NCJ Number
178482
Journal
Journal of Prisoners on Prisons Volume: 9 Issue: 2 Dated: 1998 Pages: 17-22
Date Published
1998
Length
6 pages
Annotation
The victims' rights movement has been used primarily to expand state power and repression in a manner that police and prosecutors would otherwise have been unable to do directly.
Abstract
The criminal justice system in the United States is used as a tool of social control to ensure that dangerous classes of people, primarily the poor, are kept disorganized, disoriented, and otherwise incapable of mounting any serious, organized challenge to the political and economic status quo. A key component of this strategy is to first define crime so that the poor are overly included and the wealthy and powerful are largely excluded and weeded out of the arrest, prosecution, conviction, and imprisonment cycle. The flip side of this process lies in defining who is a victim and who is not. At various levels some victims are defined as "worthy" while others are excluded as not deserving of "victim" services and benefits. Victims' rights groups have been supported financially and in other ways by agencies related to the criminal justice system and groups that advocate a more punitive policy of crime control and corrections. For the foreseeable future, victims will continue to be defined by most legislators as the occasional white, middle and upper class person who is killed, raped, robbed, or assaulted by a stranger who carries out his act in direct contact with the victim. Little is being said or done about victims of wealthy corporations and businesses that exploit consumers and their employees. The emphases of the victims' rights movement reflect the narrow, punitive philosophy of those who continue to focus on the crimes of the poor against the middle and upper classes while ignoring or de-emphasizing the crimes and the victims of the rich. 8 notes and 7 references