3RD PARTIES: Victims and the Criminal Justice System

Recent years have seen a heightened awareness of the plight of victims of crime and of their neglect by the traditional criminal justice system with its bureaucratic and institutional processes. This concern for the victim has been shared by diverse groups, including humanists, conservative "law and order" politicians, feminists, and grassroots community advocates. This combination of forces has stimulated a mass of legislative reform at both the federal and state levels. Many jurisdictions have adopted a "Bill of Rights" for the victim; public funds have been established to compensate victims; courts have been enjoined to order offenders to make restitution; welfare agencies have developed programs to provide victims with assistance; and courts are inviting victims to testify at the sentencing hearings of their offenders. These reforms and proposals have been accompanied by a growing body of literature that discusses the needs of victims and analyzes the merits and drawbacks of particular reforms, some of which have been evaluated empirically. What has been lacking until now is an integrated overview that looks at their philosophical underpinnings and considers how these different and sometimes conflicting proposals are conceptually related to one another and to other prevailing criminal justice doctrines and ideologies. Leslie Sebba fills this gap in Third Parties.