Criminology

Concept of victim., history and significance of victims assistance programs and the purpose of their function as it applies to the criminal justice system.

Victim is a person or an object that experiences a negative or damaging action, incase of a person, it can be one who is injured by or made to undergo unpleasant experience from an act, group, or situation, and puts up with hurt, loss, or fatality as a consequence of a deliberate undertaking. A person who is deceived, double-crossed, or taken advantage of, harmed or killed by another can also be termed as a victim. Victimization is the process by which a person is made a victim. There are several degrees of victimization as Finkelhor David (2008), puts them across, primary victimization, secondary victimization which is also known as post crime victimization and revictimisation. Primary victimization is the initial time or contact that the victim had with the victimizer, while secondary victimization refers to subsequent victimization that occur after the original victimization. The term revictimisation refers to the victims likelihood or the possibility of being victimized again, regardless of the time frame in between the two occurrences. Can either be shortly thereafter or much later in life. Self-victimisation is the falsehood of victim-hood for a range of motives such as to validate and give reasons for mistreatment of others, to stage-manage others, a dealing with or managing strategy or attention seeking.

Victims assistance programs are institutions that provide information, research and networking resources for victims, victim assistance specialists in the field of victimology. Victimology according to Howard (1985) refers to the study of victimization that includes the relationship between offenders and victims and the connection between the criminal justice system (including the courts and police) and the victims. It is the study of individuals who are hurt by other people and those who hurt other people. Victimology also caters for other types of human rights violation. Victimology is a scientific field that became officially recognized as a discipline in the 1790s. The Crime Victim Assistance Program as Office of justice programs argues, was introduced in the year 2002, in place of the Criminal Injury Compensation Program which was until then operated by the Workers Compensation Board. The Crime Victim Assistance Program came into being after the discovery and realization of the changing requirements of victims. When the Criminal Injury Compensation Program began in 1972, a lot of victims, who were frequently male salary earners, were worried about salary loss ensuing from an offense. Nowadays, many victims, particularly women and children, could do with financial sustenance as well as supplementary services and aid to aid in their recuperation from the physical in addition to psychological effects of their unfair treatment.

While it is easier said than done to imagine what victims of brutal crime or horrifying accidents go through, the Victim Assistance Program from 1972 has been devoted to guarantee that no victim is unaided. Their support efforts are directed on an array of rank through pro-active emergency intervention to calm down and provide considerate aid, teaching and support right through the criminal justice system, a joint continuum of concern via proper referrals to society agencies or resources, and population and specialized education paying attention to victims concern, requirements and service. In victim assistance services, there are several services offered community education and intervention, victim and victim witness advocacy, and joint intervention and advocacy. In community education and intervention, people are trained on how to handle crises and deal with the aftermath of any crises, offer involvement from the area where a felony was committed and other ordeals, campaigns to work with sufferers of all aggressive crimes and other disturbing events. This program also provides resource for the assistance at the crime scene, in the outcome of suicides and grave vehicle damages and bereavements. The program also helps in advocating for help from the tribunal process in the course of courts trials and hearings. Among other rights that a victim is entitled to include the right to be informed about the criminal justice system, informed about the crime, talk or discuss with a legal representative and be explained all the court proceedings.

Direct services accessible to victims of offense are on scene reaction when applicable, support with crime victim damages request, health check attention, and information on law enforcement procedures along with information on support factions for victimization. Recommendation service include ways of preventing crime, shelter with urgency, short or long-term therapy and counsel, shared or other community services and health check assistance. Problem-solving courts were formed in the 1990s to take care of lawbreakers with exact needs as well as problems that were not addressed or could not be addressed as required or sufficiently in customary courts (Dignan, 2005). Problem-solving courts aims to encourage results that will do well to not only the perpetrator, but also the victim and the society at large. Therefore, problem-solving courts came into being as an inventive reply to deal with offenders troubles, like drug misuse, intellectual unsoundness, and familial fighting. Even though the majority of problem solving court replicas are comparatively new, it has been noted that these courts are having a constructive contact on the lives of wrongdoers along with victims and in some occasions are saving penitentiary and reformatory costs. These problem solving courts have their effect on the victim, the offender and the society at large. They are intended to offer positive case ending for victims, society and the offender, uphold change in how the administration reacts to evils such as drug addiction, mental illness, and use of showing and evaluation tools to find out a defendants qualification for the problem-solving court more often than not occurs early in a defendants involvement with criminal justice processing (Brian 2005).