Rosemary Mangan
Research Area: Homicide, Victimology, Criminal Law, Criminal Justice
Email: Rosemary.Mangan1@ucdconnect.ie
Supervisor: Prof Ian O’Donnell
Thesis Title: The Impact of Homicide on Families: Criminal and Coronial Justice
Abstract
Despite the growing interest in understanding the effect of victimisation in Ireland and the increased attention on trauma informed practices in our criminal justice processes, the impact of homicide on those most directly affected by it, and their subsequent experiences with the justice system remains under-explored in Ireland. Family members of homicide victims are often the most traumatised individuals to enter and engage with the justice system. Rock (1998) characterised their experience as a ‘chaotic episode which gives way to strong, antagonistic archetypes of victim and offender’. These two visions of victim and offender are overcast by public agenda while family members are subsumed by the social milieu of fatal violence and the complex, forensic legal processes associated with homicide investigation and prosecution. Previous international research indicates that the treatment of this group while engaging with the justice system leaves them feeling marginalised and revictimized. Rock (1998) describes this group’s engagement with the justice system as the most ‘potent symbolic assault suffered by families in the wake of murder.’ While Casey (2011) found that families who were not involved in the justice system tended to cope better with the violent death of their loved one than those who engaged with the justice process.
This study will be framed by statutory developments laid out in the Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Act 2017 and the Parole Act 2019, which gives definition to both victim and a family member and confers victims’ rights to the family members of a deceased victim. In light of this recognition, and the conferring of victim’s rights to family members, this study will explore what impact these changes have had on families’ engagement with the criminal justice system and with the Coroner’s Court. This research will seek to gain insight into this group’s views of justice, and their status within the criminal process. It will assess the unique nature of their association with the justice system in the context of their recent transition from an undefined position to one which is legally recognised and allocates them rights based on their association with the deceased person. It will assess their views on the provision of services and supports in the aftermath of fatal violence and will explore their experiences through the criminal process – including encounters with law enforcement, the criminal trial and sentencing, the Coroner’s inquest and their experiences with the Parole Board. It is hoped this research will contribute significantly to evidence-based policy in this area.
Biography
Rosemary Mangan is a Ph.D. Candidate at the UCD Sutherland School of Law. She holds a Bachelor of Civil Law Degree and a first class Masters in Law Degree from the School of Law and Criminology at Maynooth University. In 2022, she was awarded scholarships from the UCD Sutherland School of Law, the School of Law at the University of Limerick, and the School of Law and Criminology at Maynooth University to undertake Ph.D. research. Her research explores the post-homicide experiences of the family members of homicide victims as they undergo engagement with various criminal justice agents, and processes, and the Coroner’s Court.
Rosemary tutors in both law and criminology subjects at UCD. She has tutored in Criminal Liability, Criminal Offences and Defences, Constitutional Rights, Advocacy and Mooting, and the Crime and Society modules. She previously tutored in Criminal Law, Introduction to Criminal Justice, Constitutional Law, and Land Law modules at Maynooth University.
From 2019 to 2022, Rosemary was employed at the School of Law and Criminology at Maynooth University as a research assistant while also concurrently working as an executive assistant in the School. In that time, she was a research assistant on ten projects funded by various bodies including Irish Research Council, the Department of Justice, the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Research Innovation Programme. She has continued to work as a research assistant at UCD. In her role as an executive assistant, she was appointed lead over Postgraduate Research Programmes. In 2021, she was awarded the President’s Award for Service Excellence along with her administrative colleagues in the School of Law and Criminology by the then President of Maynooth University, Professor Philip Nolan.
Research funding/awards
UCD Sutherland School of Law Doctoral Scholarship (2022-2026)
Publications
Thompson, S., Doyle, D.M., Murphy, M., and Mangan, R. (2022) ‘A welcome change . . . but early days: Irish Service Provider Perspectives on Domestic Abuse and the Domestic Violence Act 2018’, Criminology and Criminal Justice pp. 1-19 (opens in a new window)https://doi.org/10.1177/17488958211067912
Conferences
Rosemary Mangan (2024) British Society of Criminology Postgraduate Conference. The Impact of Homicide on Families: Criminal and Coronial Justice (ROI). University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. (08.07.2024)
Rosemary Mangan (2024) 15th Irish North South Criminology Conference. Hearing Families of Homicide Victims: Reflections on the Impact of Fatal Violence. Queen’s University Belfast (18.06.2024)
Rosemary Mangan (2023) 14th Irish North South Criminology Conference. The Experiences of Family Members of Homicide Victims in the Irish Criminal Justice System. Dublin City University, 15/06/2023-16/06/2023.
Rosemary Mangan (2023) UCD Sutherland School of Law Ph.D. Workshop: Research Introductions. Understanding the Needs and Experiences of Family Members of Homicide Victims as they engage with the Criminal Justice System and the Coroners Court. University College Dublin. 31/05/2023.