ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the victimology with a focus on sexual victimization from a systemic viewpoint. It focuses directly on victims' perspectives of the edifices of that system. For purposes of this discussion, the criminal justice system consists of three parts: police/law enforcement, courts and legal processing, and victims' services. The criminal justice system is usually triggered when a crime is discovered by or reported to the police. Victims of sex crimes, like most other crime victims, continue to interact with criminal justice system actors after a law-enforcement investigation ends. Duke University is one of America's most prestigious institutions of higher learning. It also is the site of a series of scandalous events that forced the nation to consider more carefully people attitudes and assumptions about sex, class, race, and victimization. The constitutionality of victim-impact information has been tested in the context of death-penalty cases. The criminalization of sexual conduct has its underpinnings in religion and religious beliefs.
