Victims and the criminal justice system

CJ 141

Questions on Victim Witness Intimidation Reading

1. What are the negative impacts of victim and/or witness intimidation on the criminal justice system. In other words, in what ways does it interfere with the goals of the cjs?

2. In what ways have the characteristics or types of intimidation been changing recently?

3. In general terms, what are the two types of intimidation discussed by the authors?

4. Specifically in the case of gang prosecution cases, what are estimates of the prevalence of intimidation?

5. What factors make witnesses reluctant to step forward?

6. What are the four factors that increase the chances that a victim or witness will be intimidated?

7. What are the types of intimidation?

8. What have been traditional police and prosecutor strategies to deal with intimidation?

9. What are the new strategies that are being tried?

10. Ideally, what services should be available to witnesses?