Hearing the Victim - Adversarial Justice, Crime Victims and the State (Hardcover)

In recent years, far more attention has been paid to victims of crime in the UK - both in terms of awareness of the effect of crime upon their lives and in changes that have been made to the criminal justice system to improve their rights and treatment. This process seems set to continue, with UK legislative plans announced to 'rebalance the criminal justice system in favor of the victim.' Hearing the Victim - part of the Cambridge Criminal Justice series - brings together leading authorities in the field to review the role of the victim in the criminal justice system in the context of these developments. The book falls broadly into two parts. The first half is largely contextual in character: exploring the relationship that should exist between the State and the individual victim, summarizing recent policy developments, and discussing the politics of victims' issues and the overlap between victim and offender. The remaining chapters explore the role of the victim in the practice of ad