Victim Rights and Vengeance

Victims’ Rights and Vengeance

Joseph Closterman

CJS/211

November 3, 2014

Melissa Andrewjeski

Victims’ rights in America are changing and developing into a more functional system than they had been in the past. In the past victims’ rights were not as well laid out as they are today. The basis for what is in place now began in the 1980’s with President Reagans’ Task Force on Victims’ of Crime. The 2004 Criminal Victims’ Rights Act changed the way victims’ rights were addressed. The Criminal Victims’ Rights Act laid out the basic rights of crime victims’. I personally believe that the basic rights from the 2004 CVRA are “on point”. These basic rights give the victims’ some power within the criminal justice system. I have had some experience with this in my family. My mother was robbed at gunpoint and due to the basic right to be heard at any parole hearing, she was able to keep the criminal in prison for the full length of his sentence. I would say the Crime Victims’ Rights Act has been successful. It has established a guideline for the individual states to base crime victims’ rights on, and has already given crime victims’ more of a voice within the criminal justice system than they have previously had.

I believe that vengeance is something that every human has thought about at some point in time or another. In fact, I would be willing to bet that most people have even experienced it themselves. I know I have experienced it in the most simplistic of forms. Imagine a time when you were driving your car and someone cut you off, you get angry, and the next thing you know, you are driving in excess of the speed limit just to get back in front of the car that cut you off. This example is not as severe as an incident of road rage because someone cut you off, however I can recall a story that hit home with me as a father of a little girl. As I recall it, there was a family reunion and the father noticed that his little 4 year old daughter had gone missing. The...