NCJ Number
154502
Journal
International Review of Victimology Volume: 3 Issue: 1/2 Dated: (1994) Pages: 57-64
Date Published
1994
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This article reviews the different ways in which crime victims can influence the course and outcome of criminal proceedings in various European criminal justice systems.
Abstract
In most European jurisdictions, the theoretical rights of the victim may include a general right to prosecute, a right of private prosecution, a right of secondary prosecution, and a right to serve as a subsidiary prosecutor. However, most European courts have reduced victim input into the prosecution and punishments meted out to convicted offenders have eliminated, to a large extent, any victim-oriented elements. In general, three approaches have been taken in various countries to assessing the balance between the victim and the State in criminal proceedings. In the U.S., the victim has the right to provide the court with input in the form of a victim impact statement, which may be considered by the court in its sentencing decision. Courts in the U.K., however, have decided not to give victims any role in criminal proceedings other than through their role as witnesses. In most continental European countries, victims are given some degree of input ranging from the right to testify to a general right to prosecute criminal offenders.