Victims and criminal justice: what's next? / Social Science Research Network, 14 Dec 2006
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=951548
Federal Sentencing Reporter, Vol. 19, No. 2, p. 83, December 2006
Michael M. O'Hear
"Proponents often present victims' rights as a matter of counterbalancing defendants' procedural rights with analogous procedural rights for victims. While politically appealing, this characterization does not capture the full range of what victims might hope to gain through their involvement in the criminal justice system, including financial reparations, explanation and apology, rehabilitation of their victimizers, protection of privacy, and support in the psychological healing process. This broader agenda of enhancing victim well-being is apparent in many recent and proposed federal criminal justice reforms. Although proposals emerging from the victims' rights movement are often assumed to be harmful to defendant interests, they may serve to undermine the strict legalist mindset that has dominated federal criminal justice since the 1980s. Such a development would potentially benefit defendants in a variety of ways." [Sub required]