Victims' Role in the Criminal Justice System

Descriptive and conceptual articles about the role of victims in the criminal justice system.

Moving beyond sides: The power and potential of a new public safety policy paradigm: from the executive summary by David Rogers and Kerry Naughton: Many factors have shaped state and federal public safety policies in the United States over the past twenty-five years. The most notable influence has been the widespread adoption of a tough on crime philosophy. While there is now a wealth of research that shows that tough on crime policies are not the most effective approach to public safety and actually create a serious opportunity-cost for reducing crime and victimization, the tough on crime philosophy has become part of the political and public consciousness across the United States.
Letting victims define justice: from the article by Steve Sullivan for Restorative Justice Week 2011: ....There is a growing myth that for victims, justice requires tougher penalties. If only it was that simple. There is no evidence that punishment is as important to the majority of victims as some would have us believe. When asked in one study why they reported the crime, sexual assault victims listed punishment of the offender very low on their list of priorities.
Standing Committee: from Wilma Derksen's entry on Bittersweet: I am meeting with the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights this morning. This is what I will be saying. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to have this opportunity to address you and the rest of the committee regarding Bill C-10, The Safe Streets & Community Act. ....My daughter, Candace, was 13 years old when she was abducted and found murdered six weeks later. We lived without knowing the details of what happened for two decades.
The hardest kind of justice: from Bendert Katier's article on United Academics: In countries throughout the world prisons are about to reach capacity, or more commonly, are completely overcrowded. Of those that do manage to get out of prison, in the case of the UK and the US for example, the rate of recidivism hovers around 50 and 60% every year since the mid-nineties. Meaning more than half of all former prisoners never get rehabilitated, never deal with issues of responsibility, trauma and emotion. Furthermore, legal systems are flooded with cases creating a bottleneck that causes even the smallest of cases to last far longer than they should. When you add to this situation the astronomical costs of the average criminal justice system, it is easy to see that increasingly, governments have reached a breaking point. On the other side of the coin are the victims. Between the judges and the lawyers the average victim has a limited role in the very trial that is supposed to provide them with some sense of resolution and justice.The trauma that comes with the pain and suffering can last a lifetime.
Interview with Professor Nicola Lacey: from the interview by Kim Workman of Rethinking Crime and Punishment: Professor Nicola Lacey is a Senior Research fellow and Professor of criminal theory at All Souls College, University of Oxford. She was in New Zealand recently to give the 2010 Shirley Smith Address on the subject of the Politics of Punishment. We took the opportunity to pick her brain. ....Rethinking: Someone said something to me the other day about how if we are going to put the requirements of victims in this process it should be their needs, rather than their wants. NL: Exactly. You need to have the debate about which needs can legitimately be met by the criminal justice process.
Redeeming the Wounded: New book features new vision for victims’ justice: from the press release at PRWeb.com In 2008 approximately 16,262 people were murdered in the U.S., leaving family and friends to grieve the loss. (Source: NCVRW Resource Guide) Many faith-based organizations want to help but do not know how. Due to budget cuts, funding for rehabilitation and educational, faith-based counseling programs for prisoners and crime victims has suffered in almost every locality. A new way to handle these problems is discussed in Redeeming the Wounded by Rev. Dr. B. Bruce Cook (www.xulonpress.com and www.cvaconline.org under “crime victim resources”). Cook’s new vision of victim justice involves a concept of fair and equal treatment for crime victims and prisoners based on principles of restorative justice and restitution. ....Cook’s call to action includes:
The promise of restorative justice: New approaches for criminal justice and beyond: reviewed by Martin Wright It is becoming increasingly clear that the principles of restorative justice can be used, as the editors say, outside the formal criminal justice system, and this book bears witness to that. Half is about criminal justice, and half about other applications in schools and elsewhere. The contributors reflect the book’s origins among a group at Fresno Pacific University in California, but other chapters come from Bulgaria, Canada, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom.
Restorative Justice on Death Row: healing for crime victims?: by Lisa Rea A death row inmate in Florida recently died in prison before the state could execute him. I became aware of Robert's case because I met his pen pal, Ines, a woman from Switzerland who had be-friended him through a pen pal organization, Lifespark, based in that country. After being interviewed by Ines for her organization's newsletter on the subject of forgiveness and restorative justice I learned more about the man she wrote in a Florida prison who had served some 20 years on death row. The story came to an end on December 3rd, 2010 when Robert unexpectedly died of cancer. But what I learned from my encounter with Ines was the real need to open doors more fully for all victims of violent crime wherever their offenders live and wherever their victims live (if they are still alive). I learned through Ines that her pen pal, once a very violent offender, was ready to attempt to make things right, as much as possible, with the victims or victim's family members that he had injured. The rap sheet on this man was very violent and longer than I'd ever seen. I often learn things about restorative justice and how to apply it seemingly coincidentally. When cases draw me, or more likely the people behind the cases, I have a hard time saying no.
Parallel Justice for Victims of Crime: by Eric Assur Not too many years ago Restorative Justice (RJ) was introduced, or artfully expounded on, by Howard Zehr. Now we have what appears to be a similarly unique view of the victim of crime topic through new and different lenses. The author, a seasoned and well credentialed victim advocate, and the “National Center” now offer an enlightening commentary and daunting challenge regarding the state of victim services. The book recommends a new way to do business, a paradigm shift to what is now labeled, Parallel Justice (PJ).
A justice system that focuses on the victim, as well as the offender: From the article by Harvey Voogd in the Edmonton Journal: When a crime occurs, it does not affect just one person, but also impacts their family members and the entire community. This was personally made clear to my family in the fall of 2008 when our pickup was stolen in the middle of the night. Though it was parked in front of our home in Edmonton and under a street light, neither we nor our neighbours heard anything. The truck was recovered near Alberta Beach, but was written off due to a combination of damage sustained and the age of the vehicle. We received $3,700 for the loss, but our new second-hand truck cost $11,000 -- a financial hit that we had not anticipated.
Parallel justice for victims of crime: From Howard Zehr's Blog on Restorative Justice: My friend Susan Herman, formerly executive director of the National Center for Victims of Crime, has argued for years that victims will never receive justice until their needs are addressed, regardless of whether the person who committed the crime against them is ever identified or prosecuted. As the title of her new book puts it, we need Parallel Justice for Victims of Crime because “all victims of crime are entitled to a separate path to safety and justice, one that does not replace, but that runs parallel to, the criminal justice process.” (p. 53)
Submission of Victims' Rights: A response prepared by the Restorative Justice Centre at AUT University in New Zealand to the Ministry of Justice's discussion document, "A Focus on Victims of Crime: A Review of Victims' Rights."
Restorative Justice Centre's submission to Ministry of Justice on victims' rights: The Restorative Justice Centre at AUT University in New Zealand has responded to a discussion draft titled "A Focus on Victims of Crime: A Review of Victims' Rights" on how the government might better address the needs of crime victims. Following are excerpts from RJC's response: 9. The central justice needs of victims are submitted to be accountability, vindication, empowerment, information, truth-telling and future safety. Only the first and last of these are addressed (to some degree) by the current legal process, and then only when the offender is convicted. Thus in crimes that go largely unreported, such as sexual offences, there can be no feeling of accountability in the absence of alternative processes, and victims remain unsafe. 10. The remaining four central justice needs are those which Dr Howard Zehr, known to and used by MoJ as a consultant in restorative justice, has said are “especially neglected”. They are next mentioned separately. However they overlap with needs identified by other writers.
Death row lets victims' families down: from Jessica Reed's article in guardian.co.uk: Most debates about the criminal justice system and restorative justice are criticised for not focusing enough on the impact that violence has on victims and their families. Those objections multiply tenfold when the issue at hand is capital punishment: bring up the subject and many death penalty supporters will say that executions are the only way to meet survivors' needs for justice and closure, and that to oppose capital punishment is to be anti-victim. "What if it was your own son or mother?" they ask. "Wouldn't you want the perpetrator die at the hands of our justice system?" As it turns out, the truth is rather different. During last week's fourth world congress against death penalty in Geneva, the voices of murder victims' families painted a picture seldom seen in the media. For a variety of reasons, a growing number of families do not support capital punishment. However, all families face decades of legal appeals over the execution of the perpetrator – a truly agonising wait for anyone seeking closure.
What role should crime victims play in plea bargains?
Giving crime victims the right to meet with their offenders: Virginia legislative developments: by Lisa Rea Should a crime victim have a right to meet his/her offender? It is very good to see that the Virginia State Legislature is considering the benefits that come with victim offender dialogue and restorative justice programming in general. According to Associated Press reporter Dena Potter's article in the Washington Examiner the proposed legislation is HB 913, authored by Delegate Robert B. Bell in the Virginia Legislature.
Giving crime victims the right to meet with their offenders: Virginia legislative developments: by Lisa Rea Should a crime victim have a right to meet his/her offender? It is very good to see that the Virginia State Legislature is considering the benefits that come with victim offender dialogue and restorative justice programming in general. According to Associated Press reporter Dena Potter's article in the Washington Examiner the proposed legislation is HB 913, authored by Delegate Robert B. Bell in the Virginia Legislature.
Wright, Martin. 2004. The rights and needs of victims in the criminal justice process. Published in: H. Kaptein and M Malsch, eds. Crime, victims and justice: essays on principles and practice. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004.: Let us begin by thinking about the whole picture: not only restorative justice, but the purpose of the criminal law, which I assume to be to create a just and stable society. I will not say much about the problems of conventional justice, which we all know, or the theory of restorative justice; I will concentrate on how it could work in practice, and I hope that the theory will be reflected by the practice. (excerpt)
Short thoughts on justice: Max Thorn, writing in Notes from the Land of Nod: I realized first-hand the linear nature of our justice system. We have set up a system that can exclude the very people involved in the case. We have a system that did not allow me to meet my perpetrator in court and forgive him. (They refused to give me his contact information.) I could not even choose whether or not to press charges on a case that so directly involved me.
. The struggle for "ownership of conflict": An exploration of victim participation and voice in the criminal justice system.: In the past several decades, the victims’ rights movement has advocated for a more inclusive criminal justice system, one that would allow victims greater voice. In response, states have created opportunities for victims to participate in the various stages of the justice process. One example of this inclusion is the victim impact statement that allows victims the opportunity to share their stories and victimization experiences with the court. And, while there is an abundance of research examining the effects of these statements on certain outcomes (e.g., sentencing), few studies have explored how the victim’s role in the justice process is created in relation to, or perhaps in conflict with, criminal justice workers. The current study used in-depth interviews with criminal justice officials and families of homicide victims to uncover views of victim participation. Results indicated that while most members of the courtroom workgroup felt victims should have a role in the justice process, they believed that role should be limited. Conversely, advocates and crime victims sought a more pronounced role for victims in the justice process. These disparate views caused conflict between these groups and raised questions about the nature of the role for victims in the justice process. (author's abstract)

Next 11 items » [1] 2

Sections

Victims' Role in the Criminal Justice System

Document Actions

Personal tools


Navigation Victim Support Victim Assistance Victim Compensation/Restitution Victims' Role in the Criminal Justice System Victim Impact Statements Victim Impact Panels and Awareness Programmes Victim Participation in Restorative Processes Victim Centred Restorative Justice The Shape of Things to Come: A Framework for Thinking about a Restorative Justice System Restorative Justice and Forgiveness	Info Victims' Role in the Criminal Justice System Descriptive and conceptual articles about the role of victims in the criminal justice system. Moving beyond sides: The power and potential of a new public safety policy paradigm from the executive summary by David Rogers and Kerry Naughton: Many factors have shaped state and federal public safety policies in the United States over the past twenty-five years. The most notable influence has been the widespread adoption of a tough on crime philosophy. While there is now a wealth of research that shows that tough on crime policies are not the most effective approach to public safety and actually create a serious opportunity-cost for reducing crime and victimization, the tough on crime philosophy has become part of the political and public consciousness across the United States. Letting victims define justice from the article by Steve Sullivan for Restorative Justice Week 2011: ....There is a growing myth that for victims, justice requires tougher penalties. If only it was that simple. There is no evidence that punishment is as important to the majority of victims as some would have us believe. When asked in one study why they reported the crime, sexual assault victims listed punishment of the offender very low on their list of priorities. Standing Committee from Wilma Derksen's entry on Bittersweet: I am meeting with the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights this morning. This is what I will be saying. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to have this opportunity to address you and the rest of the committee regarding Bill C-10, The Safe Streets & Community Act. ....My daughter, Candace, was 13 years old when she was abducted and found murdered six weeks later. We lived without knowing the details of what happened for two decades. The hardest kind of justice from Bendert Katier's article on United Academics: In countries throughout the world prisons are about to reach capacity, or more commonly, are completely overcrowded. Of those that do manage to get out of prison, in the case of the UK and the US for example, the rate of recidivism hovers around 50 and 60% every year since the mid-nineties. Meaning more than half of all former prisoners never get rehabilitated, never deal with issues of responsibility, trauma and emotion. Furthermore, legal systems are flooded with cases creating a bottleneck that causes even the smallest of cases to last far longer than they should. When you add to this situation the astronomical costs of the average criminal justice system, it is easy to see that increasingly, governments have reached a breaking point. On the other side of the coin are the victims. Between the judges and the lawyers the average victim has a limited role in the very trial that is supposed to provide them with some sense of resolution and justice.The trauma that comes with the pain and suffering can last a lifetime. Interview with Professor Nicola Lacey from the interview by Kim Workman of Rethinking Crime and Punishment: Professor Nicola Lacey is a Senior Research fellow and Professor of criminal theory at All Souls College, University of Oxford. She was in New Zealand recently to give the 2010 Shirley Smith Address on the subject of the Politics of Punishment. We took the opportunity to pick her brain. ....Rethinking: Someone said something to me the other day about how if we are going to put the requirements of victims in this process it should be their needs, rather than their wants. NL: Exactly. You need to have the debate about which needs can legitimately be met by the criminal justice process. Redeeming the Wounded: New book features new vision for victims’ justice from the press release at PRWeb.com In 2008 approximately 16,262 people were murdered in the U.S., leaving family and friends to grieve the loss. (Source: NCVRW Resource Guide) Many faith-based organizations want to help but do not know how. Due to budget cuts, funding for rehabilitation and educational, faith-based counseling programs for prisoners and crime victims has suffered in almost every locality. A new way to handle these problems is discussed in Redeeming the Wounded by Rev. Dr. B. Bruce Cook (www.xulonpress.com and www.cvaconline.org under “crime victim resources”). Cook’s new vision of victim justice involves a concept of fair and equal treatment for crime victims and prisoners based on principles of restorative justice and restitution. ....Cook’s call to action includes: The promise of restorative justice: New approaches for criminal justice and beyond reviewed by Martin Wright It is becoming increasingly clear that the principles of restorative justice can be used, as the editors say, outside the formal criminal justice system, and this book bears witness to that. Half is about criminal justice, and half about other applications in schools and elsewhere. The contributors reflect the book’s origins among a group at Fresno Pacific University in California, but other chapters come from Bulgaria, Canada, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom. Restorative Justice on Death Row: healing for crime victims? by Lisa Rea A death row inmate in Florida recently died in prison before the state could execute him. I became aware of Robert's case because I met his pen pal, Ines, a woman from Switzerland who had be-friended him through a pen pal organization, Lifespark, based in that country. After being interviewed by Ines for her organization's newsletter on the subject of forgiveness and restorative justice I learned more about the man she wrote in a Florida prison who had served some 20 years on death row. The story came to an end on December 3rd, 2010 when Robert unexpectedly died of cancer. But what I learned from my encounter with Ines was the real need to open doors more fully for all victims of violent crime wherever their offenders live and wherever their victims live (if they are still alive). I learned through Ines that her pen pal, once a very violent offender, was ready to attempt to make things right, as much as possible, with the victims or victim's family members that he had injured. The rap sheet on this man was very violent and longer than I'd ever seen. I often learn things about restorative justice and how to apply it seemingly coincidentally. When cases draw me, or more likely the people behind the cases, I have a hard time saying no. Parallel Justice for Victims of Crime by Eric Assur Not too many years ago Restorative Justice (RJ) was introduced, or artfully expounded on, by Howard Zehr. Now we have what appears to be a similarly unique view of the victim of crime topic through new and different lenses. The author, a seasoned and well credentialed victim advocate, and the “National Center” now offer an enlightening commentary and daunting challenge regarding the state of victim services. The book recommends a new way to do business, a paradigm shift to what is now labeled, Parallel Justice (PJ). A justice system that focuses on the victim, as well as the offender From the article by Harvey Voogd in the Edmonton Journal: When a crime occurs, it does not affect just one person, but also impacts their family members and the entire community. This was personally made clear to my family in the fall of 2008 when our pickup was stolen in the middle of the night. Though it was parked in front of our home in Edmonton and under a street light, neither we nor our neighbours heard anything. The truck was recovered near Alberta Beach, but was written off due to a combination of damage sustained and the age of the vehicle. We received $3,700 for the loss, but our new second-hand truck cost $11,000 -- a financial hit that we had not anticipated. Parallel justice for victims of crime From Howard Zehr's Blog on Restorative Justice: My friend Susan Herman, formerly executive director of the National Center for Victims of Crime, has argued for years that victims will never receive justice until their needs are addressed, regardless of whether the person who committed the crime against them is ever identified or prosecuted. As the title of her new book puts it, we need Parallel Justice for Victims of Crime because “all victims of crime are entitled to a separate path to safety and justice, one that does not replace, but that runs parallel to, the criminal justice process.” (p. 53) Submission of Victims' Rights A response prepared by the Restorative Justice Centre at AUT University in New Zealand to the Ministry of Justice's discussion document, "A Focus on Victims of Crime: A Review of Victims' Rights." Restorative Justice Centre's submission to Ministry of Justice on victims' rights The Restorative Justice Centre at AUT University in New Zealand has responded to a discussion draft titled "A Focus on Victims of Crime: A Review of Victims' Rights" on how the government might better address the needs of crime victims. Following are excerpts from RJC's response: 9. The central justice needs of victims are submitted to be accountability, vindication, empowerment, information, truth-telling and future safety. Only the first and last of these are addressed (to some degree) by the current legal process, and then only when the offender is convicted. Thus in crimes that go largely unreported, such as sexual offences, there can be no feeling of accountability in the absence of alternative processes, and victims remain unsafe. 10. The remaining four central justice needs are those which Dr Howard Zehr, known to and used by MoJ as a consultant in restorative justice, has said are “especially neglected”. They are next mentioned separately. However they overlap with needs identified by other writers. Death row lets victims' families down from Jessica Reed's article in guardian.co.uk: Most debates about the criminal justice system and restorative justice are criticised for not focusing enough on the impact that violence has on victims and their families. Those objections multiply tenfold when the issue at hand is capital punishment: bring up the subject and many death penalty supporters will say that executions are the only way to meet survivors' needs for justice and closure, and that to oppose capital punishment is to be anti-victim. "What if it was your own son or mother?" they ask. "Wouldn't you want the perpetrator die at the hands of our justice system?" As it turns out, the truth is rather different. During last week's fourth world congress against death penalty in Geneva, the voices of murder victims' families painted a picture seldom seen in the media. For a variety of reasons, a growing number of families do not support capital punishment. However, all families face decades of legal appeals over the execution of the perpetrator – a truly agonising wait for anyone seeking closure. What role should crime victims play in plea bargains? Giving crime victims the right to meet with their offenders: Virginia legislative developments by Lisa Rea Should a crime victim have a right to meet his/her offender? It is very good to see that the Virginia State Legislature is considering the benefits that come with victim offender dialogue and restorative justice programming in general. According to Associated Press reporter Dena Potter's article in the Washington Examiner the proposed legislation is HB 913, authored by Delegate Robert B. Bell in the Virginia Legislature. Giving crime victims the right to meet with their offenders: Virginia legislative developments by Lisa Rea Should a crime victim have a right to meet his/her offender? It is very good to see that the Virginia State Legislature is considering the benefits that come with victim offender dialogue and restorative justice programming in general. According to Associated Press reporter Dena Potter's article in the Washington Examiner the proposed legislation is HB 913, authored by Delegate Robert B. Bell in the Virginia Legislature. Wright, Martin. 2004. The rights and needs of victims in the criminal justice process. Published in: H. Kaptein and M Malsch, eds. Crime, victims and justice: essays on principles and practice. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004. Let us begin by thinking about the whole picture: not only restorative justice, but the purpose of the criminal law, which I assume to be to create a just and stable society. I will not say much about the problems of conventional justice, which we all know, or the theory of restorative justice; I will concentrate on how it could work in practice, and I hope that the theory will be reflected by the practice. (excerpt) Short thoughts on justice Max Thorn, writing in Notes from the Land of Nod: I realized first-hand the linear nature of our justice system. We have set up a system that can exclude the very people involved in the case. We have a system that did not allow me to meet my perpetrator in court and forgive him. (They refused to give me his contact information.) I could not even choose whether or not to press charges on a case that so directly involved me. . The struggle for "ownership of conflict": An exploration of victim participation and voice in the criminal justice system. In the past several decades, the victims’ rights movement has advocated for a more inclusive criminal justice system, one that would allow victims greater voice. In response, states have created opportunities for victims to participate in the various stages of the justice process. One example of this inclusion is the victim impact statement that allows victims the opportunity to share their stories and victimization experiences with the court. And, while there is an abundance of research examining the effects of these statements on certain outcomes (e.g., sentencing), few studies have explored how the victim’s role in the justice process is created in relation to, or perhaps in conflict with, criminal justice workers. The current study used in-depth interviews with criminal justice officials and families of homicide victims to uncover views of victim participation. Results indicated that while most members of the courtroom workgroup felt victims should have a role in the justice process, they believed that role should be limited. Conversely, advocates and crime victims sought a more pronounced role for victims in the justice process. These disparate views caused conflict between these groups and raised questions about the nature of the role for victims in the justice process. (author's abstract) Next 11 items » [1] 2 Document Actions RSS feed Send this Print this	Africa Asia Europe Latin America Middle East North America and Caribbean Pacific Search 10475 publications on restorative justice Recent RJOB Comments Changing prison culture Feb 12, 2012 Controversies Around Restorative Justice Feb 07, 2012 "Immature humanity" Jan 31, 2012 More… Slide Show: What is Restorative Justice Click to view a slideshow discussing the definition of restorative justice. Feb 07, 2012 Sycamore Tree Project® report from Australia Feb 07, 2012 "Everything" by the IFI drama team Jan 31, 2012 APAC Nova Lima Receives National Recognition Jan 31, 2012 APAC Costa Rica Jan 24, 2012 Sycamore Tree Project®: A prison chaplain describes the impact