Testimonial Epistemic Injustice against family members of victims of police lethality in criminal legal system

Abstract

This article examines the legal framework and modes of participation of family members of victims of police killings in criminal accountability proceedings arising from police interventions resulting in death. It highlights the central role of the victim’s biography in prosecutions, as well as the fragmented and hierarchically uneven set of legal norms that regulate such cases. Based on two case studies of deaths resulting from police intervention, the research combines procedural analysis, semi-structured interviews, and participant observation in a jury court, in order to reconstruct the institutional biography of victim-families throughout their trajectory within the criminal justice system. Drawing on the work of Miranda Fricker, Jennifer Lackey, and other critical theorists, the study argues that the participation of victims’ families is shaped by epistemic injustice in three main forms: the discrediting of the victims and their relatives, the excessive credibility granted to police narratives, and the restriction of their epistemic agency — all of which constitute a form of testimonial epistemic injustice. These dynamics directly affect how families engage in the processes of police accountability, ultimately victimizing them a second time.