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Societies
Special Issues
Access to Justice: Historical Approaches to Victims of Crime
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Access to Justice: Historical Approaches to Victims of Crime

A special issue of Societies (ISSN 2075-4698).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2019) | Viewed by 54387

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Pamela Cox

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Guest Editor
Department of Sociology, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester CO4 3SQ, UK
Interests: modern social and cultural history; social policy; social justice and criminal justice; gender relations; youth justice; child rights; family law
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Barry Godfrey

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology, The University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3BX, UK
Interests: longitudinal studies of crime and sentencing; how individual and structural factors can affect desistence from crime; comparative international studies of offending and sentencing; court culture and practice; the history of Liverpool; and convicts in America and Australia
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Victims were central to the detection and prosecution of crime for most of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Indeed, if it was not for the substantial activity of victims there would be little recorded crime at all before the 1830s. In many countries, newly formed police forces then took the lead in the prosecution process until their role was, in turn, supplanted by professional lawyers and state prosecution services. Despite their ‘removal’ from the courtroom, victims have remained important agents in the justice system. Today they are frequently evoked and re-imagined within media and political debates, becoming symbolic ciphers for concerns about crime and other perceived social challenges. This collection seeks contributors who will address one of three major research questions:

How has victims’ access to justice been facilitated or restricted over the past two centuries? How, and to what end, have cultural representations shaped perceptions of victims? How, why and when did victims come to shape political and criminal justice discourse and practice? Additionally, the related topics may include: Child sexual abuse victims; domestic violence victims; access to justice for victims; history of victim support; symbolic and ideal victims of crime; victims and fear of crime; victims and media representations; and victims in literature.

Prof. Pamela Cox
Prof. Barry Godfrey
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as conceptual papers are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Societies is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

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Published Papers (7 papers)

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Editorial

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2 pages, 130 KiB  
Editorial
Editors’ Introduction: ‘Access to Justice: Historical Approaches to Victims of Crime’
by Pamela Cox and Barry Godfrey
Societies 2019, 9(4), 73; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc9040073 - 3 Nov 2019
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2997
Abstract
Victims were central to the detection and prosecution of crime for most of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Access to Justice: Historical Approaches to Victims of Crime)

Research

Jump to: Editorial, Other

12 pages, 243 KiB  
Article
‘A Shocking State of Domestic Unhappiness’: Male Victims of Female Violence and the Courts in Late Nineteenth Century Stafford
by Jo Turner
Societies 2019, 9(2), 40; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc9020040 - 22 May 2019
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 5364
Abstract
Instances where men were the victims of female violence in the past are very difficult to explore, especially when the violence took place in a domestic setting. There is now a notable body of work on violence in the nineteenth century but none [...] Read more.
Instances where men were the victims of female violence in the past are very difficult to explore, especially when the violence took place in a domestic setting. There is now a notable body of work on violence in the nineteenth century but none that looks specifically at male victims of violence where there was a female perpetrator, and their treatment by the courts. This article goes some way in filling that gap by using data collected in researching female offenders at the end of the nineteenth century in Stafford. It argues that, as with violence where there was a female victim and female perpetrator, the courts and the press were similarly unconcerned and somewhat dismissive of female violence towards men in a domestic setting, thus being unsympathetic towards male victims of female violence. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Access to Justice: Historical Approaches to Victims of Crime)
18 pages, 271 KiB  
Article
Contrasting the Emergence of the Victims’ Movements in the United States and England and Wales
by Marie Manikis
Societies 2019, 9(2), 35; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc9020035 - 8 May 2019
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 5680
Abstract
Over the years, the role of victims in the criminal process has considerably evolved in common law jurisdictions, particularly in the United States and England and Wales. These notable developments have varied greatly between these two jurisdictions. These differences are in great part [...] Read more.
Over the years, the role of victims in the criminal process has considerably evolved in common law jurisdictions, particularly in the United States and England and Wales. These notable developments have varied greatly between these two jurisdictions. These differences are in great part attributed to the different forces and rationales behind the emergence of the early victims’ movements in these respective jurisdictions. Indeed, the movements in the United States and England and Wales adopted different philosophies, strategies, and members came from different backgrounds, which can account for the differences in policies. This article engages in a process of comparative distancing between the forces that drove the movements, as well as the context under which they operated in order to understand the different policies, legal responses and debates that relate to the role of victims of crime in the two selected jurisdictions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Access to Justice: Historical Approaches to Victims of Crime)
16 pages, 300 KiB  
Article
Victims as Prosecutors: England 1800–1835
by Kathrine M. Reynolds and Carol Liston
Societies 2019, 9(2), 31; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc9020031 - 24 Apr 2019
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 4676
Abstract
This paper examines the role of the victim through the prism of prosecutor in the first third of the nineteenth century when England did not have a public prosecutor or national police force and most crimes were prosecuted in the courts by the [...] Read more.
This paper examines the role of the victim through the prism of prosecutor in the first third of the nineteenth century when England did not have a public prosecutor or national police force and most crimes were prosecuted in the courts by the victim. The selection of cases is drawn from a larger investigation of female offenders punished by transportation to New South Wales, Australia. The cases demonstrate the diversity of victims, the power they held as prosecutors and highlight the process from apprehension to conviction. Historical records of regional English Assizes and Sessions were investigated to identify the victim and record the prosecution process. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Access to Justice: Historical Approaches to Victims of Crime)
13 pages, 243 KiB  
Article
Victims, Criminal Justice and State Compensation
by David Miers
Societies 2019, 9(2), 29; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc9020029 - 24 Apr 2019
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 6836
Abstract
This article examines one element of the state’s responses to crime: the provision of a taxpayer-funded compensation scheme for victims of personal and sexual violence. The Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme 2012 sits within a political context that seeks to ensure that victims of [...] Read more.
This article examines one element of the state’s responses to crime: the provision of a taxpayer-funded compensation scheme for victims of personal and sexual violence. The Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme 2012 sits within a political context that seeks to ensure that victims of crime are better served by the criminal justice system of England and Wales, the jurisdiction that is the focus of this article. The government’s fundamental policy is that this scheme exists to compensate only those victims who are ‘blameless’, either in terms of their character, criminal record, conduct at the time of the incident, or in their engagement with the criminal justice agencies. It is a policy that illuminates elements of two of the questions that the editors posed for this Special Issue of Societies. Reviewing the increased urgency in government policies concerning the treatment of victims of crime, the first section addresses the question of how, why and when victims came to shape political and criminal justice discourse and practice. The question of how, and to what end, cultural representations have shaped perceptions of victims is addressed in the second and third sections, which examine the notion of victim status and illustrate the ways in which eligible (‘ideal’) victims are perceived and their claims under this scheme are determined. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Access to Justice: Historical Approaches to Victims of Crime)
27 pages, 393 KiB  
Article
‘A Poor Prospect Indeed’: The State’s Disavowal of Child Abuse Victims in Youth Custody, 1960–1990
by Ben Jarman and Caroline Lanskey
Societies 2019, 9(2), 27; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc9020027 - 18 Apr 2019
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 5535
Abstract
Child abuse in youth custody in England and Wales is receiving an unprecedented degree of official attention. Historic allegations of abuse by staff in custodial institutions which held children are now being heard by the courts and by the Independent Inquiry into Child [...] Read more.
Child abuse in youth custody in England and Wales is receiving an unprecedented degree of official attention. Historic allegations of abuse by staff in custodial institutions which held children are now being heard by the courts and by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), and some criminal trials have resulted in convictions. A persistent question prompted by these investigations is that of why the victims of custodial child abuse were for so long denied recognition as such, or any form of redress. Drawing on original documentary research, this article aims to explain why and how state authorities in England and Wales failed to recognise the victimisation of children held in penal institutions between 1960 and 1990, and argues that this failure constitutes a disavowal of the state’s responsibility. We show that the victims of custodial child abuse were the victims of state crimes by omission, because the state failed to recognise or to uphold a duty of care. We argue further that this was possible because the occupational cultures and custodial practices of penal institutions failed to recognise the structural and agentic vulnerabilities of children. Adult staff were granted enormous discretionary power which entitled them to act (and to define their actions) without effective constraint. These findings, we suggest, have implications for how custodial institutions for children should think about the kinds of abuse which are manifest today. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Access to Justice: Historical Approaches to Victims of Crime)

Other

Jump to: Editorial, Research

8 pages, 181 KiB  
Essay
Integration of African Customary Legal Concepts into Modern Law: Restorative Justice: A Kenyan Example
by Buluma Bwire
Societies 2019, 9(1), 17; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc9010017 - 4 Mar 2019
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 20311
Abstract
African societies have been governed according to known norms, customs, and practices that together constitute African customary law. These societies have placed emphasis on communal as opposed to individual identity, and this has extended to their justice systems. African customary law therefore has [...] Read more.
African societies have been governed according to known norms, customs, and practices that together constitute African customary law. These societies have placed emphasis on communal as opposed to individual identity, and this has extended to their justice systems. African customary law therefore has placed emphasis on the concept of restorative justice based on the understanding of restoring the societal balance that has been disrupted by crime. This has fostered offender accountability, reparation to the victim, and full participation by the affected community members. This essay examines the resurgence of African legal philosophy and its subsequent integration into modern African formal legal systems. In particular, it interrogates the recent Kenyan example of integrating traditional dispute resolution mechanisms as one of the guiding principles for the exercise of judicial authority by Kenyan courts under the 2010 Constitution. It argues for the development of structures to properly utilize such mechanisms within the Kenyan context. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Access to Justice: Historical Approaches to Victims of Crime)
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