Development and Validation of a Measurement Scale for Investigative Police Officers’Awareness of Crime Victims’Rights in Criminal Procedure

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a measurement scale for investigative police officers’awareness of crime victims’rights in criminal procedure, and to diagnose the current level of awareness of investigative police officers in practice. A total of 88 questions (5 point Likert scale) on crime victims' criminal procedural rights were developed based on relevant laws and regulations, and data collected from 323 investigative police officers were analyzed for validation. As a result of the factor analysis, the awareness of investigative police officers were divided into 12 factors: ① the right to have a trusted person present during police investigation, ② the right to request a police report under a pseudonym, ③ the right to request recusal for certain investigators, ④ the right to be informed of the results of police investigation, ⑤ the right to appeal a police decision not to send the case to prosecution, ⑥ the right to appeal the decision to suspend an investigation, ⑦ the right to be informed of matters related to the prosecution, ⑧ the right to appeal against the prosecution's decision and request for reconsideration, ⑨ the right to be heard at the trial stage, the witness support system, the right to access and transcribe trial records, and the right to have legal terms explained. The descriptive statistical analysis showed that the current level of the awareness of investigative police officers was generally high and the deviation was small (M=3.35, SD=0.73). However, compared to the level of awareness of the rights at the police phase (①~⑥) (M=3.66~3.91, SD=0.86~1.02), the level of awareness of the rights at the prosecution and court phases (⑦~) was relatively low and the variation was large (M=2.36~3.02, SD=1.05~1.19). The correlation analysis showed that the higher the level of awareness, the more written guides to victims’ rights were given to the victims, and the more verbal explanations were given to help them understand. The results of this study can be used as a basis for evaluating the effectiveness of crime victims’ rights and awareness training programs for investigative police officers in the future.