A critical evaluation of adjustments and accommodations in the legal system in England and Wales for sex abuse crimes involving adult witnesses with an intellectual disability

Aldridge, Michelle ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6087-2589 and Pereira, Tina 2025. A critical evaluation of adjustments and accommodations in the legal system in England and Wales for sex abuse crimes involving adult witnesses with an intellectual disability. Nick, I. M. and Blewit, Kirsty E., eds. The Routledge Handbook of Ethics in Forensic Linguistics, Routledge, pp. 266-278. (10.4324/9781003391074-22)

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Abstract

Ethics is based on acting in the interests of justice with integrity and honesty. This chapter examines whether ethical considerations are equitably addressed for vulnerable witnesses in the Criminal Justice System in England and Wales. More specifically, in this chapter attention is given to the experiences of adult witnesses with an intellectual disability (AWIDs) in cases where they have potentially been victims of sexual abuse. The focus is placed on those witnesses who may have immature cognition and limited verbal skills and typically use visual aids to facilitate their communication. Even though this chapter concentrates its attention on this population, much of what is written could apply to other vulnerable witnesses and defendants and suspects including children, vulnerable people in family courts, and others who find themselves in the position of having to give case evidence for a range of allegations. However, what distinguishes cases of potential sexual abuse from other alleged crime types is that in sexual offenses there is likely to be no witness other than the alleged victim. Therefore, the witnesses’ ability to give a full and accurate account of what happened is paramount. The fact that the English and Welsh criminal justice system is adversarial in nature, where the principle of orality dominates (Ewin 2015), often presents a challenge to AWIDs. In this chapter, we evaluate the ethical dilemmas and decisions that must be addressed and rectified and what forensic linguists might do to ensure that AWIDs have equal access to the justice system.

Item Type:	Book Section
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > English, Communication and Philosophy
Publisher:	Routledge
ISBN:	9781003391074
Last Modified:	26 Jan 2026 12:41
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/184185

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