Hearing the Victim Adversarial Justice, Crime Victims and the State

In recent years far more attention has been paid to victims of crime both in terms of awareness of the effect of crime upon their lives, and in changes that have been made to the criminal justice system to improve their rights and treatment. This process seems set to continue, with legislative plans announced to rebalance the criminal justice system in favour of the victim. This latest book in the Cambridge Criminal Justice Series brings together leading authorities in the field to review the role of the victim in the criminal justice system in the context of these developments.

Preface, Anthony Bottoms and Julian Roberts, 1. The victim, the state, and civil society, Matt Matravers, 2. The 'duty to understand': what consequences to victim participation?, Anthony Bottoms, 3. The status of crime victims and witnesses in the 21st century, Helen Reeves and Peter Dunn, 4. 'Rebalancing the criminal justice system in favour of the victim': the costly consequences of populist rhetoric, Michael Tonry, 5. The phenomenon of victim-offender overlap: a study of offences against households, Anthony Bottoms and Andrew Costello, 6. The victim and the prosecutor, John Spencer, 7. Victims at court: necessary accessories or principal players at Cozijn centre stage?, Joanna Shapland and Matthew Hall, 8. 'Hearing victims of crime': the delivery of impact statements as ritual behaviour in four London trials for murder and manslaughter, Paul Rock, 9. Communication at sentencing: the expressive function of Victim Impact Statements, Julian Roberts and Edna Erez, 10. Victim input at parole: probative or prejudicial?, Nicola Padfield and Julian Roberts, Index

Sir Anthony Bottoms was Wolfson Professor of Criminology from 1984 to 2006, and he also served as Director of the Institute of Criminology from 1984 to 1998. He is now Emeritus Wolfson Professor of Criminology at Cambridge, and Honorary Professor of Criminology at the University of Sheffield. He is also a Life Fellow of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.Julian V. Roberts is Professor of Criminology at Oxford University, a Fellow of Worcester College and Assistant Director of the Centre for Criminology.