Victim's Rights Case Study

What is your personal stance on the current state of victims' rights in America?

I personally think the current state of the victims' rights in America has made dramatic improvements that truly focus on the needs of the victims. The victims' rights are not just for those who have the resources or are a certain ethnic group, the rights have been established to support any victim in need and to make sure that they are heard and not ignored and above all to ensure that their rights have not been violated.

Do you believe that the 2004 Crime Victims' Rights Act (CRVA) has been successful? Explain.

On April 19, 1995 the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City was bombed. The victims' families and survivors were denied the right to testify against Timothy McVeigh, the man accused of this heinous tragic disaster.

In 2004 the legislation enacted the Crime Victims' Rights Act, this was first Federal law to truly provide crime victims with dignity and respect through an established and enforceable set of rights. Those rights include the right to be reasonably protected from the accused, the right to be notified of and not excluded from public proceedings involving their case, the right to be heard at release, plea and sentencing proceedings, the right to confer with a prosecutor, the right to full and timely restitution, the right to be free from unreasonable delays in proceedings, and the right to be treated with respect ("Crime Victims' Rights: From Illusion to Reality," 2009).

Just two years after the Crime Victims' Rights Act was passed in January of 2006, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Kenna v. United States District Court for the Central District of California that crime victims have an affirmative right to speak and not just submit written statements at the sentencing phase of a criminal case. This marked the first time that a circuit court of appeals had utilized the mandamus provisions of the act to compel a district court to recognize a victim's rights. The Ninth Circuit also announced that having failed to take up and consider Mrs. Kenna's petition of mandamus within the mandated 72-hour time frame, it was instituting new procedures to ensure that future Crime Victims' Rights Act mandamus positions were handled in a timely manner.

As the time goes on the CRVA continues to support the victims and respect their rights and gives them a voice to be heard and not forgotten.

Do you agree with the actions of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

(SNAP)? Why or why not?

SNAP started in 1988 by Barbara Blaine of Chicago, Illinois, the name speaks for itself which was the goal to help those who had been abused by a religious authority.