NCJ Number
192964
Date Published
2002
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This overview of the situation of crime victims in the early decades of the 21st century addresses the forecasting of future developments in responses to crime victims; the situation victims faced in the late 20th century; anticipation of the situation of victims in the early 21st century by projecting existing trends; and the perils of attempting to predict the future.
Abstract
In the late 20th century, the basic needs and interests of crime victims were rediscovered after decades of severe neglect. In the early 21st century, a number of existing trends will expand the choices and options that victims face. Professional advocates will be assigned routinely to help victims to exercise their formal rights within the criminal justice process. Commercial interests will develop and market a much greater selection of anti-theft and personal-security devices. Private prosecution will become possible if victims grow dissatisfied with the services of public prosecutors. Victim-offender reconciliation programs will proliferate and handle a wider variety of cases. Also, differential justice will be recognized as a problem as the gap widens between the way privileged victims are handled by criminal justice agencies compared with their response to lower class complainants. The author advises that when attempting to predict the future of victim services, it is important to caution that countervailing forces may block apparent trends, since each action can provoke a reaction, and each trend may encounter some resistance and opposition that may retard or undermine an apparent evolutionary process. 46 references