Читать книгу Criminology For Dummies - Steven Briggs - Страница 65

Prior to the 1970s, if you were the victim of a crime, you were essentially just another witness for the government. Sure, people were sympathetic to you, but sympathy only goes so far. No one helped you get medical care, let alone reimbursed you for that medical care. A victim of domestic violence didn’t have a shelter she could take her family to. A rape victim had no one to provide counseling services. No one explained how the criminal justice system worked or provided any of the myriad of victim services that exist today.

In the 1970s, this situation slowly started to change as individual communities began to take action. District attorney offices in Philadelphia, Brooklyn, and Milwaukee got the ball rolling with some rudimentary victim assistance programs. Soon thereafter, private advocacy groups sprang up to advocate for victims in Congress and in state legislatures. For example, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) formed in 1980 to advocate against drunk driving and to support its victims.

In 1982, President Ronald Reagan commissioned a task force to look at victims’ rights. The task force came up with 68 recommendations for how to provide better service to victims of crime. The next year, Reagan created the Office for Victims of Crime within the U.S. Department of Justice to implement these recommendations. And in 1984, Congress passed the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA), which called for the money from fines and assessments levied against federally convicted criminals to be used to provide services to victims of crime all across the country. Together, these actions became the springboard for dramatic improvements in how society and the court system treat victims of crime. Today, society goes to much greater efforts — both inside and outside the courtroom — to help victims deal with the many painful effects of crime.