Читать книгу Approaching Victimology as social science for Human rights a Spanish perspective онлайн

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Some criminal law professors and academicians contend that the rise of victims’ movements (of support and self-help) might be leading to more punitive criminal policies because the victims’ interests are being manipulated towards more repressive laws. However, there is evidence that victims are not more punitive than the general population and that they also have prosocial concerns towards the offender and the community (Van Camp, 2017). Contrary to the general basic assumption on victims’ punitivism, their participation in the criminal justice system might make it less punitive and, perhaps, more restorative (Brennan and Johnstone, 2019). In any case, any assessment on this topic has to be done distinguishing different victimisations, contexts and countries (Kunst, 2021).

According to international standards, the victims’ claims to participate in the criminal justice system have a reasonable and legal basis and the key questions are how that participation should be made more adequate in procedural and substantive terms at different moments of the process and what is happening in practice after legal reforms have entered into force.