Victims and Policy Making ─ A Comparative Perspective

Victims of crime are now the subjects of intense policy attention and reform across most developed nations, whilst also receiving sustained attention at the highest levels of the United Nations, the Council of Europe, and many other transnational organisations. Such moves have been fostered by the continued development of the international victims' movement and driven by a host of complex and interacting drivers which span jurisdictions.

This volume sets out to contrast and compare the development of policies related to victims of crime and their place within the criminal justice systems in nine separate jurisdictions (the USA, the Netherlands, England and Wales, Scotland, the Republic of Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa).The research also seeks to examine the related work of key international bodies such as the UN and the EU.

Based on first hand interviews with those responsible for formulating such policies, as well as detailed grounded and document analysis across these jurisdictions, Victims and Policy Making exposes the national and transnational policy networks surrounding victims of crime and, in particular, examines how the provision of victim care is becoming globalised. In so doing, it represents a rare comparative evaluation of the underlying rationales and influences which have influenced the creation of such policies and places them in their true global context.

Matthew Hall graduated with a Ph.D. from the University of Sheffield in 2007, having previously graduated from Sheffield's MA in International Criminology programme. He is now Lecturer in Law and Criminology at Sheffield where he teaches many aspects of criminology and victimology, as well as criminal law and the law of evidence. He is presently Book Reviews Editor for the International Review of Victimology.