Victims' Rights Movement

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Victims 'Rights Movement ( dt. : Movement to protect victims' rights ) prosecuted in the United States the idea of the crime victim in criminal proceedings against the offender an adequate or weighty way to give the right court to express.

The victimology as a branch of criminology in the criminal law deals with victimology .

history

The strengthening of victims' rights was postulated in the USA as early as the 1960s. The modern Victims' Rights Movement was then, in part, a result of the 1973 decision of the United States Supreme Court in the (Rs) Linda vs. Richard, in which the victim was clearly excluded from criminal proceedings, but the Supreme Court has also declared that appropriate laws can be passed to protect victims. In 1975, the conservative attorney Frank G. Carrington published The Victims with the help of the Heritage Foundation . In 1982, under Conservative President Ronald Reagan , a final report of the President's Task Force ( Task Force on the Victims of Crime ) was published on the victims of crime. This was the further impetus to create independent participation roles for victims of crime in criminal proceedings, both in state law and at the federal level in the US Congress . At least 33 states have changed their constitution to protect the rights of crime victims, and the other states have passed simple law on crime victims' rights. At the federal level, the US Congress in 1982 passed the first of several Victim and Witness Protection Acts. In 1984 the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA), the Violence Against Women Act in 1994 and the Crime Victims' Rights Act in 2004 to strengthen the rights of victims were passed. The Crime Victims Fund was also set up by the Crime Victims' Rights Act .

In the reverse. Payne vs. Tennessee has expressly recognized by the United States Supreme Court that crime victims should not be nameless / faceless non-actors in the criminal justice system.

The Victims' Rights Movement has also further strengthened the discussion in the part of civil society which is so different movements for law and order (law and order), conservatism , civil rights movements (Civil Rights Movement) and the women's movement (Feminist movement) advocate. These provide information, legal assistance, hotlines and shelters for victims of crime.

Victim rights

The victim protection rights required by the Victims' Rights Movement can be divided into the following categories:

  • the right to information;
  • the right to be present in criminal proceedings;
  • the right to due process, d. H. the right of notification and the opportunity to be heard on major criminal justice proceedings;
  • the right to financial compensation for damage incurred as a result of a crime, such as reimbursement and / or compensation / reparations;
  • the right to protection; and
  • the right to privacy.

Implementation in the procedure itself and the training of lawyers are also essential for granting victim protection rights.

The Crime Victims' Rights Act (2004) gives victims the following rights:

  • The right to protection from the accused,
  • The right to be informed
  • The right not to be excluded from the procedure,
  • The right to speak in criminal proceedings
  • The right to consult with the public prosecutor,
  • The right to a refund (restitution),
  • The right to proceed without undue delay,
  • The right to fair treatment and respect for the dignity and privacy of victims

Victim protection facilities

As part of the Victims' Rights Movement , various institutions in the USA have addressed the problem (examples):

  • National Crime Victim Law Institute (NCVLI),
  • National Alliance of Victims' Rights Attorneys (NAVRA),
  • National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA),
  • National Center for Victims of Crime.

Criticism of the Victims Rights Protection Movement and its effects

The Victims' Rights Movement is due to ills in the judiciary and extensive use e.g. B. Victims' emotions for influencing the jury have been criticized by US prosecutors . Three essential points are essential that are relevant in criminal proceedings, since the inclusion of the rights of the victims:

  • directly undermine the defendant's right to a fair trial ,
  • the influence on the discretion of the politically dependent public prosecutor's office becomes opaque and increased,
  • Elements such as revenge and personal emotions are given inappropriately in the proceedings and the legal system is fundamentally not used or suitable for the treatment of victims of criminals.

Legislation in the United States has also driven inducement legislation in this regard (see, for example: Victims' Rights Clarification Act of 1997 ). But abuses have also become known within the scope of judicial discretion (see also the trial against Timothy McVeigh and OJ Simpson ). In a publicly broadcast criminal case in Michigan against the former team doctor of the American gymnastics team, Larry Nassar , for sexual assault, the presiding judge, Rosemarie Aquilina, admitted 156 women as witnesses, the majority of whom with the specific criminal case and the allegations of the public prosecutor had nothing to do with Nasser himself. Courts in the US have also approved poems by victims, "handcrafted items of the victim", "letters from children to their murdered mother", photographs of stillbirths, memorial videos etc. as "evidence". The use of such music videos has now become a profit-oriented business that is used not only by victims but also by perpetrators in court to attempt to influence the judge or jury. Similarly, PowerPoint sheets, Facebook presented -Zeitleiste or digitally optimized reconstructions of the crime as "evidence" and approved by the US courts. This leads to a technologically-led “fight” for the sympathy of the court or the jury.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ History of victims' rights , National Crime Victim Law Institute (USA).
  2. ↑ D., 410 US 614 (1972).
  3. ↑ See: Federal Rule of Evidence 615 [1] .
  4. ↑ See also: NCVLI Bulletin, "Fundamentals of Victims 'Rights: A Brief History of Crime Victims' Rights in the United States."
  5. ↑ History of NCVLI , National Crime Victim Law Institute (NCVLI).
  6. ↑ The Rise of the Victims'-Rights Movement , The New Yorker of May 21, 2018. Carrington was already in the 1960s along with others, u. a. the then governor of Texas , Ronald Reagan, was instrumental in establishing a form of the Victims' Rights Movement and increasing penalties.
  7. ^ "Office for Victims of Crime". Ojp.usdoj.gov. 2010-10-01.
  8. ^ A Retrospective of the 1982 President's Task Force on Victims of Crime , Ncjrs.gov.
  9. ^ Issues: Constitutional Amendments , National Center for Victims of Crime.
  10. ↑ See: Victims' Rights , website of the National Center for Victims of Crime.
  11. ^ Victim Witness , Website: The United States Department of Justice.
  12. ↑ Title 42 US Code Chapter 112 - VICTIM COMPENSATION AND ASSISTANCE .
  13. ^ History of victims' rights , National Crime Victim Law Institute (USA).
  14. ↑ The Rise of the Victims'-Rights Movement , The New Yorker of 21 May 2018th
  15. ↑ Joanna T. Davis, The Grassroots Beginning of the Victims' Rights Movement , National Crime Victim Law Institute, NCVLI News 2005.
  16. ^ History of victims' rights , National Crime Victim Law Institute (USA).
  17. ↑ See also: Mission and Values .
  18. ↑ HR 5107 , US government website, legal text.
  19. ↑ Crime Victims 'Rights Act , US Congress website on the named after victims: Scott Campbell, Stephanie Roper, Wendy Preston, Louarna Gillis, and Nila Lynn Crime Victims' Rights Act, p. 2329.
  20. ↑ See also: Aaron Larson: What Are Your Rights if You Are the Victim of a Crime , 2016.
  21. ^ Website: National Crime Victim Law Institute .
  22. ↑ Website: National Alliance of Victims' Rights Attorneys .
  23. ^ Website: National Organization for Victim Assistance .
  24. ^ Website: National Center for Victims of Crime .
  25. ↑ This is not theater, Judge Richard Matsch announced on the first day of the trial of twenty-nine-year-old Timothy McVeigh in the daffodil spring of 1997. This is a trial. ( German : This is no theater, said Judge Richard Matsch on the occasion of the first day of the trial against twenty-nine year old Timothy McVeigh , this is a trial.)
  26. ↑ See e.g. For example: [Abraham S. Goldstein: The Victim and Prosecutorial Discretion: The Federal Victim and Witness Protection Act of 1982 , in Law and Contemporary Problems , No. 47 (4), pp. 225-248.
  27. ↑ See e.g. E.g .: Capital Punishment as 'Closure': Limits of a Victim-Centered Jurisprudence .
  28. ↑ The Rise of the Victims'-Rights Movement , The New Yorker of 21 May 2018th
  29. ↑ She is considered a supporter of the Victims 'Rights Movement (Stephen M. Harnik in The Victims' Rights Movement , Anwalt Aktuell , 3/18, p. 20.)
  30. ↑ So-called: Victim Impact Statement .
  31. ↑ Nassar was sentenced by Judge Rosemarie Aquilina to 175 years in prison for seven sexual assaults. He had previously pleaded guilty. The so-called "witness statements" were also arranged by the judge in such a way that they could no longer be cross- examined by the defense. The judgment of this judge was overturned in the second instance.
  32. ↑ The Rise of the Victims'-Rights Movement , The New Yorker of 21 May 2018th
  33. ↑ These were originally a product of the funeral industry. In Hicks v. State (1997) presented a photographic summary of one hundred and sixty photographs to the prosecutor's office that included the victim's life from infancy. In Salazar v. State (2002), in a Texas case, the prosecution performed a 17-minute music video that showed nearly half of the images showing the victim in childhood or early childhood. In Kelly v. California (2008) featured a twenty-two minute music video about the life of the victim who was murdered at the age of nineteen by the prosecution in California.
  34. ↑ The Rise of the Victims'-Rights Movement , The New Yorker of 21 May 2018th