Vol. 15 No.6 (June 2005), pp.483-484

CONSTRUCTING VICTIMS’ RIGHTS: THE HOME OFFICE, NEW LABOUR, AND VICTIMS, by Paul Rock.  NY: Oxford University Press, 2004.  608pp.  Hardcover. $150.00/ £75.00.  ISBN: 0-19-927549-1.

Reviewed by Susan Sarnoff, Department of Social Work, Ohio University.  Email: sarnoff@ohio.edu .

CONSTRUCTING VICTIMS’ RIGHTS is a modern history of the development of victims’ rights in the United Kingdom.  Its author, Paul Rock, Professor of Social Institutions at the London School of Economics and Political Science, has copiously researched the primary documents relevant to this ground-breaking change in the criminal justice process.  The author relies even more extensively on personal interviews and his keen observation of events as they occurred to trace not only the various pieces of legislation that created the body of rights, but the actions that led to its passage and the actors who effected it.

Rock’s approach presents the events as they unfold.  He skillfully weaves relevant political and social history into the story of how the traditional British criminal justice focus on preserving defendants’ rights and viewing crimes as offenses against the Sovereign, was finally balanced with consideration for victims.

In doing so, Rock identifies not only what happened, but how and why.  He identifies opposition to the 2003 changes and how they were overcome, as well as such catalysts to these changes as the coming to power of the New Labour Government; trends in both criminal justice (such as restorative justice) and agency administration (including the “new managerialism,” “government as a supplier of services to customers,” the focus on performance measures, and the provision of “seamless” services, despite the fact that they are offered by separate agencies). He also notes the individual cases that brought attention to victim issues and affected public attitudes about them.

Rock observes that, in the UK as in other parts of the world, the effort to secure rights for victims was predicated upon recognition of the need for victims and witnesses to report crimes and participate in the criminal justice process.  He points out, however, that the similarity ends there.  In particular, the efforts in the UK were “gender free”—that is, they ignored activism by women’s groups to provide different or greater rights and benefits to female victims of such crimes as sexual assault and domestic violence.  Further, the UK efforts avoided using “victims as political tools to justify a more punitive criminal justice response,” as Rock notes was done in the US.

Ultimately, the UK redesigned its justice system to enable victims to be heard, while being careful not to erode the presumption of innocence of those accused of crimes.  This is a thin line, but Rock makes clear that the careful methods used to maintain it resulted in a fairer system for all in the UK than existed before, [*484] or exists elsewhere in the world.

The book is not designed for the American policy analyst who expects tables and charts of data sandwiched between brief sections of subheaded text.  In that sense, it is not a reference book that allows the reader to home in on a discrete section of interest.  Written as a history, the book must be read as a history, from start to finish.  Readers who invest the time will be richly rewarded by a text that is not written for the skimmer or “homer,” but for the scholar who demands context as well as content.  The text provides no quick or easy answers, but thorough background on how and why victims’ rights evolved as they did in the UK.

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© Copyright 2005 by the author, Susan Sarnoff.