ABSTRACT
We are living in “the age of the victim.” Everyone wants to be given special treatment because of something, no matter how ridiculous or trivial that something might be. However, there is nothing trivial about being a victim of crime, and over the last 30 years, crime victims have begun to organize and demand their due from the criminal justice system (Wallace, 1998). In this chapter, we consider crime victims and the suffering they endure as a result of criminal acts. We examine the roles they play in the processes of arrest, trial, sentencing, and sometimes in crime itself.
