ABSTRACT
Victims play a central role in initiating the criminal justice process. Victims who come to court expecting that a trial will be an assertion of the wrongs committed against them can find that their probity is on trial as well. In contemporary Britain, the role of victims within the criminal justice process is largely confined to reporting the crime and providing evidence. Private ‘thief-takers’ established themselves to investigate offences for victims; and many thief-takers also cashed in on the rewards offered by the government for the apprehension of offenders leading to conviction. The victim, or the victim’s relatives or friends, would also make the decision whether or not to prosecute an offender, pay for a variety of legal documents and other expenses of prosecution and, more importantly, take on the role of prosecutor in court. Many criminologists have highlighted the dangers of stigmatizing the victims of crime and of creating misleading victim stereotypes.
