Essay On Victim Movement

Following the events which unfolded in the 1960s, there was renewed agitation for active involvement of victims in court cases. Rising levels of social consciousness and leadership from individuals who suffered and survived various tragedies helped to rally calls for intensified participation of victims in court processes. Developments in five different independent jointly contributed to creation of the Victim’s Movement in the United States. They include the creation and rise of women’s movement, rise of victim activism, creation of State Victim Compensation program, emergence of victimology (sic) as an academic field of study, and increase in crime coupled with general dissatisfaction with criminal justice system.
Importation of the study of victimology from Europe to the United States

The Victims Compensation programs enabled administrators to grow more articulate in their advocacy for responsibility to the victims of crime.

The Victims Movement, which seemed to have gained substantial traction suffered several challenges among them the withdrawal of financial support by the LEAA by the year 1979 thereby throwing the organization’s future into bleakness. However, the strength of spirit, which informed its formation by the five programs, seemed to hold through to later years when a task force established by Federal administration put in place the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) followed by several developments and acceptance by the public. As such, the need for more contributions to criminal research and practice, expansion of services to underserved victims, measures to propose and practice human rights, and response to individual trauma are some of the vital reasons for development of the Victims