Victim Impact Evidence within a Retributive System of Justice

Abstract

INTRODUCTION|The increasing familiarity of society with violent crime and the criminal process has stirred growing dissatisfaction with the treatment of crime victims by the judicial system. The system takes great pains to ensure that defendants and convicted offenders receive every constitutional safeguard, yet, the victims of crime receive little or no constitutional attention. The dissatisfaction stems not from the protections afforded defendants, but from the disparity between the defendant's rights and the victim's rights...