Victims of the System: Crime Victims and Compensation in American Politics and Criminal Justice

ISBN-13: 9780887386008 / Angielski / Miękka / 1985 / 360 str.

Robert Elias

Opis

This important new book on criminology is a major attempt to evaluate actual victim compensation programs as well as their political and economic contexts, through the eyes of the victims themselves. Elias traces the experiences of violent-crime victims throughout the entire criminal justice process, comparing New York's and New Jersey's victim compensation programs. He shows how programs differ when compensation is viewed essentially as welfare and when it is viewed as a right. The study uses extensive interviews with officials and with violent crime victims. The study indicates victim compensation programs largely fail to achieve their stated goals of improving attitudes toward the criminal-justice system and the government. The programs produce poor attitudes toward government and criminal justice.

Spis treści

1: Introduction; 2: Historical Development of Victim Compensation; 3: Research Design; 4: Characteristics of Violent Crime Victims; 5: Victims in the Criminal Process; 6: Impact of the Criminal Process; 7: The Victim-Compensation Boards; 8: Officials in the Compensation Process; 9: Victims in the Compensation Process; 10: Impact of Victim Compensation; 11: Conclusion: The Politics of Victim Compensation

O autorze

Robert Elias