Since the mid-to late 1980s a number of Western countries have granted victims a participatory role in the sentencing process by means of written and oral victim statements. These statements have been introduced with a view to increasing victim satisfaction with the criminal justice system. Evaluation research on the use of these statements, however, points towards victims' numerous concerns when deciding whether to submit a statement. These concerns indicate that some victims may feel insecure and uncomfortable about submitting a statement. Focusing on the specific case of victim statements, this article will serve to explore how victim reforms that are designed to protect victims from exclusion by the criminal justice system and to enhance perceptions of justice risk causing some victims to feel endangered by participation.
Despite the encouraging results of public opinion assessments on restorative justice, people are not likely to spontaneously suggest restorative measures after a crime. Restorative justice thus seems in need of a public relations strategy. This paper discusses the strategy labeling victims as the universal remedy to promote restorative justice, and the proposal of promoting restorative justice through the media by foregrounding crime victims in media reports on crime. This strategy stems from a belief that the most appealing aspect of restorative justice to the public is its thoughtfulness to victims. However, I will argue that there are three problems with this approach. These concern: (1) the victim's position in both restorative justice theory and practice; (2) the characteristics of media reporting on crime in general and victims in particular; and (3) the risk of attaining a result opposite to the initial objective (i.e. increasing punitive attitudes instead of promoting restorative justice).
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.