Defendants with Vulnerabilities

Vulnerability is a widely used but contentious concept used by welfare practitioners to understand disadvantaged groups. The chapter examines responses in criminal courts to “vulnerable” defendants at the pretrial stage drawing on quantitative and qualitative data obtained from observing 150 bail applications. The quantitative data indicates that in half of the applications a vulnerability was either relevant to the decision or mentioned by a practitioner. Through looking at transcripts from hearings, the chapter teases out some of the complexities in responses to both individual vulnerabilities (such as having a drug problem) and structural inequalities such as youth, indigeneity and poverty.