Courtroom decorum and the rules of conduct: accounts of homicide co-victims’ experiences during criminal justice proceedings

ABSTRACT

The right to be present for criminal justice proceedings is one of the key rights afforded crime victims and their families. A neglected but important area of investigation pertains to the adherence to rules of conduct in order to safeguard court decorum. This qualitative study explores what rules of conduct are commonly experienced by and, in some cases, enforced against homicide co-victims while attending such proceedings. The sample consists of 27 co-victims connected to 23 separate cases where the homicides occurred in a major metropolitan area in the southeastern United States. Drawing upon focus group data, NVivo 12 was employed to identify and illustrate themes associated with rules of conduct. About one-half of the co-victims reported facing dilemmas or restrictions when particular rules were not followed or upheld by themselves or the defendants’ families. Though infrequent, some co-victims were warned or removed from court for wearing inappropriate attire or failing to control one’s emotions. For some rules, co-victims felt that they were treated differently from the defendant and defendant’s family. The study concludes by discussing ways that courts can better balance the needs of homicide co-victims with the rights of the accused in maintaining etiquette in the courtroom.

KEYWORDS:

• Homicide co-victimization
• court decorum
• rules of court conduct
• victim participation
• right to attend court proceedings

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The term ‘co-victim’ refers to family members of homicide in line with previous academic literature on the population of interest (Armour, 2002; Connolly & Gordon, 2015; Reed & Blackwell, 2006). Some scholars have utilized somewhat different terminology to reference this group, including ‘homicide survivor,’ ‘survivor-victim,’ ‘secondary victims,’ and ‘indirect victim,’ but co-victim is the most frequently used and accepted term.

2. The authors conducted a systematic review of the 50 state statutes and constitutions involving crime victims’ rights laws. Both statutory and constitutional laws were drawn from the National Crime Victim Law Institute (https://law.lclark.edu/live/news/23544-victims-rights-law-by-state). Key findings are presented here; however, a detailed and complete description of the findings is available upon written request.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mark D. Reed

Mark D. Reed, PhD., is an associate professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Georgia State University. His research interests focus on homicide co-victimization and its aftermath. He is interested in understanding the ways that the justice system affects families of murder victims and improving protocols and services to address the needs and concerns of co-victims.