.

Female victims constituted 71 per cent of the figure, while men made up 29 per cent. Violence was the type of crime most often suffered by victims who speak English as a second language, constituting 60 per cent.

Lucy*, a woman who researchers spoke to, was wrongly arrested after trying to get help from the police after she was subjected to domestic abuse.

She has frequent English language lessons but struggles with speaking English when in high stress situations.

She got in touch with the police to report the abuse she was experiencing but her then-partner - who was fluent in English - was able to persuade police officers into thinking he was the victim.

“They cuffed me, put me in the police car, so I said, why? I was being treated like a criminal, so I was in great shock,” she said.

Officers failed to ask Lucy if she was properly aware of what was going on or if she required an interpreter despite her speaking Romanian. “They were just saying, ‘speak English, speak English,’” she recalled.

She was arrested and detained, only being given an interpreter at 8pm, even though she had requested one hours earlier at 2pm. Officers then let her go after she was able to recount what had happened via an interpreter - with her partner later charged.

Between two and three women are murdered each week by their partners or ex-partners in England and Wales. While one in four women will suffer domestic abuse at some point during their lives, with domestic abuse having a higher rate of repeat victimisation than any other crime.

Diana Sutton, director of The Bell Foundation, who funded the report, said: “This research provides evidence of what we have known for many years – that facing a language barrier can severely impact on someone’s engagement with the criminal justice system in a way that isolates, disadvantages and disempowers those who speak English as a second language.

“As well as enshrining the right to understand and be understood in law in the upcoming Victims Bill, agencies across the criminal justice system need to work hard to upskill their staff and break down language and cultural barriers.”

The report found interpreters at times did not have knowledge of specialist language “needed to facilitate full and nuanced communication between police and victims, which was a particular concern in domestic abuse, sexual violence and rape cases”.

Researchers also discovered translators employed by police officers and prosecutors were not always versed in “the language of the criminal justice system, which is complex, laden with jargon and, at times impenetrable, even for members of the public who speak English as a first language”.

*Name changed