Third Parties

Recent years have seen a heightened awareness of the plight of victims of crime and their neglect by the traditional criminal justice system. Many jurisdictions have adopted a "Bill of Rights" for the victim; public funds have been established to compensate victims; courts have been enjoined to order offenders to make restitution; welfare agencies have developed programs to provide victims with assistance; and courts are inviting victims to testify at the sentencing hearings of their offenders. These reforms have been accompanied by a growing body of literature. What has been lacking until now is an overview that looks at their philosophical underpinnings and considers how these different proposals are conceptually related to one another and to other prevailing criminal justice doctrines and ideologies. Leslie Sebba fills this gap in Third Parties. Sebba first establishes a set of criteria by which to evaluate reforms by identifying the parameters of an optimal criminal justice system. From this perspective, he then discusses individual victim-related reforms. What emerges most clearly from Sebba's timely and encyclopedic work is the need to rethink many of the issues involved. The first book-length study of its kind, this volume is recommended reading for policy makers in the field of victim reform and is essential for scholars and students in victimology, victims and the criminal justice system, the sociology of law, criminal justice policy, and law and social policy. Leslie Sebba is professor of criminology on the faculty of law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the coauthor of Rehabilitation as Punishment: The Treatment of Drug-Addict Offenders and Punishment under the "Service Work" Law: An Evaluation and the co-editor of Criminology in Perspective: Essays in Honor of Israel Drapkin. He is one of the founding editors of The International Review of Victimology.