Testimonial injustice: exploring ‘credibility’ as a barrier to justice for people with learning disabilities/autism who report sexual violence

Abstract

Rape/sexual assault cases have high levels of attrition, with reports of sexual violence from people with learning disabilities/autism disproportionately represented. This paper presents the results of a small qualitative study in the UK which focuses on how the criminal justice system is experienced by people with learning disabilities/autism who report sexual offences. An adversarial criminal justice system is reliant on normative social constructions of credibility and the embodiment of (ideal) victimhood through testimony. Adopting Fricker’s framework of testimonial injustice (2009) we explore how epistemic assumptions around credibility create a barrier to justice and facilitate case attrition for victim/survivors with learning disabilities/autism. The paper highlights how criminal justice interpretations of behaviour, communication and third-party disclosure limit access to justice for individuals with learning disabilities/autism, rendering the criminal justice process inherently discriminatory to those with atypical frames of reference.

Points of interest

• People with learning disabilities/autism are at greater risk of sexual violence.

• People with learning disabilities/autism who report sexual violence to police are less likely to see their cases proceed through the criminal justice system.

• Prosecution of sexual offences relies on witness credibility and ‘appropriate’ response to trauma.

• People with learning disabilities/autism are assumed to be less believable than other people simply because of their learning disability/autism. This is an example of what Fricker (2007) terms ‘testimonial injustice’ – situations in which the speaker is perceived less credible because of prejudice on the part of the listener.

• This is discriminatory and unfair and means people with learning disabilities/autism do not have the same access to justice as other people.

• We argue the criminal justice system is inaccessible for people with different communication needs.

• The criminal justice system in England and Wales needs significant adjustment to be accessible to all.

Keywords:

• Learning disability
• autism
• credibility
• criminal justice
• rape

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the participants represented here who generously gave their time to share their experiences and expertise. Thanks also to the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on this paper.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded by N8 Research Partnership