Author ORCID Identifier

0000-0003-3382-0745

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2024

Abstract

Who qualifies as a “victim” is the foundational question for the Crime Victims’ Rights Act (“CVRA” or “Act”) and other crime victims’ rights laws. This article provides the first comprehensive exploration of this “victim” definition question. It traces how the CVRA (and many states) define “victim” as broadly covering anyone who has been harmed as the result of a crime. This article begins by reviewing how the definition of “victim” has evolved in the criminal justice system since the Nation’s founding. In the last several decades, as crime victims’ rights protections have proliferated, it has become necessary to define “victim” with precision. The definition of “victim” has evolved from a person who was the target of a crime to a much broader understanding of a person who has suffered harm as the result of a crime. The CVRA provides a good illustration of the expansive contemporary definition of “crime victim”—a definition not fully appreciated by courts, prosecutors, and other actors in the federal criminal justice system. The Act defines “victim” as a person “directly and proximately harmed” by a crime, extending crime victims’ protections to many persons who may not have been the target of a crime. This article then analyzes important categories of crimes—violent, property, firearms, environmental, and governmental-process crimes—where “victim” definition issues often occur. It also takes a close look at a significant recent case involving the CVRA’s crime victim definition: the Boeing 737 MAX crashes case. The article concludes by arguing that legislators should adopt, and courts should enforce, a broad conception of a “crime victim” as anyone who suffers harm from a crime. This conception would ensure that victims’ rights are extended to all who need their protection.

Download

Included in

Criminal Law Commons

Share

COinS