This invaluable one-stop reference source supplies students and general readers with historical and current information on the victims' rights revolution in the United States, providing analysis on everything from human rights reports to Supreme Court cases that allows the reader to fully understand these documents. Victims' rights represent the greatest change in the criminal justice system within the last 30 years. Victims' Rights: A Documentary and Reference Guide traces the origins, evolution, and results of the victims' rights movement. It puts victims' rights in a legal, historical, and contemporary context, and comprehensively collects important victims' rights documents in a single volume—perfect for students as well as general readers. Bringing together dozens of varied documents such as presidential task force reports and recommendations, Supreme Court cases, state constitutions, human rights reports, critical articles, and political documents, this book is an indispensable resource for those seeking to understand the origins and modern consequences of American victims' rights policy. The author's accompanying commentary and analysis helps the reader to gain a complete comprehension of the significance of these documents, while numerous bibliographic sources provide additional resources for interested readers.

Legal reform in the name of victims of crime began to appear in state and federal law in the 1960's. It can be seen in victim restitution and compensation laws, in the reform of rape laws, drunk driving statutes, bail laws, and in provisions for victim impact statements at sentencing, to name a few. Over time in many jurisdictions these specific victim provisions were joined by a more general, more comprehensive victims' bills of rights. Thus, by the close of the twentieth century, thirty-three states had added victims' rights amendments to their state constitutions and each of the states had general statutory declarations of victims' rights.