scholarly journals Victims of crime: culture, politics and criminal process in the twenty-first century

2017 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 469-90
Author(s):  
Matthew Hall
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Criminal Justice Systems ◽  
Justice Process ◽  
Criminal Justice Process ◽  
Victims Of Crime ◽  
Areas Of Concern ◽  
The One ◽  
Cultural Turn

This paper sets out to marry three areas of concern to modern victimology. In the first instance the paper will explore the ‘cultural turn’ taken in our understandings of what it means to be a victim of crime in thetwenty-first century. McGarry and Walklate (2015) characterise such ‘cultural victimology’ as comprising a wider sharing and reflection of individual and collective victimisation experiences, on the one hand, and,on the other, the mapping of those experiences through the criminal justice process. This paper will explore the interaction between such cultural understandings of victimhood and the political and policy forces which,since at least the late 1990s, have pledged to ‘rebalance’ the criminal justice systems of England and Wales and other jurisdictions to put victims ‘at the heart’ of those processes.

Passing the Threshold of One Justice System to the Next: Challenges of Emerging Young Adults in Hong Kong’s Adult Criminal Justice Process

2017 ◽  
Vol 62 (9) ◽  
pp. 2650-2668 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Kwok-yin Cheng ◽  
Becky Po-Yee Leung
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Legal Decisions ◽  
Criminal Justice Systems ◽  
Semistructured Interviews ◽  
Justice Process ◽  
Criminal Justice Process ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
Distinct Period

In many criminal justice systems, there is a clear separation for juvenile and adult defendants. However, those in between, referred to as emerging young adult defendants (ages 18-25 years), are treated as adult defendants despite a growing recognition that emerging adulthood is a distinct period in the life course. The aim of this present study is to investigate the experiences and challenges faced by emerging young adult defendants ( N = 25) in Hong Kong’s adult criminal justice process. Through in-depth semistructured interviews, it was found that emerging young adult defendants demonstrated a lack of understanding regarding their rights and the legal procedures, faced stress in being caught up in the criminal justice process, and were susceptible to influence by others, particularly family members, in making legal decisions. Implications and future directions of study are discussed.

International and Comparative Legal Perspectives on Victim Participation in Criminal Justice

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Manikis
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Legal Process ◽  
Legal Traditions ◽  
Criminal Justice Systems ◽  
Justice Process ◽  
Criminal Justice Process ◽  
The Common ◽  
Victim Participation ◽  
Historical Developments

Victim participation in common law has evolved across history and jurisdictions. Historical developments within conceptions of crime, harms, and victims in common law as well as the different victims’ movements provide an understanding of the ways that victim participation has been shaped in more-recent common law criminal justice systems. Victim participation in the criminal legal process has also given rise to various debates, which suggests that providing active forms of engagement to victims remains controversial. The forms of victim participation are also diverse, and the literature has provided typologies of victim participation. Forms of participation also vary across jurisdictions and the different stages of the criminal justice process, including prosecutorial decisions, pretrial and trial proceedings, sentencing, parole, and clemency. Finally, research that focuses on victim participation in legal traditions beyond the common law would provide an additional and important contribution to the field.

scholarly journals A powerful toof of justice: Paralegals and the provision of affordable and accessible legal services

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Schönteich
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Legal Aid ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Medical Supplies ◽  
Criminal Justice Systems ◽  
The Family ◽  
Justice Process ◽  
Criminal Justice Process ◽  
Valuable Role

In many parts of Africa, a quiet revolution is transforming the delivery of legal assistance to pre-trial detainees and accused persons. Too poor to afford the services of a lawyer, and unable to rely on inadequate – or nonexistent – state-funded legal aid systems, many Africans are at the mercy of often oppressive and corrupt criminal justice systems. This is beginning to change as paralegals – who are less expensive and more accessible than lawyers – are empowering the poor and marginalised in their interactions with police, prosecutors, and the courts. In almost two dozen countries across Africa, paralegals are providing a critical service, particularly in the early stages of the criminal justice process. They provide primary legal aid services that often no one else is providing, which in turn results in the elimination of unnecessary pre-trial detention, the speedy processing of cases, diversion of young offenders, and reduction of case backlogs. Some paralegal services also provide food and medical supplies to people in detention. They may also be present at police stations in order to deter ill-treatment and forced confessions. Paralegals play a valuable role in reducing prison overcrowding by locating the family members of pre-trial detainees and facilitating bail hearings. This article gives an overview of paralegal services in a number of African countries, and shows how these services are assisting thousands of pretrial detainees and accused persons to access justice in environments where legal services are scarce or non-existent.

scholarly journals Taking trauma seriously

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 183-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Ellison ◽  
Vanessa E Munro
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Process ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Current Trial ◽  
Trauma Informed ◽  
Justice Process ◽  
Criminal Justice Process ◽  
Victims Of Crime ◽  
Victim Participation ◽  
The Government

Over the last two decades successive governments in England and Wales have stated a commitment to placing victims of crime at the heart of the criminal justice agenda. A raft of polices and reforming measures have been introduced with the declared aim of improving the experience and treatment of victims within the criminal process. Despite these developments, the government has recently conceded that the criminal justice process has continued to fall short—whether in relation to helping victims to recover in the aftermath of a crime or supporting them through the stresses of investigation and trial. In this article we argue that applying a trauma-informed lens to evaluate victim-centred initiatives helps to explain the failure of victim policy in England and Wales to fully deliver on its promise. We highlight the barriers that experiences of trauma can present to effective victim participation and the extent to which current trial processes are often liable to exacerbate rather than ameliorate trauma amongst a broad constituency of victims.

scholarly journals The Effectiveness of Restorative Justice Practices on Victims of Crime: Evidence from South Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Bashizi Bashige Murhula ◽  
Aden Dejene Tolla
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Restorative Justice ◽  
Victim Satisfaction ◽  
Criminological Research ◽  
Justice Process ◽  
Criminal Justice Process ◽  
Victims Of Crime ◽  
Study Offer

Restorative justice is a holistic philosophy that has become increasingly popular in reformist criminal justice debates and criminological research. However, there is some debate as to whether its programs adequately address victims’ needs. To this end, this paper analyses the effectiveness of restorative justice practices on victims of crime. Drawing on my interviews conducted with victims of crime and legal experts in South Africa, the findings of this study offer support for the effectiveness of a restorative justice approach to addressing victim satisfaction. Restorative justice can enable the needs of victims to be more fully considered during the criminal justice process. This is very different from contemporary criminal justice, which has often effectively excluded victims from almost every aspect of its proceedings despite its continuous reform to protect and promote victims’ rights.

The Agreement of Uncontroversial Evidence and the Presumption of Innocence: An Insoluble Dilemma?

2002 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Duff
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Trial ◽  
Presumption Of Innocence ◽  
Justice Process ◽  
Criminal Justice Process ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Relationship

On 1 April 1996, a rather odd provision was introduced into the Scottish criminal justice process, namely a duty on both prosecution and defence to try to agree uncontroversial evidence in advance of criminal trial.1 As far as the writer is aware, such a provision is unique, although the philosophy underlying its introduction is not totally alien to inquisitorial systems of criminal justice.2 What is particularly peculiar about this duty is that there is no sanction for a failure, however unreasonable, to agree uncontroversial evidence.3 The lack of a sanction resulted from a concern that the creation of any penalty would impinge unjustifiably upon the rights of the accused. The intention in this article is to explore in detail the relationship between the duty to agree uncontroversial evidence and the position of the accused, and to suggest that the imposition of a sanction for a breach of this duty is not as problematic as was thought by those responsible for the legislation.

Measuring Performance and Shaping Identity

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annika Jones
Keyword(s):  
Performance Indicators ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Victim Satisfaction ◽  
Efficiency And Effectiveness ◽  
Justice Process ◽  
Criminal Justice Process ◽  
The One

Abstract Amid pressure to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the International Criminal Court (ICC), work has progressed on the development of a set of performance indicators for the ICC. This article argues that performance indicators play into tensions that underpin the international criminal justice process at the ICC, in particular between expeditiousness, on the one hand, and fairness and victim satisfaction, on the other. It argues that while the ICC’s performance indicators extend assessment of the ICC beyond the speedy completion of cases and embrace goals of fairness and victim access to justice, they inevitably support the former to the detriment of the latter, with implications for the Court’s identity. While acknowledging the benefits of performance indicators for the ICC, the article outlines several measures to counter the risks that they pose for the balance between these goals.

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