History and Effectiveness of Victim Rights Legislation and Programs

Assignment 2: Effects of crime and how the public services support victims and witnesses of crime

The criminal justice system is often criticized for re-victimizing victims of crime. What changes could the “system” make in order to minimize the re-victimizationexperience for victims of crime? Include examples from the criminal justice system, victim services and the

Victimology draws together academics, activists, and policymakers from a variety of backgrounds and identifies three main victimological perspectives. Positivist victimology dates back to the emergence of victimology as a discipline in the 1940s. It looks to understand the process of victimisation and why people become victims of crime by examining the relationship between the victim and offender through an agency lens. Newburn (2013) identifies positivists such as Miers (1989) who see victimisation as being causal in nature and identify three key features:

In a criminal investigation case, a victim is usually seeking justice for an offence against them personally. Victims can

This non-profit agency services to victims of rape and any type of sexual assault and provides trained advocates to offer hospital and/or legal accompaniments. The agency also provides specialized crisis counseling for victims and their families (contactburlco.org). My work at Contact was focused on a grant called Media Literacy, which offered preventative education within school systems and the community. Media literacy helped students and individuals learn the importance of becoming critical consumers of the media in order to develop their own opinions, as well as understand how media messages shape our culture and society (medialiteracyproject.org). Advocating for media justice is important when discussing the Violence Against Women Act in terms of thinking about how the media portrays women and the issues of violence. Today, we see countless media in which women are being objectified and also how the media desensitizes viewers to violence. While working at Contact of Burlington County I was able to teach youth to be proactive media consumers and media upstanders by choosing to make a positive stand on behalf of themselves and others. The Violence Against Women Act also provides programs to combat these views on domestic

When advocating for victims one of the most common forms of advocacy is lobbying. The National Conference of State Legislatures defines lobbying as the practice of promoting, opposing, or in any manner influencing or attempting to influence the introduction, defeat, or enactment of legislation before any legislative body (ncsl.org). Lobbyist can be individuals, local groups, national corporations, or coalitions of any of these entities. “The purpose of lobbying is to inform, educate and persuade elected official to support certain legislative goals”(p.95). Money can buy a lot of things but in the case of lobbying many people believe it simply buys a vote and doesn’t always produce a solution or an effective outcome to certain legislative goals.

Throughout every state and county across the United States there are various means for offering assistance to victims of crime. Each municipality has its own victim advocacy program. For smaller areas such as rural counties they use the next organizational level up as their victim advocates. For the purpose of this paper I sat down with Ms. Mari Dennis of the Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD). Ms. Dennis is employed as the Victim Advocacy Unit Coordinator and is embedded within the Investigations division of the department. CSPD employs four staff victim advocates and around 35 volunteer advocates.

There is no doubt that Victim Rights have dramatically changed for the better since the 1960s, and that also applies to the State of North Carolina. North Carolina is not where it needs to be in terms of Victim Rights, but it is has certainly advanced in the topic over the years since it was first established. North Carolina, along with every other state in the United States, has recognized that victims need assistance when they are or a loved one is involved in a crime. Our textbook has shown that victims experience all different types of emotions when they are in fact victims. These emotions include: fear, guilt, loneliness, powerlessness, isolation and helplessness, just to name a few (Wallace & Roberson, 2015). Victims also face direct property loss, medical and mental health care, needed victim services, lost workdays, lost school days, pain and suffering, loss of affection, death, and legal costs associated with tort claims and second-generation loss (Wallace & Roberson, 2015). It is ridiculous that “violent crime and its resulting injuries account for 3 percent of all US medical spending “(Wallace & Roberson, 2015). “Victims usually suffer three types of losses. They are as follows:

Before the victims movement, victims were ignored in most court systems by the professionals who process criminal cases. Victims were often seen as inconvenient. The victims rights movement has changed this unfair treatment. As time passed prosecutors’ offices in the most jurisdictions spend greater time than they did in the past giving notice to victims and consulting with them about decisions made in their case. The staff of the prosecutors offices and court systems have a responsibility of shepherding victims through the intricacies of the criminal justice system. For example, they send a notice providing information about the systems operation, and to help them secure protection of threatened victims who have suffered harm. Laws have changed to allow victims to be present throughout trials in a number of jurisdictions. Victims information or their voices are heard in court, mainly at sentencing, and at the time guilty pleas are received. All of this has had changed by giving the victim the respect and dignity they need, honoring their participation and

The three key goals victims can pursue through the criminal justice system is to punish the offender, compel law breakers to undergo rehabilitate treatment and restitution. Punishment is usually justified on utilitarian grounds as evil. Although it is argued that making transgressors suffer curbs future criminality in a number of ways. It is said if an offender gets punished by unpleasant and unwanted consequences it will most likely discouraged him/her from breaking the law again. Also it satisfies victims thirst for revenge and prevents future vigilantism and incapacitates dangerous predators so they can be off the streets; a safer community. Rehabilitation, some victims want professionals to help offenders become decent,

Most cities and counties in Colorado as well as across the United States have a Victims Advocate Program. These offices are staffed with trained people who care about the victim and their rights during their involvement in the criminal justice system. Their goal is to help lessen the impact of being a victim of crime or a witness to a crime, and provide information about how the court system works and the current status of their case. Remember, it is the very important for the victim to keep law enforcement that is working the case informed of any changes; keeping the lines of communication clear, open and up to date.

The Violence against Women Act (VAWA) of 1994 marked a turning point in our national response to the problems of both sexual assault and domestic violence. For the first time it considered the ways in which sexual assault and domestic violence were similar: they are both crimes of violence against women, rooted in historical and cultural traditions and attitudes. VAWA also addressed the ways our laws failed to prosecute and punish perpetrators of these crimes of violence, while often increasing the trauma experienced by victims. The act included measures designed to protect crime victims' rights and provide crime victims with compensation, establish hotlines for sexual assault and family violence victims, establish sex offender registration and community notification, protect women from "date rape," and coordinate law enforcement and social services to deal with crime in a unified manner.

A person who experiences a traumatic event may be expected to experience a range of psychological effects, and, for many years, it was assumed that these psychological effects would be the same regardless of the cause of the injury. However, a growing body of knowledge is demonstrating that the impact of criminal victimization is different than the impact of other types of injuries because the intent element makes a difference in how the victim perceives the harm. In addition, victims of different crimes may respond differently to victimization. The psychological effects of victimization are important because they can help guide the criminal justice system for how to interact with victims and how to make the process more victim-appropriate. For example, victims of violent crimes, like sexual assaults, may benefit more from a victim-centered criminal justice approach than victims of other types of crimes (Resick, 1987). However, one of the problems with the traditional approach to victimology is that it has distinguished between different groups of victims. Emerging research suggest that victim needs are similar across the entire spectrum of crime, particularly the victims' needs for information about the crime and the needs for financial restitution to make them whole (ten Boom & Kuijpers, 2012).

This journal focuses on the aims of criminal justice system in delivering quality service to the community through public safety enhancement. The author has highlighte some of the measures and steps the system has taken to ensure it achieves its objectives and interaction with various parties. These parties include; victims, witnesses, the accused and criminal justice professionals.

The victim care program is an important resource that helps victims in the criminal justice system. Refugee and immigrant victims can find it hard to deal with the criminal justice system in the United States. This program is designed to assists these individuals in the court system. This paper will focus on the Victim Care Program in Fort Wayne. An evaluation of this program is aimed at understanding its role and effectiveness. The data provides by Victim Care Program will help to evaluate the worth of the program. Understanding these roles will help to create recommendations that can help to improve service delivery in its operations.