Abstract
In many early societies, the individual victim, or their kinship group, was responsible for crime control through different forms of private prosecution. Private prosecutions were partially undertaken to recover financial losses arising from the criminal act. State involvement in these proceedings was rare or non-existent. No firm distinction between criminal law and civil law existed at the time. Over the course of history, the understanding of crime changed from that of a violation of individual victims’ rights to that of a violation of the rights of the state or the sovereign. Respectively, a division between criminal law and civil law, including the law of torts, developed. Yet, this changed understanding did not automatically translate into a reduced role for victims. Rather, they continued to be important for initiating criminal prosecutions. Yet, from the nineteenth century onwards, most Western criminal justice systems introduced public police and prosecution services who carried out criminal investigations and prosecutions on behalf of the state. As a consequence, crime victims were no longer required as active participants in the criminal justice system and their role was mostly reduced to that of a witness for the state. The poor treatment of victims gave rise to concerns during the second half of the twentieth century and led to, what some call, the ‘rediscovery’ of the victim. Since then victims and their role have featured prominently in law, policy and discourse in the jurisdictions selected for analysis in this volume.
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Legislation and Related Sources
Legislation and Related Sources
Code de Procédure Pénale (France), Code of Criminal Procedure
Crime Victims’ Rights Act 2004 (US)
Drittes Opferrechtsreformgesetz (Germany) Gesetz zur Stärkung der Opferrechte im Strafverfahren, Third Victims’ Rights Reform Act
European Union, Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council (2012). 2012/29/EU, 25 October 2012. Establishing Minimum Standards on the Rights, Support and Protection of Victims of Crime, and Replacing Council Framework Decision 2001/220/JHA
Opferentschädigungsgesetz (Germany), Victim Compensation Act
Opferrechtsreformgesetz (Germany) (Gesetz zur Verbesserung der Rechte von Verletzten im Strafverfahren), Victims’ Rights Reform Act
Opferschutzgesetz (Germany) (Erstes Gesetz zur Verbesserung der Stellung des Verletzten im Strafverfahren), Victim Protection Act
Rättegångsbalken (Sweden), Code of Judicial Procedure
Strafprozessordnung (Germany), Code of Criminal Procedure
Victims’ Rights and Restitution Act 1990 (US)
Victim and Witness Protection Act 1982 (US)
Zweites Opferrechtsreformgesetz (Germany) (Gesetz zur Stärkung der Rechte von Verletzten und Zeugen im Strafverfahren), Second Victims’ Rights Reform Act
Victims of Crime Act 1994 (ACT)
Victims Rights Support Act 2013 (NSW)
Victims of Crime Rights and Services Act 2006 (NT)
Victims of Crime Assistance Act 2009 (Qld)
Victims of Crime Act 2001 (SA)
Victims of Crime (Commissioner for Victims’ Rights) Amendment Act 2007 (SA)
Victims’ Charter Act 2006 (Vic)
Victims of Crime Commissioner Act 2015 (Vic)
Victims of Crime Act 1994 (WA).
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Braun, K. (2019). Victim Participation: A Historic Overview. In: Victim Participation Rights. Palgrave Studies in Victims and Victimology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04546-3_2
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