Forgotten Victims of Crime (From Forgotten Victims - An Advocate's Anthology, P 7-30, George Nicholson et al, ed. - See NCJ-41467)

• NCJ Number: 73660
• Author(s): H Brownell
• Date Published: Unknown
• Length: 23 pages
• Sale Source: Veterans Admin
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS.

Annotation

A critique of the criminal justice system's victim services in relation to the conduct of criminal proceedings is presented.

Abstract

Although statutes and judicial decisions go to great lengths to define and interpret the rights of the accused in criminal proceedings, the rights of victims of crimes are generally ignored or ill-defined in criminal processes. Excessive inconvenience, loss of work time and pay, and ignorance of the status of the prosecution in the case at issue generally characterize the circumstances of the victim in the course of a case's prosecution. The state tends to treat the victim as just another witness in the state's case. Although efforts have been made to adopt trial scheduling and adjournment procedures so that the victim will be inconvenienced as little as possible by trial activities, judges and attorneys have tended to ignore such procedures and revert to erratic scheduling and frequent adjournments on unacceptable grounds. One of the most ambitious witness (victim) programs is in Brooklyn, N.Y., where the Vera Institute of Justice has initiated a pilot project. The program uses appearance control and other innovative notification techniques. It provides facilities for child care and comfortable waiting rooms, along with a social worker who can make referrals that can help victims cope with various problems arising from the victimization. The program explains to the victim what is expected of him/her, and when. It also facilitates, on behalf of the complainant, coordination of the various components of the criminal justice system. The future of the program is in doubt, however, because it is funded on a year-to-year basis by LEAA. Incorporation of such programs into the city bureaucracy has not been successful in the past. Improved victim services can be implemented, however, if all components of the criminal justice system and criminal justice personnel will commit themselves to the task. Footnotes which include references are provided.