Case Study: Specialist Sexual Violence Support (SSVS) courts

This five-year, interdisciplinary project investigates the role of trauma informed care and neuroscience in transforming trial procedures, courtroom environments, and the treatment, questioning and wellbeing of victims of sexual violence. Two empirical case studies of specialist sexual offence courts in England and Scotland will examine the emergence of specialty courts and trauma-informed justice in the UK, namely: Specialist Sexual Violence Support (SSVS) courts in England and the creation of a trauma-informed Sexual Offences Court for Scotland. 

Throughout the project, the team will adopt a trauma-informed approach and will work closely with victim-survivors and policy makers to evaluate trauma-informed approaches and specialist sexual offence courts.

Literature on the nexus between health and justice tends to focus on defendants, recidivism, and the root causes of crime. This research will make a timely and important contribution to theory and praxis by exploring medico-legal interventions aimed at promoting procedural justice and wellbeing for victims of traumatic crime. It will also locate the emergence of trauma-informed justice among the literature on alternative justice theories and interrogate its manifestation in the UK from the perspective of victim-survivors.

The project commenced in January 2025 and will run until September 2029. 

 Project update August 2026

We are currently in Phase II of the project, examining SSVS courts in England. The fieldwork for this phase is now complete and we will publish our findings in due course. Thank you to the survivors, ISVAs and collaborating organisations who shared their experiences of these courts with us and made the study possible. 

For enquiries, please email the Principal Investigator, Natalie Kyneswood: natalie.kyneswood@csls.ox.ac.uk. Natalie is assisted by Dr Alma Ionescu, who is Postdoctoral Researcher for Phase II of the project focusing on SSVS courts.

This award builds on Natalie's ESRC funded work on The extension of pre-recorded cross-examination in sex offence cases.