Victims and the Criminal Justice System: The Vagaries of Integration

Abstract

In the U. S., some claim victim integration into criminal justice is nearly complete, as evidenced by the implementation of various victim rights and service programs nationwide. Others claim integration has been scarcely realized, as evidenced by the practices associated with these rights and programs. A question that subsequently emerges is not simply which claim is more accurate, but rather how is the success or failure of integrative efforts to be determined. Success defined by the presence of victim rights and service programs ignores operational realities, whereas failure defined by those realities has focused on the contrary state of victim participation in criminal justice decision-making. This particular empirical focus overlooks a host of other operational realities by which to assess success or failure. The current study reports on certain of these neglected realities, namely the role of criminal justice in facilitating service delivery, and criminal justice perspectives on victim service needs and victims. These perspectives are examined using survey data obtained from 893 criminal justice officials Oaw enforcement officers, judges, state's attorneys, and probation officers) from a large Florida County. The findings show the integration process is still wanting in the following respects: criminal justice perceptions of victims are often negative, criminal justice knowledge of victims services is lacking, and victim service delivery is highly fragmented. The meaning and policy implications ofthese findings are also discussed.

Offender and state compensation for victims of crime

“…Many of these were introduced during the 1960s and 1970s in response to an increasingly vocal victims’ lobby that repeatedly drew attention to the perceived secondary victimization that victims suffered at the hands of criminal justice systems whose objectives and values were focused upon offenders (Hall, 2010: 16−43; Strang, 2002: 25−42). Lucken (1999) and Young (1999) commented on the enactment in the United States of the Victims of Crime Act 1984 (VOCA), which established the Crime Victims’ Fund to support state crime compensation and victim advocacy schemes, and on the increasing focus in restorative community justice on offender accountability and the empowerment of crime victims. Over the past decade there have been similar developments in the European Union (European Commission, 2012; European Union, 2001) by which offenders are to be encouraged to compensate their victims or to make reparation via restorative justice.…”