Support for Crime Victims in a Comparative Perspective

This reader is dedicated to the memory of Prof. Frederic McClintock who was to be a co-editor. Dr. McClintock passed away in May 1994. In part one of this book, acknowledged experts from Finland, Holland, Switzerland, Spain and the U.K. report on the developments in victimology and discuss the discipline's impact on criminal justice policy.
Part two takes a broader perspective explaining how restorative justice initiatives could provide a viable and less costly alternative to the current retributive criminal justice system. In this part, three essays contrast the retributive and restorative justice paradigms while the remaining six essays are devoted to the theory and the different practices of restorative justice.
Particular attention is given to the role crime victims can play in a new model of criminal justice and to their traditional role in aboriginal and tribal communities. Also emphasis is placed on the practice of mediation, the techniques of dispute settlement and conflict resolution aimed at restitution and harm reparation and their recent developments in different countries.