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.

Criticizes the balance of justice in the American justice system, discussing the rights and implementation of the rights granted to victims of crime, and describing ways to improve the system and better support victims with assistance, compensation, and protection from the accused.

A critical examination of the dramatic changes in criminal justice over the last two decades and the first full-length study of the law and politics of criminal justice in the era of the Charter and victims? rights.

"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.

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

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.

A powerful examination of what's wrong with our criminal justice system and what needs to be done to fix it.

In recent times, the idea of 'victims' rights' has come to feature prominently in political, criminological and legal discourse, as well as being subject to regular media comment. The concept nevertheless remains inherently elusive, and there is still considerable ambiguity as to the origin and substance of such rights. This monograph deconstructs the nature and scope of the rights of victims of crime against the backdrop of an emerging international consensus on how victims ought to be treated and the role they ought to play. The essence of such rights is ascertained not only by surveying the plethora of international standards which deal specifically with crime victims, but also by considering the potential cross-applicability of standards relating to victims of abuse of power, with whom they have much in common. In this book Jonathan Doak considers the parameters of a number of key rights which international standards suggest victims ought to be entitled to. He then proceeds to ask whether victims are able to rely upon such rights within a domestic criminal justice system characterised by structures, processes and values which are inherently exclusionary, adversarial and punitive in nature.