ABSTRACT
Although victim participation is essential for the smooth working of criminal justice, the relationship between victims and criminal justice, in modern times in Western societies, has been a relatively fraught one. Th e increasing use of state prosecutors, rather than individual private prosecutions by victims, has tended to minimize perceptions of the necessity and importance of all lay witnesses, and particularly victims. Criminal justice has become seen, by many professionals in criminal justice, as primarily a matter between the state and the off ender. Some theorists, such as Christie [1977], have argued that this is an inevitable consequence, with the state and its professionals increasingly “stealing” the original confl ict (the crime) and its resolution from the victim and off ender. Christie suggests that there is little possibility of reform, with the participants needing to fi nd any support necessary from outside criminal justice, in civil justice (compensation or mediation procedures) or in victim assistance and support. Others are not so pessimistic, although appreciating the diffi culty in carving out an appropriate place for victims in criminal justice, amid the plethora of
offi cial agencies now involved (e.g., police, prosecution, judiciary, and probation services). Shapland [1988] has referred to these agencies as fi efdoms, proud of their own territory and prepared to repulse anyone encroaching on it, such as, potentially, victims. Certainly, the history of criminal justice reform in Europe in relation to victims is a history of slow progress and considerable diffi culties.
