NCJ Number
103423
Date Published
1986
Length
213 pages
Annotation
A survey and interviews gathered data for an analysis of the implementation status and victim attitudes toward California's Proposition 8, the Victims' Bill of Rights, which gives crime victims the right to appear and be heard at felony sentencing hearing allocution.
Abstract
California voters adopted Proposition 8 in 1982, giving victims the right called allocution. A questionnaire survey received information from 33 probation departments, 25 district attorneys, 33 superior courts, and 32 victim-witness programs in operation in mid-1983. Additional data came from interviews with 171 victims, of whom 29 had spoken at sentencing. Less than half of the eligible victims are aware of the allocution right, and less than 3 percent of those eligible appeared at sentencing hearings. Most of the victims interviewed regarded the right of allocution as important and wanted more information and support to help them exercise it. Victims wanted information about criminal proceedings as much as they desired the legal right to take part in cases. The majority of presiding judges and chief probation officers viewed allocution as unnecessary, whereas district attorneys tended to have favorable attitudes. Experiments on victim participation at other stages of criminal proceedings are needed. Procedural recommendations, tables, chapter reference notes, 106 references, appendixes presenting study instruments, extensive data, and a study of victim allocution at parole eligibility hearings.