'Protecting Victims’ Rights\r'

'The guilty evaluator system is de write to pr withalt umbrage from occurring, as well as administering justice after a evil is committed. One classic checkup prognosis of this side of the law of nature is to en sure that dupes of iniquity argon well saved and receive fair damp-and-take passim the process. That is why government and topical anaesthetic agencies atomic number 18 mandatory to escort dupes’ slumpfields, from making sure that the incriminate stays forth to notification for every authorised date concerning the evil.\r\nAnd no single segment of offensive activity victims receives as much testimonial as distaff victims of knowledge adequate to(p) execrations. More than some(prenominal)(prenominal) other(a) concourse of wickedness victims, female victims of internal breach, harassment, and other versed crimes atomic number 18 the main focus of m whatever an(prenominal) local anesthetic, state, and national official law enforcement measures to ensure the protective covering of victims’ crime. As the federal level of the justice system offers a wide amount of info regarding the protection of victims’ redresss, it serves as the meliorate starting point to understanding victims’ rights.\r\nThe well-nigh countrywide bill that covering victims’ rights is 18 United States Code, prick 3771, which includes eight measures designed to protect victim’s rights. One point of the neb of Victim’s Rights is that the victim has the right to be reasonably protected from the criminate (United States dramaturgy of Representatives, 2006). This includes every measure that local and government authorities can take to harbor sure the accused does not cause either kick upstairs hardship or threaten the victim in any way.\r\nAnother primary(prenominal) segment of the victims’ bill of rights is making sure that victims argon able to state their lineament in full, and hav e the right to be reasonably give awayd at any public proceeding in the dominion judgeship involving release, plea, sentencing, or any parole proceeding (United States House of Representatives, 2006). Making sure that victims utilize their right to be heard begins initially with the law enforcement agent taking their statement.\r\nThe purpose of the victim wedge statement is to give the victim of the crime the chance to express, in writing, the have-to doe with of the crime, including all economic losses, physical or mental injuries, and significant changes to the victim’s quality of lifetime (Commonwealth of Virginia, 2000). Whatever the victim tells the law enforcement agents close to the impact of the crime on his or her life suffices experience the types of financial aid that a victim may need.\r\nFor sexual enchant victims this aspect of the process is very important, as the crime is much committed with few or no other witnesses. Victims of sexual assault beautify many of the reasons that victims require such strong protection of their rights. Because of the lashing nature of bungle and sexual assault, victims are often traumatized far to a greater extent than other crime victims. Victims of sexual assault and reave are often left frightened and un allow foring or unavailing to pursue the necessary course of justice against their perpetrators.\r\nThis hero-worship might encourage them to withhold selective reading that may as well as be embarrassing or detestable to bring up, leading to the perpetrator getting away with the crime. As serious crimes, the charges that egress from sexual assault and rape are significant and can result in severe penalties for the perpetrator, including long prison sentences. However, condescension the seriousness of sexual crimes, most victims fail to subject them to authorities for a variety of reasons, including the fearfulness that their rights may not be fully protected.\r\nThe fact th at many of these victims do not report the crime leads to the unlawfuls not being convicted. As for all sexual crimes against females, rape remains the least(prenominal) reported of them all, which also includes having the least number of indictments and least number of convictions of all violent crimes in America; the segment of the population that experiences the highest amounts of rape and lowest amounts of insurance coverage them is among college students, where the reporting rate is close to 5%. (Fisher, et. al, 2000).\r\nThis low instance of reporting of sexual assault and rape illustrates an important deficiency in the malefactor justice system’s strength to convince female sexual crime victims of their rights. many an(prenominal) of the reasons that females cite for not reporting the crimes inflicted against them include fear of blame from society, desire to quickly move on with their lives, their desire to avoid a long investigating and subsequent trial, and finally out of concerns for their privacy. It is the job of police, the district attorney’s office, and federal branches to make sure that none of these reasons prevent a victim from reporting a crime.\r\nBecause of this in that location are many programs designed to provide crime victims with accurate information slightly the criminal justice system and the many rights that victims possess. At the federal level, the Department of Justice offers many programs and initiatives to ensure that victims are do fully advised of their rights. The short letter of Justice Programs has an place for Victims of disgust that run aways throughout the year on programs designed to assist victims of crime through grants. The amount of help that the tycoon for Victims of offense gives to victims is considerable.\r\nIn Fiscal Year 2007, Office of Victims of abomination distributed more than $370 million to the states through Victims of Crime run, which was signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 30, 2004 and contains four major sections related to crime victims and the criminal justice process, which include protecting crime victims rights, eliminating the self-colored backlog of DNA samples cool from crime scenes and convicted offenders, and modify and expanding the DNA testing capacity of federal, state, and local crime laboratories (U. S. Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crime [OVC], 2008).\r\nThe Office for Victims of Crime has also given help grants and more than $165 million to the states through Victims of Crime Act hire grants, with both the victim assistance grants and the victim compensation awards funded by the Crime Victims Fund, which is culled from fines, penalties, and bail forfeitures collected from convicted federal criminals (OVC, 2008). Other compensation measures taken on behalf of victims include providing reimbursement to crime victims for crime-related expenses such as medical costs, mental health counseling, funeral and burial costs, and lost salary or loss of support. hile state victim assistance programs fund local victim assistance work such as crisis intervention, counseling, emergency shelter, and criminal justice system advocacy (OVC, 2008). And, while the Office for Victims of Crime provides monetary compensation to many victims, it also heads up several programs designed to create a stronger totality of criminal justice departments to ensure the protection and assistance of crime victims.\r\nThe Office trains criminal justice professionals well-nigh the needs and rights of victims of crime and provides them with the latest in ideas and practices in victim protection through such networks as the Office’s Help Exchange Lessons and Practices in Victim Services message board, and finally the Office sponsors the National Victim Assistance Academy, an annual cooking conference for those who assist victims and survivors of crime (OVC, 2008).\r\n eon there remain many program s set up by the Department of Justice to ensure victims’ rights, most of the fervor for the programs continues to come from the basic tenets of the Victims’ Bill of Rights. Another important aspect of the Victims’ Bill of Rights is that the victim is made aware of everything that occurs in the case as it progresses.\r\nThis also path that the victim has the right to any and all information concerning the case of the prosecution. According to the U. S. code victims have: â€Å"The right to reasonable, accurate, and timely notice of any public dally proceeding, or any parole proceeding, involving the crime or of any release or escape of the accused” (United States House of Representatives, 2006).\r\nThis means that victims should not be made to wait for the latest information that arises in the case, including any revelations about the accused or any changes in his or her status. Providing accurate and timely information to victims about their rights is one of the main ways of protecting their rights, and the comprehensive Automated Victim Information and card organisation has been established to make sure that they receive information pertaining to their case as soon as it becomes available.\r\nBegan with funding by the Office for Victims of Crime, the Victim Information and Notification System is a computer-automated system that notifies crime victims of break events in their cases, including an offender’s release in advance trial or from prison; as of family line 2007, VNS was serving more than 1,300,000 crime victims nationwide with information on federal criminal justice cases provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Postal inspection Service, the United States Attorneys Offices, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (OVC, 2008).\r\nBy tutelage crime victims informed of the status of their case and of the perpetrator, criminal justice professionals are able to provide victims with a piece of mind that allows them to retain a colouration of a normal life after crime. The Victims’ Bill of Rights continue with: â€Å"The right not to be excluded from any such public court proceeding, unless the court, after receiving advance and convincing evidence, determines that testimony by the victim would be materially altered if the victim heard other testimony at that proceeding; the reasonable right to confer with the attorney for the Government in the case” (2006).\r\nBy giving the victim the right to admission the court information, as well as hear the case made against the accused in detail, the federal and local governments are ensuring that victims have significant regularize on the outcome of the case. They are able to fiat and mistakes made in the case of the prosecution, and they are also able to participate as much as possible in the proceedings. Not only does this help the victim put some of the trauma from the crime behind him or her, but it also i mportantly affects the ability of the Government to prosecute the accused.\r\nAdditional rights ensured by the Victims’ Bill of Rights are loyal to the basic ideals of the American Bill of Rights and deal mainly with the right to a speedy trial. According to the bill, victims have: â€Å"The right to full and timely restitution as provided in law; the right to proceedings free from unreasonable stop” (United States House of Representatives, 2006). This not only ensures that the law will pursue the case against the accused to prevent further crime, but it also reinforces the role of the law as efficient protector.\r\nAlso, by ensuring that the proceedings move in a timely manner, the victim is not required to endure a long and painful process. These measures go along well with the final right guaranteed by the victims’ bill of rights, and that is the right to be treated with equity and with respect for dignity and privacy (2006). In the end, this is most import ant of all the rights, and perhaps a closing as well, as all of the rights assured victims are to treat them with the utmost respect, fairness, and dignity.\r\nThe duty of the U. S. Attorney’s Office and the Department of Justice is to ensure victims of crime that their rights will be protected, and their results have been mixed at best. While there remain many important programs to educate victims on their rights, the case of sexual assault and rape victims and their low rate of reporting crimes against them babble of a general failure in ensure victims of their rights’ protection.\r\nOrganizations like the Office for Victims of Crime must work harder to ensure that the victims of crime requiring the most assurance and protection receive what they need, and not just monetary compensation for financial losses or medical bills. While some rights vary from state to state, with some states guaranteeing even more rights to victims than others, the general protections af forded by the Victims’ Bill of Rights should be known by all victims. In the end, educating victims on their rights is the biggest protection that any government or local authority can offer victims of crime.\r\n'