NCJ Number
133321
Date Published
1991
Length
173 pages
Annotation
This book personalizes the experiences of those who are victims of crime and punishment through personal accounts of crime victims and persons on death row.
Abstract
The crime victim accounts describe the experience of the victimization, its physical and psychological effects on the victim and family members, and victim attitudes toward the criminal justice system. The victimization accounts are given by the daughter of a murder victim, a mugging victim, the mother of a murdered child, a relative of a murder victim, a daughter of Robert Kennedy, the widow of Martin Luther King, Jr., and a sexually abused child. A section of the book describes the services of 14 organizations oriented toward helping crime victims and their families. Two papers provide advice on how to deal with the violent death of a loved one. The personal accounts of "victims of punishment" focus on the experiences of persons who have been convicted of crimes and their families, primarily those who have received a death sentence. The focus is on those who have apparently been sentenced to death for crimes they did not commit. The positions of various organizations opposed to the death penalty are presented in the concluding section of the book.