One year after the first COVID lockdown the backlog at the Magistrates’ and Crown Courts together totalled approximately half a million cases. This article reports on the impact of court delays on domestic abuse victims using data from the ESRC-funded ‘Shadow Pandemic’ project. Using this data as illustrative, the paper goes on to discuss the causes of delays in all criminal cases, challenging the assertion that COVID caused the backlog. Instead, the paper contends that austerity measures have been the underlying cause with COVID merely extending the scale of the crisis. The paper then questions whether post-COVID recovery plans are realistic, particularly in relation to any increase in remote hearings and out of court disposals. It concludes that a more fundamental shift needs to take place in dealing with criminal cases to enable speedier and more effective access to justice for victims of all crimes including domestic abuse.

中文翻译：

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法院的危机：Covid 之前和之后

在第一次 COVID 锁定一年后，治安法院和刑事法院的积压案件总计约 50 万件。本文使用来自 ESRC 资助的“影子大流行”项目的数据报告了法庭延误对家庭虐待受害者的影响。使用这些数据作为说明，本文继续讨论所有刑事案件延误的原因，挑战 COVID 导致积压的断言。相反，该论文认为，紧缩措施一直是 COVID 只是扩大危机规模的根本原因。然后，该论文质疑 COVID 后的恢复计划是否现实，特别是在远程听证会和庭外处置的增加方面。