Module 1 - Summary Flashcards
When did the victims’ rights narrative begin?
It began in Babylonia
Who was one of the first rulers to consider victims’ rights?
King Hammurabi
When did the Magna Carta come into force?
The Magna Carta came into force in 1215
How did the victim carry the brunt of the responsibility in the prosecution of the accused until the 1850’s?
They had to be the arresting police officer, investigator and prosecutor, and were even responsible for hiring a circuit judge
What were typical methods of punishment among early Western societies?
Typical methods of punishment often included revenge, vendettas, and blood-feuds (although blood” referred to ties of kinship, not the nature of injury inflicted)
How did the introduction of the concept of compensation help to serve social stability?
The concept of compensation mitigated blood-feuds, and precluded them from becoming endless, socially disruptive vendettas which helped to serve social stability
What are two examples of grassroots crime control strategies that were introduced after the Norman conquest?
Frankpledge which is a form of collective responsibility for good conduct whereby free Englishmen had to swear to maintain the peace
Outlawry whereby if a wrongdoer could not, or would not, pay the necessary restitution to his victim, he was ostracized from the community, and anyone could kill him with impunity
What factors contributed to the evolution of the contemporary criminal process?
A variety of factors contributed to the evolution of the contemporary criminal process including the need for efficiency and non-violent social responses to conflicts, to avoid the disruption of constant feuding; weakening kinship ties; squabbles between the church and king; inequities in compensatory tariffs; for the assessment of compensatory awards and victim compensation became a source of revenue for the state
How did people’s perceptions of justice evolve as criminal law become a more established option for redress?
They began to perceive criminal punishment as an adequate substitute to vindicate the need for private vengeance
How did the victim’s role change by the 14th century?
By the 14th century, the victim was no longer the focus of anyone’s attention, and the idea of restitution for the victim was so thoroughly eradicated by the economic motivation of the state that it took a 19th-century law, Lord Campbell’s Act of 1846, to re-introduce the possibility of compensation in a case of wrongful death
Why does Nils Christie describe the victim’s experience within the criminal trial process as being that of a “double loser”?
He explains that the victim is a double loser first vis-à-vis the offender and then in being denied full participation in the case thereby losing it to the state
What three factors have been attributed to the Canadian victims’ rights movement?
A coalition of feminist organizations, victim assistance programs in our country and the more populist American victims’ rights movement
