define "victim" as one who is harmed by a crime and we then consider the vast
amount of crimes being committed in this country every day, we must realize that
not only are the crimes of today more violent and greater in number than at any
other time in history, but there are also more victims than at any other time in history.
Fourteen million crimes in 1 year could mean at least 14 million victims in a given
year. It is arguable, then, that if one of the functions of government is to provide a
safe society in which to live, the government is not successfully fulfilling its role.
For this reason, and others, the past several decades have produced a number of
important changes concerning the government and its relation to victims of crime.
There has been legislation passed at both the state and federal levels allowing for
victims of crime to be financially compensated for their suffering. In this section, we
explore such legislation; its development generally results in "victim compensation
programs."
Rcgina Palmer was a 26-year-old college student who was nearing graduation and in
the process of applying to graduate schools to continue her education in animal sciences.
She had hopes of becoming a veterinarian. One night, while walking home from a class
that had ended at 10:00 P.M., she was abducted by a 33-year-old man. She was forced
to engage in various sexual acts and was repeatedly beaten by him while being held as a
prisoner in his basement for a period of no less than 2 weeks. Upon receiving information
linking the young man to a similar crime that had occurred several weeks prior to Regina s
abduction, the police apprehended the young man and Regina was subsequently given
medical attention. Regina spent the next 3 weeks in the hospital as she tried to physically
recover from the abuse. Perhaps more significantly, Regina suffered emotional scarring
from which she will never recover. Unfortunately, as a result of the incident, Regina was
not able to complete her studies and a year-and-a-half later was still emotionally unable
to return to school. In addition, Regina was forced to relive the traumatic experience
in the recitation of her experience to the police and, subsequently, to an unsympathetic
attorney in a court of law. What compensation does our system of justice have for a
woman such as Regina whose entire life was turned upside-down, in part, because of a
system that was unable to apprehend a serial criminal before he struck again?Literature Review
History of Victim Legislation
The latter part of the 20th century witnessed an increase in the rights afforded to
criminal suspects and offenders. While the violators of criminal law were enjoying
added protections and benefits at the hands of the law, society began to approach
the issue from the other side. As a result, movements concerned with the rights
of victims emerged. Society began to question if the victims of crime were not
being relegated to third-party status (L. Wrightsman et al., 1994). In other words,
throughout the criminal process, victims were often forgotten as the state and the
offender were of primary concern. Even today it is not unusual to think of a
criminal as having broken a law rather than as having victimized another human
being. Consequently, the rights of victims began to receive greater attention.