Victims’ Rights and Services (Essay Sample)

Victims’ Rights and Services
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Victims’ Rights and Services
The history of victim’s rights and services began more than three decades ago through the Modern Crime Victims’ Rights Movement (MCVRM), which desired to enhance how they were treated by the US justice system. Currently, the movement marks one of the most successful liberty groups. Following the 1973 US Supreme Court decision in Linda R.S. v. Richard D., a diplomatic unit was issued on Victims of Crime in 1982, leading to aggressive attempts of the MCVRM to develop a self-determining, participatory role for victims of crime (Cole et al., 2012). For example, the 1982 Victim and Witness Protection Act, among other legislations conceded by Congress have continuously recognized the crime victims’ rights (Cole et al., 2012). Before then, the role of crime victims as witnesses could not materialize in courts. In such effect, the judiciary has achieved a participatory level of crime victims, like the right to information, due process, protection, financial compensation, presence at proceedings, and to privacy.
As a result of the victim’s rights development, the crime victims have more contribution to the common-law criminal justice system. For instance, the victim’s participatory rights are acknowledged and a significant part of the proceedings. Since the victim’s involvement in sentencing decisions is likely to challenge the established patterns and traditions within the criminal courts, the implementation of their rights is sometimes opposed (Rich, 2014). However, the transformations in the legal cultures determin