Handbook

This course examines various perspectives on the recognition of victims of crime as participants in the criminal justice system. This course examines the victim of crime as a dynamic agent of justice by considering the role of the victim in the development of criminal law, the removal and exclusion of the victim in criminal justice, the rise of the victim rights movement and the contemporary relocation of the victim in common law and statute. It encourages a critical appreciation of the criminal justice system by examining competing theories of victimisation and the attempt to place these theories into a particular policy context. Through a discrete examination of the needs of particular victim groups, this course will challenge the major assumptions of the removal of the victim from the criminal justice system, and will critically evaluate the often incomplete and fragmented way in which victims are granted a level of recognition in the modern justice system.

Main Topics

• Victimology
• The victim in criminal justice,
• The rise of the victim right's movement
• Law and order
• The victim in common law and statute
• Specialised court
• Sexual assault and domestic violence
• Homicide
• Indigenous justice
• Restorative justice