“But I Have Forgiven Them…”

: An Examination of Scottish Criminal Procedure from the Perspective of the Forgiving Victim

Abstract

Victims of crime have traditionally had a very limited role to play in adversarial systems of criminal justice. This role has been little more than acting as a witness for the prosecution. In Scotland, reforms have been enacted over the last 25 years which have sought to improve the experiences of victims of crime as the cases which they are involved in navigate the criminal justice system. These reforms have, however, continued to place control over criminal cases firmly in the hands of public officials.

Some victims of crime are forgiving of those who offend against them. They undertake a complex internal process in order to reframe their view of what happened to them and of the offender such that they are able to engage (at least) neutrally with the offender while continuing to see the offence committed against them as wrongful. Victims of crime are often thought to be vengeful and retaliatory; these victims are not.

The impact which a victim’s forgiveness has on key decisions in the criminal justice process is understudied. This thesis undertakes an original study of Scotland’s criminal justice process using the perspective of a forgiving victim to evaluate the current legislative and practical frameworks which underpins criminal justice decision making. Characterising victim forgiveness as a spectrum, the thesis contends that different actions may be taken by decision-makers in the Scottish criminal justice system according to where on this spectrum a particular case of forgiveness sits. It will be shown that allowing victim forgiveness to play a larger role in the Scottish criminal process does not threaten the overall structure of the criminal process. Instead, it allows the State’s interest in prosecuting and punishing crime to be secured while providing benefits to victims of crime, offenders, and the wider community.

Date of Award	2026
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Dundee
Supervisor	Pamela Ferguson (Supervisor) & Eva Jueptner (Supervisor)