Conflicts of Victims' Interests and Offenders' Rights in the Criminal Justice System: A European Perspective (From International Victimology, P 163-176, 1996, Chris Sumner, Mark Israel, et al., eds. - See NCJ-169474)

• NCJ Number: 169492
• Author(s): M Groenhuijsen
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 14 pages
• Sale Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: Australia

Annotation

This article explores the issue of victims' rights in the context of those of the offenders.

Abstract

The article describes the proceedings of the European Forum for Victims Services at Falkland, Scotland, in 1994. The Forum agreed that the emancipation of the victim was not intended to be at the expense of the rights of the offender. This article refutes the notion of a zero-sum game and opposes changes to the criminal trial to make the victim a third party and a direct adversary of the defendant. The question of victims' rights has been examined in three areas: where victims' and offenders' rights are the same; where offenders' rights exceed the rights of victims; and where victims' and offenders' rights conflict. The paper examines these categories at length and summarizes discussions about them at the Falkland Forum and other professional meetings and cites cases where the concern for both victims' and offenders' rights played a major role. The paper concludes that a common interest of victims and offenders should not be equated with an identical interest and a shared interest is not necessarily the same interest; and the European Forum should draft and issue a list of basic victims' rights in the criminal justice system. Notes, references