A History of Victims of Crime: How they Reclaimed their Rights

by Stephen Strauss-Walsh

Overview

This book examines the evolution of the contemporary crime victim’s procedural place within modern Western societies. Taking the history of the Irish crime victim as a case study, the work charts the place of victims within criminal justice over time. This evolves from the expansive latitude that they had during the eighteenth century, to their major relegation to witness and informer in the nineteenth, and back to a more contemporary recapturing of some of their previous centrality. The book also studies what this has meant for the position of suspects and offenders as well as the population more generally. Therefore, some analysis is devoted to examining its impact on an offender’s right to fair trial and social forms. It is held that the modern crime victim has transcended its position of marginality. This happened not only in law, but as the consequence of the victim’s new role as a key sociopolitical stakeholder. This work flags the importance of victim rights conferrals, and the social transformations that engendered such trends. In this way victim re-emergence is evidenced as being not just a legal change, but a consequence of several more recent sociocultural transformations in our societies. The book will be of interest to researchers, academics, and policy makers in criminal law, human rights law, criminology, and legal history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032188225
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	05/19/2023
Series:	Routledge Contemporary Issues in Criminal Justice and Procedure
Pages:	268
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Stephen J. Strauss-Walsh teaches Criminology and Criminal Law at the University of Galway. His research is focused on victims and crime. He has a First-Class Honours Law Degree and PhD from the University of Limerick, Ireland.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Table of Instruments

Case Law

1 Introduction

Context

Research question

Methodology

Contribution to knowledge

Structure

PART I

Historical context

2 A contextual study of victim centrality in eighteenth-century Britain

Introduction

The eighteenth century

Politics

The victim of crime

In the popular imagination

Compounding

Conclusion

3 The causes and outcomes of the exclusion of victims from the nineteenth century Irish justice system

Introduction

The nineteenth-century causes of victim exclusion

A fading noblesse oblige and a laissez-faire revolution

Urbanisationwithin an industrialising Ireland

Greater resident numbers move to cities

Problems with the victim-centred system are emphasised

The prevalent hesitancy regarding pursuing actions

Britain’s closest colony lists towards revolution

British hegemonic rule becomes almost impossible

The “fear of the crowd” and a move from “status to contract”

Disorder sees social unrest become a persistent Irish issue

The“Leviathan State” engenders punitive advancements

Novel organisations begin dictating chastisement

Reformalters regulation of juridical frames

Traditionally overlooked transgressions Are prosecuted

The impactof victim exclusion in nineteenth-century Britain

Punishment becomes successfully centralised

Conclusion

PART II

Sociological transformation

4 Feminism and victimology highlight hidden victimisation

Introduction

Victimology

The birth of the study of victims

Feminism

Consciousness-raising and -changing

Conclusion

5 Domestic drivers of change re-establish the victim

Introduction

Reported crime rates—from stability to disorder

The low crime society of the 1940s and 1950s

The Evental moments that qualitatively changed crime

Watershed moments in Irish criminal history

The evolution of victim advocacy in Ireland

The emergence of the victim’s voice in the public sphere

Media reporting

Graphic and pervasive crime portrayals

Mass victimisation surveys

Data suggests an increase in the reporting of victimisation

Victims of child abuse

The victim in the consciousness of the Irish people

Conclusion

PART III

Legal reformative evolution

6 Charting the Irish victim’s juridical re-integration—the evolution of the victim as a rights bearer in Ireland

Introduction

Supranational instruments provide victims with entitlements

International law courts allocate privileges to victims

The Irish judiciary recognise the victim as a rights holder

Conclusion

7 The legal reincorporation of the crime victim

Introduction

The protection and accommodation of victims

An expanded criminal calendar

Pre-trial reforms

Preliminary investigations

Trial reforms

Greater account taken of victim privacy during disclosures

Conclusion

8 Legal reincorporation of victims after trial

Post-trial reforms

Introduction

Civil process reforms

The civil law—a viable justice avenue

Conclusion

9 Conclusion

Bibliography

Index

Editorial Reviews

‘By his thought-provoking historical assessment of victim rights in Ireland, Strauss-Walsh provides an innovative analysis of the empowerment of crime victims in the modern period. The removal and relocation of victims in criminal law and procedure continues to define the contours of justice in the modern trial context, making A History of Victims of Crime a must read for anyone interested in the socio-legal context of victim rights law reform.’

Professor Tyrone Kirchengast, Associate Professor of Criminal Law, University of Sydney Law School, University of Sydney, Australia

‘Tracing the emergence of a new legal culture of inclusion in regard to victims in the Irish criminal process, Strauss-Walsh provides fascinating historical and sociological context. This book is a wonderful addition to our understanding of the fall and rise of the victim in criminal proceedings in Ireland.’

Professor Yvonne Daly, Full Professor of Criminal Law and Evidence, School of Law and Government, Dublin City University, Ireland



From the Publisher