ABSTRACT
The American criminal justice system has historically focused largely on deterring, capturing, convicting, punishing, and rehabilitating the offender. Emerging in the 1960s, the law-and-order movement resulted from increasing public dissatisfaction with higher crime rates and a perceived systemic bias towards offenders. Conservatives responded by advocating for harsher penalties and other hardline crime policies. In the late 1960s, the women's rights movement began to direct more attention towards women crime victims, particularly in terms of female victims of male perpetrators. Activists from other social movements including the civil liberties, children's rights, seniors' rights and LGBTQ rights movements have had a strong influence on improving crime victims' rights. The civil liberties movement emphasizes constitutional protections and the guarantee of due process for suspects, defendants, and convicted offenders in the criminal justice system. Victims of all crime have the right to attend court proceedings and submit a victim impact statement (VIS) at the time of sentencing.
