Relationships between lawyers and victims of crime: Forming a new context

Abstract

This qualitative study offers a comprehensive overview of lawyers and clients who have been victims of crimes as to their optimal relationship, based on interviews with both groups. The findings clarify the existence of two main dimensions. The first emphasizes the lawyers’ values and professional identities in response to the unique needs of victims of crimes. Lawyers who choose to work with the victims of crimes consider themselves to be practising a kind of law that is consistent with their personal values. The second dimension raises the need to create a new concept of professionalism, to bridge the gap between what the two groups single out as important in the relationship. The new concept indicates also the need for improved practice. The findings of this study imply the requirement to develop social justice professionalism balanced between legal and therapeutic skills, including the caring skills necessary for lawyers’ work with the victims of crimes. Such improved skills will enable the legal practitioner to better balance legal representation with emotional support based on the client’s needs rather than on the lawyer’s personal intuition.