This book analyses the rights of crime victims within a human rights paradigm, and describes the inconsistencies resulting from attempts to introduce the procedural rights of victims within a criminal justice system that views crime as a matter between the state and the offender, and not as one involving the victim. To remedy this problem, the book calls for abandoning the concept of crime as an infringement of a state’s criminal laws and instead reinterpreting it as a violation of human rights. The state’s right to punish the offender would then be replaced by the rights of victims to see those responsible for violating their human rights convicted and punished and by the rights of offenders to be treated as accountable agents.

This edition includes newly contributed and updated articles utilizing the latest research and studies in the areas of violence, abuse, and victims' rights from experts in the field. It has a stronger focus on emerging issues and policies in the field of victimology than other comparable texts. It utilizes the latest research and studies in the areas of violence, abuse, and victims, rights. It focuses on the emerging issues and policies in the fields of victim rights and crime prevention. New 3 Part organization with the more common victimizing crimes first, followed by responses to victimizations, and then newer issues and types of victimizations in Part 3. There is a new chapters on human trafficking and cyber crime. There is a major expansion of the human services response and school victimizations. It is updated throughout with new data and research.

Prior to the emergence of a victims' movement in this country in the 1970s, crime victims had only limited formal rights and remedies in the modern American criminal justice system. With the active encouragement of those involved in the victims' movement and guidance supplied by a national Task Force on Victims of Crime, convened by President Reagan in 1982, federal and state authorization of crime victim rights and remedies has increased exponentially in the subsequent years. In fact, it has been estimated that there are currently tens of thousands of statutes that directly or indirectly affect crime victim rights and interests, as well as crime victim-related constitutional provisions in a majority of states. The authors describe the constitutional and legislative provisions addressing the principal crime victim rights and remedies and leading judicial opinions that have interpreted them. In addition to presenting the current state of the law in this area, the text describes the status of implementation of these rights and remedies, relevant empirical research, and a sampling of pertinent policy analysis. This comprehensive portrait of the past and current status of crime victim rights and remedies in this country will inform the continued evolution of law and practice in this area. The third edition of Crime Victim Rights and Remedies continues to address the evolution of key crime victim rights (e.g., the rights to notice of and to be present and heard at criminal justice proceedings) and includes the state constitutional amendments, legislation, court decisions, and empirical studies completed since the second edition in 2010. Of particular note is an expanded federal section regarding each right and remedy in the federal Crime Victims' Rights Act, enacted in 2004, and court decisions that have interpreted the Act in its initial decade of implementation. The third edition also adds a new chapter concerning crime victim rights and remedies in the United States armed services and internationally.

This year more than 20 million Americans will become victims of crime. Very few will get the help they need to get their lives back on track. Parallel Justice for Victims of Crime presents a new approach, designed to help victims rebuild their lives now being piloted from Vermont to California by police chiefs, prosecutors, corrections officials, victim advocates and community leaders. Drawing on more than 30 years of criminal justice experience, including almost 8 years as executive director of the National Center for Victims of Crime, author Susan Herman explains why justice for all requires more than holding offenders accountable it means addressing victims' three basic needs: to be safe, to recover from the trauma of the crime, and regain control of their lives. With guiding principles and practical examples of how to respond to victims of any kind of crime, Parallel Justice for Victims of Crime provides a roadmap for everyone who wants to pursue this new vision of justice.

"Who qualifies, how to qualify, how to apply, how much is available, rights of relatives, who to contact"--Cover.

Over the past two decades, violent crime has become one of the most serious domestic problems in the United States. Approximately 13 million people (nearly 5% of the U.S. population) are victims of crime every year, and of that, approximately one and a half million are victims of violent crime. Ensuring quality of life for victims of crime is therefore a major challenge facing policy makers and mental health providers. Helping Victims of Violent Crime grounds victim assistance treatments in a victim-centered and strengths perspective. The book explores victim assistance through systems theory: the holistic notion of examining the client in his/her environment and a key theoretical underpinning of social work practice. The basic assumption of systems theoryis homeostasis. A crime event causes a change in homeostasis and often results in disequilibrium. The victim's focus at this point is to regain equilibrium. Under the systems metatheory, coping, crisis and attribution theories provide a good framework for victim-centered intervention. Stress and coping theories posit that three factors determine the state of balance: perception of the event, available situational support, and coping mechanisms. Crisis theory offers a framework to understand a victim's response to a crime. The basic assumption of crisis theory asserts that when a crisis occurs, people respond with a fairly predictable physical and emotional pattern. The intensity and manifestation of this pattern may vary from individual to individual. Finally, attribution theory asserts that individuals make cognitive appraisals of a stressful situation in both positive and negative ways. These appraisals are based on the individual's assertion that they can understand, predict, and control circumstances and result in the victim's assignment of responsibility for solving or helping with problems that have arisen from the crime event. In summary, these four theories can delineate a definitive model for approach to the victimization process. It is from this theoretical framework that Treating Victims of Violent Crime offers assessments and interventions with a fuller understanding of the victimization recovery process. The book includes analysis of victims of family violence (child abuse, elder abuse, partner violence) as well as stranger violence (sexual assault, homicide, and terrorism).

"Don't blame the victim" is a cornerstone maxim of Anglo-American jurisprudence, but should the law generally ignore a victim's behavior in determining a defendant's liability? Victims' Rights and Victims' Wrongs criticizes the current criminal law approach and outlines a more fair, coherent, and efficient set of rules to recognize that victims sometimes co-author their own losses or injuries. Evaluating a number of controversial cases involving euthanasia, sadomasochism, date rape, battered wives, and "innocent" aggressors, Vera Bergelson builds a theoretical foundation for reform. Her approach to comparative criminal liability takes into account the actions of both the perpetrator and the victim and offers a unitary explanation for consent, self-defense, and provocation. This innovative book supplies a practical and coherent mechanism for evaluating the impact of a victim's conduct on a perpetrator's liability in a variety of circumstances, including those that are now artificially excluded from comparative analysis.

In the new and revised 2005 edition of this outstanding casebook, authors Professor Doug Beloof, Judge Paul Cassell, and victims attorney Steven Twist review the expanding role of the crime victim in criminal procedure. Crime victims' law has been neglected in the education of law students even though it represents the single greatest "revolution" in criminal procedure in the last twenty years. The book addresses that neglect and provides lively and provocative materials about how victims fit into the contemporary criminal justice process. The casebook examines the role of the crime victim from the early stages of the criminal process (investigation and charging) through pre-trial discovery, plea bargaining, trial, and sentencing. The book includes not only recent caselaw concerning crime victims' rights, but also law review articles, victim impact statements, and other interesting materials. The authors provide the perfect set of reading materials for a full course on victims law, a seminar style discussion class, or supplemental materials for a conventional criminal procedure course. A teacher's manual will be available. "Every now and then, a book comes along that can truly be said to be a landmark in its field. . . . Victims in Criminal Procedure is such a book." --The Crime Victims Report on the First Edition

Analyzes how the U.S. victims rights movement has expanded the concept of victimhood to include family members and others close to the direct victims of violent crime.

In the nearly four decades since the First International Symposium on Victimology convened in Jerusalem in 1973, some concepts and themes have continued to hold a prominent place in the literature, while new ones have also emerged. Exploring enduring topics such as conceptions of victimhood, secondary and hidden victimization, and social services f