This invaluable one-stop reference source supplies students and general readers with historical and current information on the victims' rights revolution in the United States, providing analysis on everything from human rights reports to Supreme Court cases that allows the reader to fully understand these documents. Victims' rights represent the greatest change in the criminal justice system within the last 30 years. Victims' Rights: A Documentary and Reference Guide traces the origins, evolution, and results of the victims' rights movement. It puts victims' rights in a legal, historical, and contemporary context, and comprehensively collects important victims' rights documents in a single volume—perfect for students as well as general readers. Bringing together dozens of varied documents such as presidential task force reports and recommendations, Supreme Court cases, state constitutions, human rights reports, critical articles, and political documents, this book is an indispensable resource for those seeking to understand the origins and modern consequences of American victims' rights policy. The author's accompanying commentary and analysis helps the reader to gain a complete comprehension of the significance of these documents, while numerous bibliographic sources provide additional resources for interested readers.

Legal reform in the name of victims of crime began to appear in state and federal law in the 1960's. It can be seen in victim restitution and compensation laws, in the reform of rape laws, drunk driving statutes, bail laws, and in provisions for victim impact statements at sentencing, to name a few. Over time in many jurisdictions these specific victim provisions were joined by a more general, more comprehensive victims' bills of rights. Thus, by the close of the twentieth century, thirty-three states had added victims' rights amendments to their state constitutions and each of the states had general statutory declarations of victims' rights.

Prior to the emergence of a victims' movement in this country in the 1970s, crime victims had only limited formal rights and remedies in the modern American justice system. With the active encouragement of those involved in the victims' movement and guidance supplied by a national Task Force on Victims of Crime, convened by President Reagan in 1982, federal and state authorization of crime victim rights and remedies has increased exponentially in recent years. In fact, it has been estimated that there are currently tens of thousands of statutes which directly or indirectly affect crime victim rights and interests, as well as victim-related constitutional provisions in a majority of states. Tobolowsky describes the constitutional and legislative provisions addressing the principal crime victim rights and remedies and leading judicial opinions that have interpreted them. In addition to presenting the current state of law in this area, the text describes the status of implementation of these rights and remedies, relevant empirical research, and a sampling of the pertinent policy analysis. This comprehensive portrait of the past and current status of crime victims rights and remedies in this country will inform the continued evolution of law and practice in this area.