Victims of Crime

In recent years, one in every four U.S. families has been victimized--involving financial loss, property damage, physical injury, death of a loved one, or--even more devastating--psychological wounds. Eventually, crime and serious victimization will touch most Americans or affect the lives of their relatives, friends, and acquaintances. Victims of Crime provides state-of-the-art reports on the many facets of criminal victimization including the current trends, the emotional impacts of crime, the needs and problems of special types of victims, victim participation in the criminal justice system, and the evolution of policies and services for victims. The contributors critically analyze these issues while providing performance assessments of recently implemented task forces, federal acts, and legislated victim compensation programs. Victims of Crime will be an essential resource for criminal justice professionals and students and professors of victimology, criminology, policy studies, and sociology. "This excellent collection of papers is, above all else, a reflection of the change in academic interest in crime victims and an increasing knowledge base. Victimology, once a discipline that reinforced the stigmatized status of victims as those who were blameworthy, now legitimatizes them as people under severe stress deserving of support and legal rights. This volume reveals how far we have come and how far we have to go; and, in many ways, is a measure of increasing social responsibility in a maturing society."Lurigio, Arthur J. is the author of 'Victims of Crime' with ISBN 9780803933705 and ISBN 0803933703.