Victim or Complainant?
The words ‘victim’ and ‘complainant’ mean different things. The distinction is important in a legal context.
What do they mean?
Google defines ‘victim’ as: “a person harmed, injured, or killed as a result of a crime, accident, or other event or action”. The same source defines a ‘complainant’ as “the party who makes the complaint in a legal action or proceeding”.
Lamenting the misuse of the word ‘victim’ is a well-trodden path, for criminal defence lawyers at least. The standard argument is that the defendant’s accuser should be referred to as ‘the complainant’ until the defendant is convicted. After that point, they can rightly be referred to as ‘the victim’.
(Why) does it matter?
Some may feel that the distinction is a legal nicety; something done by lawyers in Courts for obscure reasons. Clearly, there will be cases where the accuser’s version of events is not disputed by the defence. A person killed unlawfully will always be the ‘victim’, and there are cases where a defendant accepts their accuser suffered the harm complained of while denying being the cause of that harm. In such cases, the issue isn’t relevant. But in other cases, it does make a difference in a legal context.
Defendants are innocent until proven guilty. A defendant who denies causing their accuser any harm is put at a disadvantage when their accuser is referred to as ‘the victim’ in front of the jury trying their case. This is because words have meanings that provoke emotional responses. The word ‘victim’ can evoke compassion and sympathy, but it also implies that its referent was harmed by something – a crime for example. Consciously or subconsciously, it can affect how the jury perceives the accuser and their evidence and, more importantly, the defendant. For this reason, it is impossible to refer to an accuser as the ‘victim’ while also respecting a defendant’s right to be treated as innocent until the jury reaches a guilty verdict.
On the other hand, from an accuser’s perspective, being referred to as a complainant in Court makes them no less credible a witness before a jury. They have reported a crime, and they will give to the jury their account of what they say the defendant did to them. They may in fact be the victim of a crime (and may well feel they don’t need a jury’s verdict to confirm this), but they do not risk the same detriment as a defendant does by the choice of words.
If you are facing allegations in either a criminal investigation or in criminal proceedings, please contact our Crime & Regulatory Team here