Victims and the Criminal Process

Catalog description

This course tracks the victim's role and the rights of and responsibilities to victims. The course considers the different stages of the criminal process, from investigation through sentence and post-sentence matters, and the law of victims' rights through that process. It examines state constitutions and federal statutory victims' rights. The course also examines definitions of "victim" to see who is included and excluded; examines gender and racial bias in criminal justice and how these impact response to crime; it examines historical and comparative responses to victims of crime, and analyzes how the law serves different kinds of victims, including victims of wrongful convictions, victims of financial fraud, and other classes of victims. The course will require a research paper. No exam.