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42 Cardozo L. Rev. 1449 (2020-2021)
Victims, Right?

handle is hein.journals/cdozo42 and id is 1487 raw text is: VICTIMS, RIGHT? Anna Robertst In criminal contexts, a victim is typically defined as someone who has been harmed by a crime. Yet the word commonly appears in legal contexts that precede the adjudication of whether a crime has occurred. Each U.S. state guarantees victims' rights, including many that apply pre-adjudication; ongoing Marsy's Law efforts seek to expand and constitutionalize them nationwide. At trial, advocates, judges, and jury instructions employ this word even though the existence or not of crime (and thus of a crime victim) is a central question to be decided. This usage matters in part because of its possible consequences: it risks obscuring and weakening the defense side of our two-sided system. Changing the language is thus a reasonable reform. But the usage matters also because of the underlying impulses, assumptions, and realities that it reveals. An exploration of those helps to illuminate broader concerns that require systemic, rather than merely linguistic, change. t Professor of Law, St. John's University School of Law; J.D., New York University School of Law; B.A., University of Cambridge. For helpful feedback, my thanks to John Acevedo, Amna Akbar, Jill Anderson, John Barrett, Ash Bashir, Jeff Bellin, Kiel Brennan-Marquez, Michal Buchhandler-Raphael, Bennett Capers, Jenny Carroll, Ed Cheng, Erin Collins, Larry Cunningham, Caroline Davidson, Peggy Cooper Davis, Avlana Eisenberg, Sheldon Evans, Barbara Fedders, Todd Fernow, Brenner Fissell, Thomas Frampton, Cynthia Godsoe, Lauryn Gouldin, Eve Hanan, Daniel Harawa, Vida Johnson, Zachary Kaufman, Steven Koh, Anita Krishnakumar, Benjamin Levin, Kate Levine, Cortney Lollar, Sara Manaugh, Irina Manta, Sandy Mayson, Peggy McGuinness, Ion Meyn, Eric Miller, Kathryn Miller, Janet Moore, Jamelia Morgan, Justin Murray, Minor Myers, Alex Nunn, Ngozi Okidegbe, Shelly Page, Gustavo Ribeiro, Alice Ristroph, Jasmine Gonzales Rose, Andrea Roth, Felipe Serrano, Reggie Shuford, Laurent Sacharoff, Julia Simon-Kerr, Jocelyn Simonson, I. India Thusi, Kate Weisburd, Rebecca Wexler, Kayonia Whetstone, Maggie Wittlin, participants in the University of Connecticut School of Law and Brooklyn Law School faculty workshops, my workshop colleagues at the ABA/AALS Criminal Justice Section scholarly workshop, participants at CrimFest!, and colleagues at the St. John's University School of Law Scholarship Retreat. Thanks also to Jeremy Ashton, Chris Byrne, Elyssa Carr, Sarah Catterson, Sam Gagnon, Andres Gomez, and Nicholas Lynaugh for research assistance; to Mike Simons, Anita Krishnakumar, and Eva Subotnik for research support; to Courtney Selby for library assistance; to Karena and Sam Rahall for their support; and to the editors of the Cardozo Law Review. 1449

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