This research paper discusses victimology, the science of how the public, the courts, the government and society deal with the victim of a crime. The movement to expand the rights of crime victims and the protections afforded them crested in the 1980s and early 1990s. It stemmed from a broad public consensus that the criminal justice system neglected the interests of victims. The success of the movement has, however, been uneven, greater in some jurisdictions and in protecting some types of victims than in others. The activist organizations involved may have overplayed their hand, and the movement itself has lost some momentum as public passions and fears regarding crime control have eased.
Origins of victimology science and the victim's rights movement. According to Elkenberry (1989), "in the middle ages, victims [of crimes] engaged in primitive blood feuds with their criminal offenders" (p. 21). Until the late 19th century in England and in some American states, crime victims had a right of private prosecution. As, Anglo-American jurisprudence evolved, however, the state assumed the entire burden of prosecution. Elkenberry (1989) says that "victimology emerged as a science in the 1940s and 1950s and by the late 1950s, international discussion focused on proposals to compensate victims of crime" (p. 22). California in 1965 and New York in 1966 were the first two states to enact legislation providing for public compensation to crime victims. By 1989, the federal government and 44 states had victim compensation programs in place, under which in 1986 $89,499,346 was paid out (Roland, 1989, p. 42; and Acker, 1992, January-February, p. 68).
The victims rights movement gained momentum in the 1980s and encompassed a broad range of legal rights, programs and protections. Its genesis, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Scalia said in his dissenting opinion in the case of Payne v. Tennessee (1991) discussing infra, was a "public sense of j...