Reactions to the Regulation on Victims of the 2004 CPC: Challenges, Adjustments, and Punitive Counterreforms

Abstract

This chapter explains that the regulation of victims’ rights in the 2004 Colombian Criminal Procedure Code (2004 CPC) has generated many reactions from different and competing actors. These reactions have led to a substantial transformation of the role and rights of victims in the criminal process after the 2004 CPC. This chapter identifies the actors and forces that led to those transformations and analyzes them critically. This chapter begins with a brief discussion of some elements of the political context over the last decade. It then examines some of the reactions to the 2004 CPC: i) constitutionality challenges for victims’ rights to the 2004 CPC and the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court; ii) amendments to the 2004 CPC to improve the efficiency of the criminal justice system; iii) a punitive backlash against the 2004 CPC to ensure crime control, public security, and protection of crime victims and potential victims; and iv) strategies of women’s advocates to complement and counterreform the 2004 CPC to address gender violence, especially domestic violence.