Victims’ Access to Justice: Historical and Comparative Perspectives (Victims, Culture and Society)

Why have many victim-centred policy initiatives met with so little success? How have those initiatives unfolded differently in different global jurisdictions over different periods of time? This book aims to address these questions. Building on a major research project exploring victims’ access to justice over time and place, __Victims' Access to Justice__ considers the potentialities for victims’ participation in criminal justice systems and in victim programmes both in historical and comparative context. It considers a range of topics: ways of identifying and accommodating victims’ needs and senses of justice; the impacts for criminal justice systems of seeking to accommodate these; and the ways in which adversarial criminal justice systems, in particular, may enable or inhibit victim participation. This is essential reading for all those engaged in understanding and working with victims of crime. Why have many victim-centred policy initiatives met with so little success? How have those initiatives unfolded differently in different global jurisdictions over different periods of time? This book aims to address these questions.Building on a major re Cover 1 Endorsement 2 Half Title 4 Series Information 5 Title Page 6 Copyright Page 7 Table of Contents 8 Illustrations 10 Acknowledgements 11 Author Biographies 12 Chapter 1 Introduction: Victims’ Access to Justice: A (Brief) Contemporary History 1945–2015 16 Introduction 16 Setting the Scene 17 1945–1975: Welfarism and the Politicisation of the Crime Victim 18 1976–1999 Consumerism and the Further Politicisation of the Crime Victim 19 2000 Onwards: Rebalancing and the Politics of Amnesia 21 Understanding Access to Justice 23 About This Book 25 Concluding Thoughts 29 Note 30 References 30 Section 1 Mapping the Historical Continuities of Victimhood 34 Chapter 2 The Crown Against...: The Victim and the State in the Pursuit of Criminal Prosecution, 1840–1985 36 Introduction 36 The Assumption of State Responsibility Over Prosecution 37 Private Prosecutor Or Public Prosecutor? 39 A Limited Role for State-Led Prosecution 41 Process of Attrition: Victim Or State as Prosecutor 43 The Victim as a Third Party to Prosecutions 44 Continuing Problems of Resourcing Prosecution 44 Changing Public Criminal Prosecution: Establishing the Crown Prosecution Service 47 Conclusions 49 References 50 Chapter 3 Divergent Victims in the Old Bailey, 1950–1979 52 Introduction 52 Part 1 53 Data and Methods 53 Part 2 55 Historians and the Victim 55 Conforming Victims 55 Elderly Women 56 Children 57 Part 3 57 Divergent Victims 57 Victims of Sexual Offences 58 ‘Homosexual’ Victims of Violent and Other Offences 59 Minority Ethnic Victims 62 Conclusions 64 Bibliography 64 Chapter 4 Using Crime Survey Data to Track and Measure Access to Justice: Problems and Possibilities 68 Introduction 68 The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and Its History 69 Defining and Measuring Access to Justice: A Data-Driven Approach 72 Step 1 72 Steps 2 and 3 74 Step 4 76 Estote Parati: Some Information Will Be Lost! 80 Suggestions for an Effective Analytical Strategy to Access to Justice 81 The Importance of Being Clear On the Historical Period And/or the Units of the Survey to Select 82 Machine Learning Applications Can Be Useful to Analyse a Large Body of Data and Boost Comprehension of Access to Justice 83 Conclusion 84 Notes 84 References 85 Chapter 5 The Changing Landscape of Service Delivery for Victims of Crime in England and Wales in the Last Fifty Years 89 Introduction 89 The Early Years (1970–1999) 90 The Structure of Victim Assistance 90 Victim Contact 91 The Population Targeted 92 The Nature of the Services Offered 94 The Structure of Victim Assistance 95 Victim Contact 97 The Population Targeted 97 The Nature of the Services Offered 97 The Structure of Victim Assistance 99 Contact With Victims 102 The Population Targeted 103 The Nature of Services Offered 105 The Voice for Victims: Victim Support 2000–2011 94 Fragmentation: Victim Assistance, 2012–2022 98 Summary and Discussion 105 Notes 108 References 109 Section 2 The Legacies of Adversarialism for Victims’ Access to Justice 114 Chapter 6 Gender, Sexual Violence, and Access to Justice in India 116 Introduction 116 Historical Context: Indian Criminal Justice System 117 Landmark Cases: ‘Laboratories for Judicial Reform’ 119 Discussion 123 Notes 126 References 127 Chapter 7 ‘I Want Your Tears and I Want Them to Be Real’: Exploring the Construction of ‘Ideal’ and ‘Non-Ideal’ Victims ... 130 Introduction 130 The Independent Assessment Process for Indian Residential School Abuse 131 Theorising Settler Colonialism 135 Critical Victimology and Settler Colonialism 136 The ‘Ideal’ Victim as a Credible and Reliable Witness 138 Performative Labour in the Construction of ‘Ideal’ Victims 142 ‘Ideal’ Victims as Financially Profitable Subjects 146 Conclusion 148 Acknowledgements 149 Funding Statement 149 Notes 149 References 149 Chapter 8 Analysing the Victim Review Scheme of Decisions Not to Prosecute in England and Wales and Within Comparative ... 153 Introduction 153 International Trends in Europe and the Common Law 155 The European Union Directive and European Developments 155 Common Law and Resistance to Prosecutorial Review 156 Victims’ Right to Review Scheme in England and Wales 157 Killick and Rationales for Internal Review in England and Wales 157 The Victims’ Right to Review Scheme: Scope and Aims 158 Limitations of the Victims’ Right to Review Scheme in England and Wales, and Comparative Perspectives Within the ... 160 The Australian Context 164 The Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (2017) 164 Case Studies Highlighting the Need for Victim Review Schemes in Australian Jurisdictions 165 New South Wales Victims’ Right of Review Policy 166 Conclusion 167 Notes 169 References 169 Section 3 Victims’ Access to Justice: Lessons From Non-Adversarial Jurisdictions 172 Chapter 9 The Swedish Welfare Model and the Development of Social Services for Crime Victims 174 Introduction 174 The Swedish Welfare Model 175 The Rise of the Crime Victim 175 A New Social Services Act 176 NGOs Took On the Task of Supporting Crime Victim 177 NGOs Lobby for a Clarification of the Social Services’ Responsibility for Crime Victims 179 The Government Clarifies the Social Services’ Responsibility for Crime Victims 180 Competing Perspectives, But Joint Efforts 181 Hybridity, State, Market, and Entrepreneurs 183 Conclusion 184 References 185 Chapter 10 Victim Participatory Rights in Dutch Criminal Proceedings: A Review of Research On Their Potential Effectiveness 189 Introduction4 189 Terminology and Definitions 190 Findings From Empirical Research 191 Active Participatory Rights 191 Filing a Claim for Compensation 191 Delivering a Victim Statement 192 Accessing Case Files and Adding Relevant Documents to These Files 193 Passive Participatory Rights 194 Correct Treatment 194 Information On the Progress of the Criminal Investigation and Prosecution 196 Synthesis and Discussion of Findings 198 Conclusion 199 Notes 199 References 200 Chapter 11 The Critical Presence of Absent Victims in Criminal Policy: Fragments of Spanish Legislation 206 Introduction 206 Victim Policy Evolution in Spain 207 Victims of Terrorism 208 Victims of Other Violent Crimes, Including Sexual Crimes 210 Intimate Partner Violence and Human Trafficking 212 Victims of the Civil War and Francoism 215 The 2015 Statute of the Victim of Crime and the Expanding Notion of the Vulnerable Victim 215 The 8/2021 Act On Integral Protection Measures On Violence Against Minors 218 Conclusions 219 References 220 Chapter 12 Evolution of Victims’ Access to Criminal Justice in Brazil 224 Introduction 224 The Brazilian Criminal Procedure Code of 1941: Neglect 225 The Brazilian Constitution of 1988: Promise 226 The Creation of the Special Courts for Minor Crimes in 1995: The Sketch 227 The Maria Da Penha Law in 2006: Revolution 228 Subsequent Legal Reforms: Modest Expansion 231 From Discourse to Practice: Advances and Delusions 233 Conclusion 236 References 238 Index 242 Victims;,Access,to,Justice;,Criminal,Justice;,Victim,Studies;,Victims,needs;,Criminal,Justice,System;,Victims,of,Crime Victims,Access to Justice,Criminal Justice,Victim Studies,Victims needs,Criminal Justice System,Victims of Crime "Why have many victim-centred policy initiatives met with so little success? How have those initiatives unfolded differently in different global jurisdictions over different periods of time? This book aims to address these questions. Building on a major research project exploring victims' access to justice over time and place, Victims' Access to Justice considers the potentialities for victims' participation in criminal justice systems and in victim programmes both in historical and comparative context. It considers a range of topics: ways of identifying and accommodating victims' needs and senses of justice; the impacts for criminal justice systems of seeking to accommodate these; and the ways in which adversarial criminal justice systems, in particular, may enable or inhibit victim participation. This is essential reading for all those engaged in understanding and working with victims of crime"-- Provided by publisher