Arrest to Sentencing:
Expert support
The University of Nottingham expertise
Increasingly there is potential to transform the criminal process due to technological advances and digitalisation. This will include changing the way in which information is held and shared electronically, as well as revolutionising communication between those involved in the criminal justice system. This raises new challenges to all agencies in their duty to provide quality services within the rule of law.
The University of Nottingham has a well-established reputation for producing world leading and internationally recognised high-quality research across the criminal justice process.
The University’s School of Law is home to The Criminal Justice Research Centre and The Human Rights Law Centre which work with stakeholder agencies to achieve a fairer, and more efficient way of working together in the criminal justice process. Our experts can provide high-level policy advice and specialist assistance on all aspects ofcriminal proceedings:
Key research expertise includes:
- Legal advocacy and legal aid reforms
- Judicial and court reform
- Human rights compliance
- Mental capacity law
- Youth justice
Case studies
Stereotypes in rape cases
Research conducted at Nottingham has played a key role in developing new guidance for judges giving directions to juries in rape trials in England and Wales...
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The research explored the influence of providing (mock) jurors with education to counter ‘rape stereotypes’. The research findings played a key role in ensuring the inclusion of ‘myth-busting’ directions in the Crown Court Benchbook.
These directions provide a model for use by trial judges when directing juries in sexual offence cases, and may change the overall tenor of the rape trial, alter the ways in which jurors go about their deliberations, and ultimately ensure greater justice. They therefore have significant consequences for criminal justice practitioners, individual complainants, policy-makers and the general public.
A briefing report outlining key findings of the research was distributed widely to criminal justice policy-makers and practitioners in the UK and overseas and has been used by those advocating similar reform in New Zealand.
Youth justice
Dr Vicky Kemp has contributed to a comparative study of procedural safeguards for juveniles interviewed by the police in England and Wales, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland...
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The study has highlighted not only differences between the models of youth justice operating in these jurisdictions but also a number of shared issues.
These include young suspects, particularly those who have been arrested on more than one occasion, being treated as adults (with the exception of requiring an appropriate adult in some jurisdictions) and a lack of specific training required of police officers who interview juvenile suspects, or a model of interviewing which could assist them.
Without a child friendly approach being required when interviewing juveniles, they can come under pressure to respond to police questions regardless of the right to silence and so lead to false confessions. Guidelines on this issue have been developed and are to be presented to the EU Commission to help inform the setting of minimum rules for improving procedural safeguards for juvenile suspects.