NCJ Number
119403
Date Published
1987
Length
12 pages
Annotation
The impact of fundamentalist religion and "new right" politics on criminological policies and practices is discussed.
Abstract
Under the influence of the religious and political right, there has been a tendency to focus blame and burden on the criminal offender and to absolve society of any significant responsibility for victims. The result is that most jurisdictions recognize victim needs but do not meet those needs. Following an examination of the historical relationship between law and religion, the discussion focuses on the physical, emotional, and financial costs of crime for victims and to secondary injuries victims may suffer as a result of their participation in the criminal justice process. The difficulty is not in recognizing victim needs but rather in deciding who should be responsible for operationalizing and financing new victim initiatives. The left orientation favors a collective responsibility or insurance approach. The right orientation focuses on the responsibility of the guilty party to repair the damage done to an innocent victim. The authors express concern that criminology, as a justifiably scientific discipline, is being sacrificed to ideology. Criminology thus ideologically transforms the plight of victims, ignore the criminality of the more fortunate, and generally turns the clock back to earlier social pathology or social disorganization approaches. 20 references.