Victims’ rights and participation in the criminal justice system

Criminal Process

Table of Contents
Victims’ rights and participation in the criminal justice system................................................3
Introduction............................................................................................................................3
Background............................................................................................................................4
Literature review....................................................................................................................5
Proposal..................................................................................................................................7
Compulsory integration of Right to Review and other rights in the present Victim’s right
charter.................................................................................................................................7
Role of police.........................................................................................................................8
Recommendation and conclusion..........................................................................................9
References..................................................................................................................................9

Victims’ rights and participation in the criminal justice system
Introduction
1. A legal reform or a law reform can be described as the process of analyzing and examining
the present laws and advocating as well as implementing the modifications in a legal system.
The main aim of a law reform is to enhance the efficiency and justice of a judiciary system.
The report will contain a law reform proposal which can be presented or prepared in the court
to bring a change in the common law. It will also serve as an empirical basis for the other law
reform activities1.
2. The topic for which the report will propose a reform is “Victims’ rights and participation in
the criminal justice system”. In the adversarial judicial systems, in a criminal trial, there is a
conflict between two parties including the defendant and the state and the truth according to
both the parties is presented before an unbiased judge. The second half of the previous
century, witnessed the dissatisfaction of the victims, all across the world, regarding these
trials as well as the procedures of criminal justice systems. The victims complained that the
human rights instruments did not hold any reference to the rights possessed by the victims 2.
Till the end of 1970s, the victims of the crime were considered to be the “forgotten Persons”
who were completely neglected by the judicial system. All the difficulties faced by the crime
victims gave rise to the campaigns held by the victims’ rights groups which were aimed at
bringing a change in the criminal judicial system. the report will support the claim that the
victims of crime must be provided with the right to review, right to be heard, right to legal aid
1 Anastasia Powell, Nicola Henry and Asher Flynn, Rape Justice (Springer, 2015).
2 Tyrone Kirchengast, "Victims’ Rights And The Right To Review: A Corollary Of The Victim’S Pre-
Trial Rights To Justice" (2016) 5(4) International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy.