Homework Question on The Victims’ Rights Movement
- Explain how has the victims’ rights movement has affected the criminal justice system and the rights of offenders?
- Only one reference may be from the internet (not Wikipedia). The other references must be from the Grantham University online library.
Homework Answer on The Victims’ Rights Movement
A victim relates to someone who encounters harm through any activities proscribed by the criminal law. The quintessence of having entities linked to victims’ rights movement is to guarantee that there is equal representation of the victims’ fundamental rights throughout the criminal justice framework. The victims’ rights movement plays a crucial role in securing the participation of victims in the criminal justice structures (Englebrecht, 2012).
The impetus for this discussion is to ascertain how the victims’ rights movement affects the criminal justice dynamics and the rights of offenders. The victims’ rights movement affects the criminal justice system in three dimensions, and they are guaranteeing victim participation in criminal proceedings and securing financial benefits and services for crime victims (Richards, 2009). Ultimately, the victims’ rights movement ensures that the criminal justice system enacts harsher punishments for perpetrators.
First, the victims’ rights movement increases the participation of victims in all criminal proceedings. More specifically, the victims’ rights movement ensures that the victims receive a notice of the proceedings, and they guarantee that the victims have the right to be present and issue their respective victim-impact statements (NVCAP, 2012). Victim-impact statements are written documents that describe the losses, suffering, and traumas encountered by the individual victims or by the surviving victims’ folks.