In this comprehensive text, the authors combine their experience of the emerging victims' movement to provide a theoretical and practical critique of victimology. Drawing on local, national and international sources (including Europe and USA), unpublished documents and research, the authors map out the issues facing victims today. Topics covered include: the risks of crime and how they vary from country to country; the impact of crime on the victim; the treatment of victims by the police, welfare agencies and courts; why governments have recently become interested in victim issues; policies and practices in other nations and what we can learn from them; what services are developing in the rest of the world; and how we can best ensure justice for victims while preserving the right of the defendant.
Sandra Walklate has been Eleanor Rathbone Chair of Sociology at the University of Liverpool since 2006, a post she currently holds concurrently with a Chair of Criminology at Monash University in Australia. She is internationally recognised for her work in victimology most recently focusing on gender and violence; an area in which she has an extensive publishing record. She is a Visiting Professor at City University, London, an adjunct professor at QUT in Brisbane and a research associate at the Violence Research Centre at the University of West Virginia in the US.
Perspectives on Victimology Crime and its Impact The Place of the Victim in Non-Western Societies The `Rebirth' of the Victim as a Significant Actor Immediate Help for the Victims of Crime Victims, Courts and Compensation Developing an Appreciation of the Victim Looking to `Eastern Europe' The Principles of a Critical Victimology Conclusion Questions for Policy?
`A fairly thorough comparison of victim-related policies and the meaning of the 'victims' movement' in various countries - with special attention to the US and British experience - is arguably the most valuable contribution of this work.' - Choice `Critical victimology, like critical criminology, insists on the need to include the social and political context in which crime takes place; Mawby and Walklate have provided a useful introduction' - British Society of Criminology Newsletter `This useful and accessible book provides a more sophisticated and refined understanding of victim issues in the contemporary criminal justice system than has been available hitherto, and should be essential reading for anyone who wants to take practice and policy forward.... this book will leave you better informed about issues of pressing political significance' - LCCJ Newsletter
