Examining the role of the intermediary in the criminal justice system

Intermediaries were first introduced by the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act (1999) to facilitate communication between individuals with communication needs and the criminal justice system. Yet, despite increased academic attention into this new criminal justice actor, the content of the role remains unclear. This thesis undertakes a sociolegal examination of the intermediary role within the criminal justice system. It examines how those executing the role understand its work and how other criminal justice actors perceive it. To do so, the thesis incorporates empirical data gathered through a series of semi-structured interviews with intermediaries and police officers in England and Wales and intermediaries and judges in Northern Ireland. It uses a grounded theory methodology to generate a theory of the intermediary role and its scope and content. I identify three key themes from the data which are integral to how we can conceptualise the intermediary role and its work: i) the role’s professional status, ii) the role’s commitment to neutrality and, iii) the relationship between the role and the criminal justice value of participation. I argue that recognition of differences between intermediary work with witnesses on one hand and defendants on the other is crucial to understanding the nature of the role more broadly. Finally, I make several recommendations regarding the future of the intermediary role and how it can be better integrated into the criminal justice system.