NCJ Number
231067
Date Published
2010
Length
32 pages
Annotation
This chapter attempts to identify a range of undesirable unintended consequences that flowed from recent Labor Government policies which sought to ensure that the criminal justice system is rebalanced in favor of victims.
Abstract
The idea that government 'must ensure that the criminal justice system is rebalanced in favor of victims' is found nonsensical and dangerous, as well as fundamentally misconceived. This phrase is identified as an attempt to justify policies and practices that violate or undermine fundamental, long-standing, and widely shared ideas about personal liberty and procedural fairness. This essay seeks to identify a range of negative consequences that came from recent Labor Government policies, which were seen as politically motivated. The essay has four sections. The first examines the rebalancing rhetoric and what it might mean. The second section discusses programs for victims in England and Wales and the United States. The third section discusses antisocial behavior order (ASBO), because of their association with political rhetoric and their controversial nature. The fourth and final section discusses the unhappy consequences of England's shift from substantive to expressive crime and antisocial behavior policies of which there are seven. The first four, the rebalancing rhetoric's displacement of attention from victims to offenders, and the ASBO's fostering of a culture of complaint, exacerbating public discontent, and worsening intergenerational conflict, are discussed. Tables, notes, and references