This study addresses the management of victims and victim policy under the Coalition government, in light of an increasing move towards neoliberal and punitive law and order agendas. With a focus on victims of anti-social behaviour and hate crime, Duggan and Heap explore the changing role of the victim in contemporary criminal justice discourses.

Nils Christie's (1986) seminal work on the `Ideal Victim' is reproduced in full in this edited collection of vibrant and provocative essays that respond to and update the concept from a range of thematic positions.