Chapter 1
The victim plays an integral role in the criminal justice system. Victims enjoy various rights such as reasonable protection, during the entire criminal process; the victims need to be treated with fairness. In many criminal systems across the world, data is one of the critical assets. Data collected from victims must be protected from access by unauthorized persons. The first chapter provides a diversified view of victim’s involvement in criminal process. During the criminal process, victim’s involvement involves several advantages and disadvantages. There are various human rights groups that support the rights of victims in the criminal process. According to the Human Rights Watch, the rights of both defendants and victims should be equally protected. The judicial system ensures that victims access justice through punishing crime offenders. Mc Donald is one of the philosophers who have had a significant contribution on the rights of victims in criminal processes. However, punishing offenders does not only happen to the benefit of the victims but for the entire society.
Other people who had significant contributions on the role of victims in criminal process include Abraham Goldstein and Gail Heriot. Abraham Goldstein developed the argument that exclusion of victims in criminal process was derived from historical misunderstandings. The power of private prosecutors played a critical role in limiting victim participation. On the other hand, Gail Heriot develops a slightly different argument on victim participation. According to him, the entire criminal procedure is pragmatic. Gail cites a transition in criminal process from victim based to state based due to changes in the society such as low desire of victims to engage in prosecution process. Victim exclusion is perceived both from the perspectives of defendant fairness and various institutional dynamics. In some jurisdictions, victims reserve the right to speak during sentencing where they become study participants. Failure to provide victims an opportunity to speak at sentencing could encourage victims to take legal action aganaist the court.
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Chapter 2
Chapter two outlines the various definitions of the term victims in criminal process. The concept victim is applied differently in various jurisdictions and legal contexts. Chapter two explains how an individual becomes a victim and how individuals acquire the victim status. Generally, the term victim refers to people harmed by various criminal acts. Government entities and business enterprises are not incorporated as victims in judicial proceedings. Attaining the victim status is a process. Variations in convictions and variations in decisions do not guarantee the victim status. Victims engage in criminal process through focus on attempted harm. There are some statutes that associate the formal victim status to actions of filling charges. On the other hand, other statutes attach victim status as pre charge.
Courts experience several challenges in the cases involving a large number of potential victims similar to the cases where victims in a criminal proceeding have conflicting interests. Courts experience a challenge in differentiating between victims implicated of a crime and innocent victims. However, many statues support the argument that victims lack the capacity to represent their own interests. In some criminal proceedings, victims comprise of minors and people with limited capacity. There are some situations where persons can be excluded from being defined as victims. Some of the common cases include instances of wrongful accusations, and wrong convictions. In the modern criminal justice system, both defendants and victims experience bias. In the case of McCleskey v Kemp
, landmark Supreme Court decision demonstrated the diverse risks in capital sentencing; the defendants have an obligation to demonstrate how their rights were violated in the criminal system. In his case where he was charged and convicted with armed robbery, McCleskey cited issues of racial discrimination in his conviction which comprised of a violation of fourteenth and eighth amendments. In the case McCleskey did not demonstrate violation of his rights.
