The Evolution of Victims’ Rights and Services in Australia

Abstract

As the 30th anniversary of both the United Nations Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power and the first version of the Declaration on Victims’ Rights in Australia approaches, it is difficult to imagine that just over three decades ago crime victims were often cited as the ‘forgotten’ or ‘neglected’ people in the criminal justice system. Over these past few decades, as this chapter will illustrate, interest in and concern for crime victims have steadily grown. Notably between the mid-1980s and the late 1990s many inquiries, discussion papers and the like were conducted throughout Australia, which resulted in legislative and administrative reforms and the establishment of victim assistance programmes. As this chapter will reveal, some of the reforms and programmes which were intended to improve the position of crime victims have been controversial.