NCJ Number
96466
Editor(s)
L Radzinowicz
Date Published
1984
Length
171 pages
Annotation
This text focuses on the range of powers available to Britain's criminal courts to compensate victims of crime, to confiscate illegal proceeds, to forfeit property immediately connected with offenses, and to restore property to its rightful owners.
Abstract
The analogous powers of civil courts are reviewed, and their experience in depriving wrongdoers of improper gains and in temporarily freezing defendants' assets prior to trial are discussed. Recommendations for giving criminal courts comparable jurisdiction are examined, and the penal character of some aspects of civil law are highlighted. Confiscation in the United States, Australia, and in civil law countries is considered. The three ways in which victims of crime in Britain may obtain compensation for the injury, pain, and suffering they have sustained are analyzed: (1) the criminal court may order offenders to pay compensation, (2) victims may apply for compensation to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board, or (3) victims may pursue their remedy through the civil courts. The procedures that can be devised after conviction to effect confiscation of the proceeds of crime are explored, and the court's power to take property immediately connected with an offense is defined. Pretrial restraints needed to use any new powers of confiscation effectively are noted; ways to more effectively use the criminal courts' powers to make compensation orders are suggested. Finally, the idea of adapting the process of civil bankruptcy to the system of criminal justice is discussed. A table of cases and an index are included.