The Crime Victim and the Criminal Justice System: Time for a Change
![handle is hein.journals/pepplr11 and id is 1053 raw text is: The Crime Victim and the Criminal
Justice System: Time for A Change
PAUL S. HUDSON*
The failure of the present criminal justice system to provide meaningful
participation for victims of crime has launched crime victim reform meas-
ures to the forefront of the legislative agenda. This article explores current
reform measures and proposes new programs to increase the quantity of
victims' rights and enhance the quality of victim involvement.
I. INTRODUCTION: THE PROBLEM
As ably researched and presented by William F. McDonald, the
crime victim once played a central role in the American criminal
justice system.' From colonial times until the early 19th cen-
tury-which brought the correctional institution, public prosecu-
tors, and professional police force-the victim's role often
involved the apprehension and prosecution of the criminal.2 But
even before the times of these early American reforms, govern-
ments began to assume a greater role in the control of theft and
violence. The transition from citizen and victim participation to
public responsibility for criminal justice has been a gradual one.
It began with the search for a substitute for the medieval blood
feud.3 This was followed by the emergence of a professional po-
lice force instead of private prosecution and citizen action.4 Pub-
lic prosecution became the norm. Restitution and fines payable to
* B.S., University of Michigan, 1968; J.D., Cleveland Marshall College of Law,
1974. Counsel to the New York State Crime Victims Board.
1. McDonald, Towards a Bicentennial Revolution in Criminal Justice, 13 AM.
CRiM. L. REv. 649 (1976).
2. Id. at 651-54.
3. Id. at 654-56; S. SCHAFER, REsTrrTUTION TO VICTIMS OF CRIME 3 (1960).
4. See generally NEW YORK STATE CPJIME VICTIMS COMPENSATION BOARD, THE
CRIME VICTIM AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM: A REPORT TO THE GOVERNOR AND
THE LEGISLATURE ON THE STATE OF THE RIGHTS, NEEDS AND INTERESTS OF CRIME
VICTIMS IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM 14-18, 53 (1982) [hereinafter cited as
CV/CJS]; Lamborn, Remedies for the Victims of Crime, 43 S. CAL. L. REv. 22
(1970).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/pepplr11&div=91&collection=journals&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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The Crime Victim and the Criminal Justice System: Time for a Change
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