Victims and Crime Evaluation

Victims and Crime Evaluation
Mellissa Morris
CJA 354

Victims and Crime Evaluation

The significance of victims’ assistance programs evidently show the history of victimization inflicted on society. This victims and crime evaluation paper will give the principles associated with the word “victim” and provide the history of victims’ assistance programs. Moreover, the paper will evaluate how the first program initiated other victims’ assistance programs to further assist victims of crime. In addition, the evaluation of the other programs such as problem-solving courts and restorative justice whether if any of these programs serve their function to society as well as their effects on the criminal justice system.

The definition of victim and its principles

The principles associated with victim correlates with the definition of the “victim” within the aspects of expanding certain laws to support the unwilling participants and address the offense accordingly. According to Schmalleger (2010) and the reference of   The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 “a victim is any individual against whom an offense has been committed,” p.543 , therefore the definition’s principle refers to any individual in general defined as a victim by any offense committed against the individual. In addition, the definition specifically denotes the victim for procedural purposes as an individual, who is either below the age of 18, incompetent, and legal representation of the deceased by another family member (Schmalleger, 2010). In the Bureau of Prisons, the correlation of what defines a victim combines all of the aspects of what the stated definitions above, In addition to involving financial harm (Schmalleger, 2010). The principles within the definition of victim were the prerequisites for the formation of   “official” support groups otherwise known today as victims’ assistance programs.  

The history of victims’ assistance programs

The history of the... [continues]

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