Steven Briggs - Criminology For Dummies

Studies attempting to estimate the annual economic cost of crime in the United States range from $690 billion on the low end to over $3.4 trillion. That is between $2,000 and $10,000 for every person in America!

Chapter 4

IN THIS CHAPTER

Noting the lack of victim services in past decades

Recognizing the many types of scars victims have

Identifying the likeliest victims

Applauding recent efforts to support victims

The human toll of crime is enormous. Victims often suffer dramatic personal loss, tremendous pain, and lots of economic hardship. While the entire U.S. court system was originally set up to protect a defendant’s rights, historically, victims have received no institutionalized assistance at all. They’ve been left to fend for themselves, sometimes with no way to pay medical bills or even to get someone to explain how the justice system works. But thanks to some forward-thinking folks in the 1970s and 1980s, a victims’ rights movement has swept across the United States. Today, victims are front and center in the minds of politicians and policymakers.

In this chapter, I discuss the historical treatment of victims in the criminal justice system. I discuss victimization, starting with the different types of harm that a victim can suffer. I also help you get a better idea of who is more likely to become a victim of crime. Then I address how far U.S. society has come and describe the types of services that are available to victims today.

Prior to the 1970s, if you were the victim of a crime, you were essentially just another witness for the government. Sure, people were sympathetic to you, but sympathy only goes so far. No one helped you get medical care, let alone reimbursed you for that medical care. A victim of domestic violence didn’t have a shelter she could take her family to. A rape victim had no one to provide counseling services. No one explained how the criminal justice system worked or provided any of the myriad of victim services that exist today.

In the 1970s, this situation slowly started to change as individual communities began to take action. District attorney offices in Philadelphia, Brooklyn, and Milwaukee got the ball rolling with some rudimentary victim assistance programs. Soon thereafter, private advocacy groups sprang up to advocate for victims in Congress and in state legislatures. For example, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) formed in 1980 to advocate against drunk driving and to support its victims.

In 1982, President Ronald Reagan commissioned a task force to look at victims’ rights. The task force came up with 68 recommendations for how to provide better service to victims of crime. The next year, Reagan created the Office for Victims of Crime within the U.S. Department of Justice to implement these recommendations. And in 1984, Congress passed the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA), which called for the money from fines and assessments levied against federally convicted criminals to be used to provide services to victims of crime all across the country. Together, these actions became the springboard for dramatic improvements in how society and the court system treat victims of crime. Today, society goes to much greater efforts — both inside and outside the courtroom — to help victims deal with the many painful effects of crime.

Being the victim of a crime can leave painful, permanent scars. These scars can be physical, emotional, and financial.

According to the National Crime Victimization Survey (a survey administered annually by the Bureau of Justice Statistics as a way to measure crime), approximately 1.2 million violent crimes occurred in the United States in 2019. That’s 7.3 victims for every 1,000 citizens over the age of 12. (For more on the National Crime Victimization Survey, check out Chapter 3.)

Many of the injuries resulting from crime — which range from bruises to death — require medical care. The physical pain can last for months, years, or even a lifetime. For example, you’ve no doubt seen news reports of gang members or armed robbers firing their weapons at particular people (like rival gang members) and hitting innocent bystanders. Such victims may suffer lifelong debilitating injuries. But sometimes physical injuries are just a small part of the total story.

Crime creates ongoing fear in people who are victimized. Out of fear, victims often alter their lifestyles dramatically, and a life lived in fear isn’t a full life. Imagine a rape victim who becomes so afraid of another attack that she won’t leave her home at night or go anywhere without a companion.

Beyond fear, victims may suffer very serious psychological effects, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Someone suffering from PTSD may endure bouts of depression, severe anxiety, and difficulty with relationships.

Kids and spouses who are victimized by people they love are particularly susceptible to this psychological pain, often because of their dependence on the abuser. The psychological effects of abuse over a long period of time can sometimes exceed those of a one-time assault by a stranger.

In addition to the fear and psychological pain that many victims of violence feel, I must also mention the grief that victims’ family members endure as their loved ones suffer serious injury or death. I personally have shed tears with families of murder victims who miss their loved ones and struggle to make sense of the tragedies. They face a torrent of emotions from anger to despondency, and sometimes there’s no way to console them.

Another mental stressor comes from entering the criminal justice system as a victim. The vast governmental bureaucracy can seem cold and impersonal to someone who has already suffered a great deal. For example, police may ask a rape victim to submit to a physical exam to look for DNA evidence, including semen, blood, and pubic hair. They may also ask her to describe the assault in detail. The defense attorney may even assert a defense of consent in which he argues that she was a willing participant in sex and not the victim of a violent crime.

Although I’ve known some exceptional victim advocates, they can only do so much to help a victim deal with the lengthy, harsh reality of the criminal justice system (see the “ Support of victim advocates” section later in this chapter for more info). Some of the greatest acts of courage I’ve seen have come from crime victims who were willing to endure the long process so that others wouldn’t be victimized like they were.

The cost of crime in the United States is difficult to quantify, but a low-end estimate puts the cost near $690 billion annually, which comes out to more than $2,000 per citizen. Some criminologists refer to this cost as a “crime tax” because of its negative effect on the economy. This $690 billion figure includes lost wages and productivity, property loss, medical bills, an estimate of the cost of pain and suffering, and long-term disability costs.