Implementing victim rights in newly industrialized countries

In ancient times, when people led a nomadic life, the rights of persons were more individual in nature. However, when they settled near rivers with new civilizations and formed various groups, the rights of persons became more communal in nature. The group leaders formed certain rules with the consent of the groups and rights were provided to individuals in a collective manner. When there were rival attacks of groups or individual attacks within groups, the leaders of the group ensured the rights of victims with specific unwritten rules and predominantly justice for the victims was revenge-based (Jaishankar et al. 2008). Though retributive justice was the norm in various ancient laws ¹ there was an element of restorative justice which ensured the rights of the victims of crime:

These ancient codes require offenders’ repayment in kind or extent to those suffering criminal victimization in addition to or instead of prescribed retributive sanctions. The goals of these early legal systems were: seeing the victim as a whole and to minimize private revenge.

(Tobolowsky 1999, p. 23) Restitution was found to be common in these laws. The Kings of the ancient times ensured justice to the victims of crime and provided adequate compensation to the victims as well. The ancient time period, considered to be a golden age of victims and the victim centred approach, continued ‘until approximately eleventh century’(Tobolowsky 1999, p. 23).