Victims Role In The Criminal Justice System

Victims play a major role in the criminal justice domain. The system developed many ways to improve services for victims of a crime. In crimes victims can become traumatized and frightening .According to Fred Garner, “Recent polls suggest this fear is derived from two influences: income and gender. People residing in poor neighborhoods often experience a greater fear of victimization; therefore, participation in the criminal justice system is extremely important. In recent years, many legislators have attempted to address victims’ rights within the criminal justice system (Meadows, 2014). The Victim’s Bill of Rights provides protections to victims of crimes” (Garner, 2015). Everyone has rights and individuals who had crimes committed against

When a victim gets called up on the stand, the system is revictimizing the victim. The victim has to go through and relive that terrify moment in their lives over and over. Victims do have the right to be heard but the decision weighs heavily on the victim. Does the victim want to continue going through the suffering moment or do the victim want to put the man who caused so much pain behind bars? According to the Victims of Crime Training and Technical Assistance Center, “Several jurisdictions have adopted laws requiring the prosecutor to obtain the views of the victim before a disposition is final, whether this involves a plea agreement, dismissal of charges, or a pretrial diversion of the defendant. A few jurisdictions require the prosecutor to certify to the court that he or she has consulted the victim before a plea can be accepted. Most jurisdictions give victims the right to be heard by the court or another authority, such as the parole board, before major decisions are made. The most common stage for this during the criminal justice process is at sentencing.” The victims testimony helps decide the sentence and I think it’s important that every state should have this right not just some. Procedures should definitely be taken into place like counseling’s before trial, making sure the victim story is accurate. I understand procedure and some states should offer more to victims because some states don’t take victims into consideration when it comes to criminal cases. With communication with the victim according to the Victims of Crime Training and Technical Assistance Center, “Along with communicating to criminal justice officials, many states provide a victim the right to communicate with the defendant. This may take the form of a structured “victim-offender mediation” program, where a third party arranges a formal meeting between a victim or surviving