Victims Still

The 1980s saw official crime policy in the United States shifting its focus from crime and criminals to victimization and victims. In this thought-provoking book, Robert Elias evaluates the effectiveness of this shift in policy and argues that victims have been politically manipulated for official objectives. From a thorough examination of victim legislation, get-tough crime policies, media crime coverage, the victim movement, and the wars on crime and drugs, Elias concludes that little victim support has actually occurred and that victimization is, in fact, escalating. He argues for a change in the structural sources of crime and proposes a `new culture' that could lead to substantially less crime.

Volume 6 in the 6-volume series titled Criminal Justice: Contemporary Literature in Theory and Practice. This compilation of articles attempts to fill gaps in existing resources with some of the best current statements on the topic. Subjects include the characteristics of victims, the effects of crime on victims, and some contemporary theories of victimization. Also included are evaluations of a variety of victim-oriented policies and programs, such as victim assistance, peace-making, and victim-impact statements. This title will be of great utility to students, scholars, and others with interests in the literature of criminal justice and criminology.

This book contributes to the study of collective memory and the sociology of terrorism by analysing the role of memorialization in relation to terrorism, its victims, and the broader society. While various social scientists have extensively theorized and analysed how trauma and memory interact, grow apart, and reinforce each other, this book puts the rights and needs of the victims centre-stage. Departing from the prescriptive, legal blueprints of memory, this book introduces the concept of ‘memorial needs’ to challenge and complement existing victimological frameworks. It critically assesses the efficacy of public memorialization and its success in assisting those affected by violence by exploring how victims engage with memory and memorialization. It investigates personal and collective responses to urban terrorism in Europe that have taken a wide range of forms including media coverage, spontaneous memorials and public mobilizations, literary and artistic works, trials, and controversial counter-terrorism measures. Making a case against the fetishization of memory as an overarching answer to curing visible and invisible wounds provoked by violence, Victims and Memory After Terrorism sends out a practical invitation to the field to 'repair symbolic reparations' in a way that memorialisation is not just an expression of potential, an aspiration for a more moral and just society and a promise of healing for the victimised. An accessible and compelling read, this book will appeal to students and scholars of victimology, criminology, sociology, politics and those interested in the relationship between collective memory and terrorism.

Justice for Victims brings together the world’s leading scholars in the fields of study surrounding victimization in a pioneering international collection. This book focuses on the current study of victims of crime, combining both legal and social-scientific perspectives, articulating both in new directions and questioning whether victims really do have more rights in our modern world. This book offers an interdisciplinary approach, covering large-scale (political) victimization, terrorist victimization, sexual victimization and routine victimization. Split into three sections, this book provides in-depth coverage of: victims' rights, transitional justice and victims' perspectives, and trauma, resilience and justice. Victims' rights are conceptualised in the human rights framework and discussed in relation to supranational, international and regional policies. The transitional justice section covers victims of war from those caught between peace and justice, as well as post-conflict justice. The final section focuses on post-traumatic stress, connecting psychological and anthropological perceptions in analysing collective violence, mass victimization and trauma. This book addresses challenging and new issues in the field of victimology and the study of transitional and restorative justice. As such, it will be of interest to researchers, practitioners and students interested in the fields of victimology, transitional justice, restorative justice and trauma work.

After the Second World War, the role of the victim in criminal conflict became an object of interest for academics. But it was only in the 1960s that the importance of providing protection and assistance to crime victims was highlighted in particular by the victims' movement, which inaugurated a new era of criminal justice in systems throughout the world. Moving beyond just the role of controlling crime and punishing the offender, the criminal justice system also began to contribute to the victims' rehabilitation and to help the victim to move on from the event psychologically and emotionally. Although some criminological research was conducted on this topic, the effect that the criminal justice system and victim support services have on the well-being of crime victims is still uncertain. The current study sought to understand the healing process of victims of crime, the potential consequences of their participation on the criminal justice system, and the support of victim centers. Moreover, it aimed to find out whether the existence of a Victim Support Act would change the treatment that the victim receives in the criminal justice system. Thus this research was conducted based in two countries – Switzerland and Brazil – where the outcome of the victims' movement on the criminal justice system was different, as was the participation of the victim in the criminal justice system and the government's provision of support. In order to conduct this research the qualitative method was employed, which is the most efficient to gather sensitive information. Interviews with crime victims were the main source of information. Hearing observation and document research were used as complementary sources. The results of this research show that victims who have contact with the criminal justice system and victim services are not more likely to recover than those who had no contact. This is to say, the support offered has no major effects; the influence of the criminal justice system and the victim support services in the emotional well-being of crime victims is rather neutral. However, considering that the sample is not representative, findings are not expected to be generalized. Instead, findings may give insight to practitioners or to future criminal justice policy makers, suggesting what may work to improve the emotional well-being of crime victims, as well as suggesting further studies.

The gap between what the law and legal processes deliver for victims of domestic abuse and what they actually need has, in some instances, arguably widened. This book provides the reader with a thorough understanding of the remedies available to victims in the civil, family and criminal law. It contends that expectations of the legal remedies have increased as the number and scope of remedies has proliferated. It further examines how legal responses to domestic abuse have evolved over the past decade and explores how the victim’s rights narrative and associated litigation, which has become prevalent in legal discourse and criminal justice reforms, has shifted expectations and impacted domestic abuse policy and law. The book presents a valuable addition to the literature in drawing on a discourse familiar to those with an interest in human rights, demonstrating its impact on a substantive area of law of great significance to both family and criminal lawyers and anyone with an interest in domestic abuse and legal responses.