Victims and Prosecutors

This chapter explores crime victims’ experiences in U.S. trial courts in relation to the passage, application, and adjudication of state and federal victims’ rights legislation (VRL). It reviews victims’ current rights established through legislation and case law: to privacy, information, and notification; to be present; and to be heard in pre-trial hearings, in trials, in plea bargaining, and in victim impact statements. It reviews qualitative research documenting how and why prosecutorial discretion is often exercised to limit victims’ participation in trials and pleas, highlighting incentives for emotion management. It also reviews proposals, which are counter to this standard, designed to achieve greater victim participation and to produce higher quality testimony, including extensive pre-court preparation and courtroom intermediaries. It assesses the efficacy of practices to protect victims from secondary victimization in court, including shielding (close circuit video and screens) and support dogs. It explores use of private attorneys to (1) ensure that prosecutors and judges comply with VRL and (2) pursue victim-directed, private prosecution of sexual assault in the United States and elsewhere. It concludes that the promise of VRL—to provide therapeutic justice outcomes, achieve victim satisfaction, and enact procedural justice—is yet to be realized in the United States; however, an evidence-based approach toward prosecutorial practice would be advantageous for victims.

Measuring Performance and Shaping Identity

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.

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

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 case processing of intimate partner sexual assault: a brief review and recommendations for future research

Research examining legal responses to violence against women has historically dichotomised sexual assault and intimate partner violence, leaving unanswered questions regarding criminal justice responses to intimate partner violence incidents that involve sexual violence. Although research has examined whether cases involving partners, acquaintances or strangers are handled differently, few scholars consider the specific factors that undermine intimate partner sexual assault case processing. The current article guides future intimate partner sexual assault case-processing research with the hopes of filling this research void. Understanding intimate partner sexual assault case processing is necessary so that police, prosecutors and practitioners can use research-based approaches to increase victim satisfaction and decrease attrition.

Reparations and the Habré Trial in Context

This chapter focuses on the particular problem of victim satisfaction, considering reparations. One of the interesting features of the Extraordinary African Chambers (EAC) is that its victim participation scheme allows individual victims of crime to submit claims for reparations. The promise that reparations can be delivered through international criminal justice has now been around for more than two decades, but the first practice has only emerged in the last few years. The adjudication of the first reparations claims before the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) has been arduous and revealed disagreement within and outside these courts over the nature, extent, and purpose of reparations in an international criminal justice framework. Considerable uncertainty surrounds whether these reparations schemes can live up to expectations placed upon them. It is in this context that an examination and a comparative discussion of the EAC's approach to reparations might provide some fruitful insights.

Reflections on the reporting of fraud in Australia

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the reporting of cybercrime in Australia, specifically the reporting of fraud. Design/methodology/approach Using an evaluation of the (former) Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network (ACORN), this paper provides a commentary on the report findings, including both positive and negative aspects of the reporting mechanism. Findings The paper focuses on three key challenges that were identified in the evaluation: victim satisfaction; quality of data; and unintended consequences. Each of these topics is outlined and located within a broader context to better understand the evaluation findings. Research limitations/implications This viewpoint paper is a commentary based upon an evaluation of ACORN which itself has several limitations of its methodology. Despite this, the evaluation provides important insights into the challenges that currently exist with the online reporting of fraud offences both in Australia, and worldwide. Practical implications This paper emphasises the structural and systemic issues that exist for the reporting of fraud in Australia. It therefore warns against placing blame exclusively on police agencies as responsible for these results. Instead, it advocates the need for society to take a more coordinated and collaborative approach to the policing of fraud, which includes law enforcement, government and industry partners. Social implications The paper documents some of the underlying reasons for additional trauma and harm experienced by victims of fraud in their efforts to report their incident and receive what they perceive to be an appropriate criminal justice response. These must be acknowledged in order to make the required change. Originality/value This paper is a commentary and reflection on the current way in which fraud is reported in Australia. It points to a need to rethink this approach in some key areas. It highlights the critical need for an education campaign to dispel some of the myths that exist in relation to realistic police responses to fraud, and also calls for the need to consider alternatives to the exclusively online system currently in operation, as well as larger questions about notions of justice and appropriate responses to fraud victims.

Victim personal statements in managing victims’ voices in sentencing in Northern Ireland: taking a more procedural justice approach

Victim personal statements (VPS) have been introduced in a number of common law criminal justice systems. Although they have been espoused as important in ensuring victims’ ‘voices’ are ‘heard’ in sentencing, this article examines the extent of improving victim satisfaction and procedural justice in Northern Ireland. In light of increasing juridification of victim participation through the VPS by the EU and the English Court of Appeal, its impact on sentencing has received mixed views amongst victims, intermediaries and legal practitioners. Drawing from 24 interviews with judges, lawyers and intermediaries, this article finds that greater attention should be paid to vulnerable victims’ inclusion and that judges should better articulate the impact the VPS has on sentencing and the significance of such statements in acknowledging the victim’s experience, rather than engendering harsher sentences.

Is Restorative Justice Conferencing Appropriate for Youth Offenders?

While many studies on restorative justice conferencing (RJC) for youth offenders have shown favourable outcomes such as victim satisfaction and fairness, and offender accountability and perceived legitimacy, other studies have demonstrated more problematic outcomes in terms of mutual understanding, sincerity of apology and reoffending. Given the complexity of RJC as a concept and as a process, such ‘limits’ might be attributed to the capacity and characteristics of youth offenders. To date, however, there has been little examination of developmental, cognitive, or environmental impediments on the part of youth offenders in terms of achieving restorative outcomes in RJC. This paper discusses the potential impacts of limited developmental and cognitive capacities of youth offenders on the RJC process and outcomes.

Restorative Justice Conferencing as a ‘Holistic’ Process: Convenor Perspectives

Restorative justice conferencing (RJC) has demonstrated strengths over traditional criminal justice approaches, including victim satisfaction and redress, and offender perceptions of legitimacy and fairness. However, less is known about how and why. This research examines conference convenor perspectives concerning how and why RJC ‘works’ in terms of such outcomes. The convenor perspective is a poorly investigated area in RJC research, despite the pivotal role that convenors play as ‘key’ participants in RJC practice. Based on semi-structured interviews with convenors involved in the Youth Justice Group Conferencing program in Victoria, findings highlight that not only face-to-face dialogue, but also preparation and follow-up play distinct and important roles in the outcomes of RJC. As preparation and follow-up phases are often dismissed or compromised in practice, this article suggests that RJC should be clearly articulated and implemented as a ‘holistic’ process that requires equal attention to all three phases.

Satisfaction with police services among victims of physical assault in India

Victim satisfaction is impacted by both the quality of the procedure and the outcome of the criminal justice process. Quality of procedure encompasses procedural and interactional justice. Using survey data of victims of physical assault in India, this study examines the impact of quality of procedure and outcome on victim satisfaction with police services. The study concludes that although both factors have an effect on victim satisfaction, quality of procedure has a greater impact than outcomes of the process for victims of physical assault in India.