C H A P T E R F O U R T E N

THE VICTIM: Helping Those in Need Photo © Gordon M. Armstrong, used with permission.

D E F I N T O S VICTIM: Someone who suffers direct or threatened physical, emotional, or financial harm as the result of the commission of a crime. The term victim also includes the immediate family of a minor or homicide victim. VICTIMS’ RIGHTS: The fundamental rights of victims to be represented equitably throughout the criminal justice process.

VICTIMS’ RIGHTS • Until the 1970s, victims had little or no status within the justice system, and victims’ rights were virtually nonexistent. • The first state-level victims’ rights bill, Wisconsin’s Victims’ Bill of Rights (1980), launched an era of dramatic progress in the victims’ rights movement.

VICTIMS’ RIGHTS • Few movements in American history have achieved as much success in prompting legislative response as did victims’ rights activists’ campaigns through the 1980s and 1990s. • Despite the advances in victims’ rights legislation, however, there remain serious deficiencies in those laws and in their implementation.

KEY FEDERAL LEGISLATION • The Victim and Witness Protection Act, 1982 • Victims of Crime Act, 1984 • The Victims’ Rights and Restitution Act, 1990 • The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, 1994 • The Community Notification Act (Megan’s Law), 1996 • Mandatory Victim Restitution Act, 1996 • The Victims’ Rights Clarification Act, 1997 McGraw-Hill © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

D E F I N T O BEST EFFORTS STANDARD: A requirement of the federal Victims’ Rights and Restitution Act of 1990 (also known as the Victims’ Rights Act) which mandates that federal law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and corrections officials use their best efforts to ensure that victims receive basic rights and services during their encounter with the criminal justice system.

AN INCONGRUITY It is noteworthy that the best efforts standard of the Victims’ Rights and Restitution Act of 1990 rendered that federal law weaker than many state victims’ rights laws in which provisions for victims’ rights and services is mandatory.

PROPOSALS for a FEDERAL CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT Since 1982, victims’ advocacy groups have aggressively pursued adoption of a federal constitutional amendment guaranteeing specific rights to crime victims. McGraw-Hill © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

D E F I N T O S TANGIBLE LOSSES: Costs such as medical expenses, lost wages, and property losses that accrue to crime victims as a result of their victimization. INTANGIBLE LOSSES: Costs such as fear, pain, suffering, and reduced quality of life that accrue to crime victims as a result of their victimization. McGraw-Hill © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

COSTS of VICTIMIZATION • The annual cost of crime in the U.S. is approximately $450 billion. • Tangible losses for medical and mental health care are approximately $18 billion. • Tangible losses for damaged or lost property and lost productivity are about $87 billion. • Intangible losses for pain, suffering, and reduced quality of life are approximately $345 billion. McGraw-Hill © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

D E F I N T O S VICTIM NOTIFICATION: Notification to victims of the release or pending release of convicted offenders who have harmed them. COMMUNITY NOTIFICATION: Notification to the community of the release or pending release of convicted offenders. McGraw-Hill © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

VICTIM and COMMUNITY NOTIFICATION The federal Bureau of Prisons has created one of the nation’s first comprehensive victim notification programs, which has served as a model to the states for over a decade.

VICTIM and COMMUNITY NOTIFICATION Additionally, technological advances such as automated voice notification systems and corrections agency Internet web sites facilitate dissemination of timely information on offender status to interested parties . McGraw-Hill © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

VICTIM and WITNESS PROTECTION Every day in the United States, victims and witnesses are harassed, intimidated, and retaliated against by incarcerated offenders, through intimidating phone calls, mail, or threatened visits from friends and associates.

VICTIM and WITNESS PROTECTION Many correctional agencies have responded creatively to this problem by:  Revoking offending inmates’ privileges.  Transferring inmates to more restrictive incarceration levels.  Filing new criminal charges.  Enhancing the inmate’s sentence.  Annotating the inmate’s case file to apprise parole boards of the offense.

CRIME IMPACT CLASSES • Educational programs in correctional institutions involving offenders and victims. • The programs seek to help offenders understand the devastating impact their crimes have on: ○ victims, their families, and their friends; ○ the community; ○ their own families and friends; and ○ themselves. McGraw-Hill © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

VICTIM-OFFENDER DIALOGUE • Primarily used in property crime cases. • Gives victims an opportunity to engage in structured talks with their offenders. • Offenders have already admitted guilt or have been convicted/adjudicated. • Can be very effective in helping victims overcome feelings of trauma and loss. McGraw-Hill © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

• Victims generally have three options for • VICTIM COMPENSATION: A form of victim assistance in which state-funded payments are made to victims to help them recover financial losses due to crime. • Victims generally have three options for recovering crime-related financial losses:  state-sponsored compensation programs;  court-ordered restitution; or  civil remedies.

VICTIM COMPENSATION • The first victim compensation programs were established in New Zealand and Great Britain in 1964, based on a concept suggested by British Magistrate Margery Fry in the late 1950s. • California created the first U.S. victim compensation program in 1965. • Today, programs exist in all 50 states, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

RESTITUTION As a significant remedy for crime victims, restitution was first imposed by the Victim and Witness Protection Act of 1982, which required federal judges to order full restitution in criminal cases … or state on the record their reasons for not doing so.

RESTITUTION All states have enacted restitution statutes, most styled after the federal model.  Despite existing legislation, restitution is an underenforced victims’ right in terms of ordering and monitoring, collecting, and disbursing payments.

RESTITUTION Many correctional agencies encourage inmates to fulfill restitution obligations by offering incentives (such as increased privileges or priority enrollment in educational or vocational programs) for compliance, and denying privileges for failure or refusal to pay. McGraw-Hill © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

D E F I N T O VICTIM ASSISTANCE PROGRAM: An organized program that offers services to victims of crime in the areas of crisis intervention and follow-up counseling and that helps victims secure their rights under the law.

D E F I N T O VICTIM IMPACT STATEMENT: An assertion—by a victim and/or friends or relatives of the victim—about the crime’s impact on the victim and the victim’s family. McGraw-Hill © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

D E F I N T O RIGHT OF ALLOCUTION: A statutory provision permitting crime victims to speak at the sentencing of convicted offenders. A federal right of allocution was established for victims of federal violent and sex crimes under the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994.

VICTIM IMPACT STATEMENTS Tally the physical, financial, emotional, and psychological impact of a crime. • Provide information for the court’s use in assessing the human and social cost of the crime. • Provide a way for the victim to take part in the justice process.