People at heart: A guide to communicating with people affected by crime

Principle 1: Empathetic

People feel supported when they feel listened to.

Putting people’s needs at the heart of communications shows kindness, compassion and understanding that they might be experiencing trauma at the time they receive the message.

How to do it

Plan your message around the person’s needs, not processes

Think about what information they need and what they don’t need. Put what’s most important to them upfront.

Where there is a legal requirement to provide them with information, you may need to give that information in a specific form. Please check this with your legal team.

For example, if you’re writing to someone to let them know you can help them, don’t start by telling them about your organisation:

• We are a leading support organisation. Our service is independent, free, non-judgemental and confidential.

Start by saying what support you can offer them and use ‘you’:

• If you’ve been affected by a crime, we can support you – even if you haven’t reported the crime to the police. Our support is independent, free, non-judgemental and confidential.

Show empathy from the start, especially if someone is emotionally distressed

Empathy in the first few lines shows that we put the person’s experience first. If we leave empathy to the end, it looks like an afterthought. If we leave it out altogether, it may suggest we do not care.

However, not all your communications will need empathy. In some cases, it may simply be irrelevant. In others, it may come across as patronising, inappropriate or insensitive. So make sure to consider when it will help the person to show empathy or sensitivity.

Do not include any specific details that could be upsetting or triggering for the person you’re communicating with. If you need to include these details, let the person know before you share them. Where possible, ask them how they’d prefer to receive this information.

In this example, because the person has told us how they feel, it would appear that we do not care (or haven’t understood the impact on them) if we simply repeat what they’ve told us:

• Thank you for your email of 17th May. You described experiences involving your former partner. You also mentioned that the trial in your case has been repeatedly postponed and that you were dissatisfied with how the police communicated this. You outlined concerns about the impact of these delays. Please see my response below in answer to your complaint.

Here’s one way to respond to the same message with empathy:

• Thank you for your email of 17th May. I was very sorry to hear what you and your daughter have been through with your former partner. From your email, I can see how traumatic it has been for you both. I’m also sorry to hear that the trial for your case keeps being postponed and you’ve been unhappy with the way the police delivered this news. I can appreciate why the delays have been so worrying for you, on top of everything else.

Be careful not to make assumptions

If you’re not sure about how the person feels, make a more general statement (words like ‘may’, ‘might’ and ‘can’ are helpful for this). Example:

• “Giving evidence in court is a difficult and distressing experience.”
• “I understand you may feel a range of emotions about giving evidence in court.”

Imagine you’re speaking to the person as you write. It will help your message sound warm and supportive. Example:

• “Your attendance at Court will contribute to the effective administration of criminal justice.”
• “Thank you very much for being a witness at the trial – you’re helping to make the criminal justice system as effective as possible.”

Do not use all capitals or underlining unless there is a legal requirement to do so in the communication

Capital letters can seem threatening and may even make people switch off. It’s also inaccessible as writing in capitals is more difficult to read, especially for people with dyslexia. Example:

• You are witness for the prosecution [or defence] in the criminal case against (name)
• You are a witness for the [prosecution/defence] in the criminal case against (name).

For fonts, a good rule of thumb is to use Arial size 12 for readability. Other fonts styles which are easy to read are: Tahoma, Calibri, Century Gothic, Trebuchet, and Open Sans. Some readers may need larger fonts (e.g. people with dyslexia).

For formats, you may want to consider sending documents in Microsoft Word. This allows the person to freely change the document to make it easier to read, if they need to. Bear in mind Word documents can easily be modified and therefore may be less secure than alternative formats such as PDF.

Avoid:

• serif style fonts (such as Times New Roman or Georgia)
• fonts smaller than 10
• fonts that use light or narrow lines (such as Roboto Thin or Montserrat Light)
• fonts that use tight spacing between letters (such as Ariel Narrow or Niagara)

Use ‘people’ rather than ‘victims’ and ‘witnesses’ wherever possible

There are times when the word ‘victim’ or ‘witness’ is the right word to use, or when you legally have to use them. If that’s case, do so. But where you can, use ‘people’, ‘person’ or ‘you’ instead.

The reason to avoid ‘victims’ and ‘witnesses’ in some contexts is that these terms can be upsetting and confusing, especially if the person does not know the legal meaning of these words or do not think of themselves as a victim or witness.

For example, some victims feel ‘downgraded’ if they’re referred to as witnesses – even if legally speaking they are both a victim and a witness of the crime.

Similarly, some people do not like to think of themselves as victims, even if this is how they are seen in the eyes of the law.

If you feel the person you’re writing to may be upset, avoid using the words ‘victim’ or ‘witness’ wherever you can.

• We provide help and support for victims and witnesses.
• We provide help and support for people affected by crime.
• We can provide you with help and support.

Have a look at the section ‘Inclusive language’ for other words and phrases to avoid, and suggestions for what to use instead.