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The Position of the Victim in Criminal Procedure — Results of a German Study

In the last few years, the crime victim has moved into the forefront of criminological research and criminal justice policy. This is a worldwide development. In many countries, including the Federal Republic of Germany, victim protection and victim compensation laws have been enacted. The extent to which such legal steps effect an actual improvement of the victims' situation remains largely unexamined. This paper presents the results of a German research project which examined the influence of the recently revised German victim protection law upon criminal law practice. Judges, prosecutors and lawyers were surveyed. A clear resistance by judges and prosecutors was discerned relative to implementing the victim protection rights. For them, the victim is still an outsider and a ‘trouble maker’ within the criminal proceedings. They see increased victim attention as involving additional trouble, effort, time, and possibly creating longer delays in proceedings. In contrast, the attitudes of the attorneys were more favorable toward including the victim in the criminal justice process.