Victims and Crime Evaluation

Victims and Crime Evaluation

According to Merriam-Webster (n.d.), “A victim is a person who suffers direct or threatened physical, emotional or financial harm as a result of an act by someone else, which is a crime.” The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, defines the term victim in a similar manner. Early history offered very little support to victims of crimes, leaving this burden on friends and family members of the victim. Since there was no organized law enforcement agencies during this time period, it was considered acceptable and often encouraged for victims or victim’s family members to seek revenge on their perpetrator. While this practice, in today’s more civilized time, may seem less desirable, it did at that time, seem to offer a sense of closure to the victims themselves. As time progressed crimes were soon viewed as offenses against society rather than against the individual personally, therefore the victim’s needs got lost in the shuffle and this vigilante style of justice disappeared (Schmalleger, Hall, & Dolatowski, 2010).

Beginning in the 1970s, the United States began looking toward other methods to deal with the ever growing problem of public satisfaction toward their criminal justice system. It seemed as though even as the apprehension and sentencing of criminals began to rise, public opinion began to waiver. This was due to the fact that the system was doing nothing to help the victims of these crimes obtain some sort of closure by helping to alleviate some of the pain and suffering caused by the crime itself. The passing of the Son of Sam law in 1977, was one small step in the direction of victim advocacy as it was designed to help prevent some of these feelings of discontent by eliminating the ability of the criminals to profit from the sale of books or media rights depicting their criminal acts. In addition, many public, and private organizations exist to help the victims to cope with the often debilitating effects of the crime ("Criminal Justice Law", n.d.). However, even with the many accomplishments in this area in the last 30 years, there still remains certain drawbacks and problems. Within the main entities of the criminal justice system there are specific roles that individuals play. Victimization and the methods that have been put in place to help control its consequences have an effect in one way or another on all those individuals including; the prosecutor, the defense attorney, and the defendant, as well as the victim themselves.

The prosecutor's role within the criminal justice system is significant. A prosecutor is an administrator of justice and an officer of the court. This means that first and foremost, a prosecutor must use objectivity and sound discretion in the performance of his or her duties. It is important to understand that the prosecutor, in any case, has two main objectives; to seek justice