Why have many victim-centred policy initiatives met with so little success? How have those initiatives unfolded differently in different global jurisdictions over different periods of time? This book aims to address these questions.
Building on a major research project exploring victims’ access to justice over time and place, Victims' Access to Justice considers the potentialities for victims’ participation in criminal justice systems and in victim programmes both in historical and comparative context. It considers a range of topics: ways of identifying and accommodating victims’ needs and senses of justice; the impacts for criminal justice systems of seeking to accommodate these; and the ways in which adversarial criminal justice systems, in particular, may enable or inhibit victim participation.
This is essential reading for all those engaged in understanding and working with victims of crime.
Author(s): Pamela Cox, Sandra Walklate
Series: Victims, Culture and Society
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 248
City: London
Cover
Endorsement
Half Title
Series Information
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Author Biographies
Chapter 1 Introduction: Victims’ Access to Justice: A (Brief) Contemporary History 1945–2015
Introduction
Setting the Scene
1945–1975: Welfarism and the Politicisation of the Crime Victim
1976–1999 Consumerism and the Further Politicisation of the Crime Victim
2000 Onwards: Rebalancing and the Politics of Amnesia
Understanding Access to Justice
About This Book
Concluding Thoughts
Note
References
Section 1 Mapping the Historical Continuities of Victimhood
Chapter 2 The Crown Against…: The Victim and the State in the Pursuit of Criminal Prosecution, 1840–1985
Introduction
The Assumption of State Responsibility Over Prosecution
Private Prosecutor Or Public Prosecutor?
A Limited Role for State-Led Prosecution
Process of Attrition: Victim Or State as Prosecutor
The Victim as a Third Party to Prosecutions
Continuing Problems of Resourcing Prosecution
Changing Public Criminal Prosecution: Establishing the Crown Prosecution Service
Conclusions
References
Chapter 3 Divergent Victims in the Old Bailey, 1950–1979
Introduction
Part 1
Data and Methods
Part 2
Historians and the Victim
Conforming Victims
Elderly Women
Children
Part 3
Divergent Victims
Victims of Sexual Offences
‘Homosexual’ Victims of Violent and Other Offences
Minority Ethnic Victims
Conclusions
Bibliography
Chapter 4 Using Crime Survey Data to Track and Measure Access to Justice: Problems and Possibilities
Introduction
The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and Its History
Defining and Measuring Access to Justice: A Data-Driven Approach
Step 1
Steps 2 and 3
Step 4
Estote Parati: Some Information Will Be Lost!
Suggestions for an Effective Analytical Strategy to Access to Justice
The Importance of Being Clear On the Historical Period And/or the Units of the Survey to Select
Machine Learning Applications Can Be Useful to Analyse a Large Body of Data and Boost Comprehension of Access to Justice
Conclusion
Notes
References
Chapter 5 The Changing Landscape of Service Delivery for Victims of Crime in England and Wales in the Last Fifty Years
Introduction
The Early Years (1970–1999)
The Structure of Victim Assistance
Victim Contact
The Population Targeted
The Nature of the Services Offered
The Structure of Victim Assistance
Victim Contact
The Population Targeted
The Nature of the Services Offered
The Structure of Victim Assistance
Contact With Victims
The Population Targeted
The Nature of Services Offered
The Voice for Victims: Victim Support 2000–2011
Fragmentation: Victim Assistance, 2012–2022
Summary and Discussion
Notes
References
Section 2 The Legacies of Adversarialism for Victims’ Access to Justice
Chapter 6 Gender, Sexual Violence, and Access to Justice in India
Introduction
Historical Context: Indian Criminal Justice System
Landmark Cases: ‘Laboratories for Judicial Reform’
Discussion
Notes
References
Chapter 7 ‘I Want Your Tears and I Want Them to Be Real’: Exploring the Construction of ‘Ideal’ and ‘Non-Ideal’ Victims …
Introduction
The Independent Assessment Process for Indian Residential School Abuse
Theorising Settler Colonialism
Critical Victimology and Settler Colonialism
The ‘Ideal’ Victim as a Credible and Reliable Witness
Performative Labour in the Construction of ‘Ideal’ Victims
‘Ideal’ Victims as Financially Profitable Subjects
Conclusion
Acknowledgements
Funding Statement
Notes
References
Chapter 8 Analysing the Victim Review Scheme of Decisions Not to Prosecute in England and Wales and Within Comparative ...
Introduction
International Trends in Europe and the Common Law
The European Union Directive and European Developments
Common Law and Resistance to Prosecutorial Review
Victims’ Right to Review Scheme in England and Wales
Killick and Rationales for Internal Review in England and Wales
The Victims’ Right to Review Scheme: Scope and Aims
Limitations of the Victims’ Right to Review Scheme in England and Wales, and Comparative Perspectives Within the ...
The Australian Context
The Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (2017)
Case Studies Highlighting the Need for Victim Review Schemes in Australian Jurisdictions
New South Wales Victims’ Right of Review Policy
Conclusion
Notes
References
Section 3 Victims’ Access to Justice: Lessons From Non-Adversarial Jurisdictions
Chapter 9 The Swedish Welfare Model and the Development of Social Services for Crime Victims
Introduction
The Swedish Welfare Model
The Rise of the Crime Victim
A New Social Services Act
NGOs Took On the Task of Supporting Crime Victim
NGOs Lobby for a Clarification of the Social Services’ Responsibility for Crime Victims
The Government Clarifies the Social Services’ Responsibility for Crime Victims
Competing Perspectives, But Joint Efforts
Hybridity, State, Market, and Entrepreneurs
Conclusion
References
Chapter 10 Victim Participatory Rights in Dutch Criminal Proceedings: A Review of Research On Their Potential Effectiveness
Introduction4
Terminology and Definitions
Findings From Empirical Research
Active Participatory Rights
Filing a Claim for Compensation
Delivering a Victim Statement
Accessing Case Files and Adding Relevant Documents to These Files
Passive Participatory Rights
Correct Treatment
Information On the Progress of the Criminal Investigation and Prosecution
Synthesis and Discussion of Findings
Conclusion
Notes
References
Chapter 11 The Critical Presence of Absent Victims in Criminal Policy: Fragments of Spanish Legislation
Introduction
Victim Policy Evolution in Spain
Victims of Terrorism
Victims of Other Violent Crimes, Including Sexual Crimes
Intimate Partner Violence and Human Trafficking
Victims of the Civil War and Francoism
The 2015 Statute of the Victim of Crime and the Expanding Notion of the Vulnerable Victim
The 8/2021 Act On Integral Protection Measures On Violence Against Minors
Conclusions
References
Chapter 12 Evolution of Victims’ Access to Criminal Justice in Brazil
Introduction
The Brazilian Criminal Procedure Code of 1941: Neglect
The Brazilian Constitution of 1988: Promise
The Creation of the Special Courts for Minor Crimes in 1995: The Sketch
The Maria Da Penha Law in 2006: Revolution
Subsequent Legal Reforms: Modest Expansion
From Discourse to Practice: Advances and Delusions
Conclusion
References
Index
