Victims' Rights Amendment

The Victims' Rights Amendment is a provision which has been included in some state constitutions, proposed for others, and additionally has been proposed for inclusion in the United States Constitution. Its provisions vary from state to state but are usually somewhat similar. There are likewise competing versions of the proposed federal amendment.

The "victims' rights" movement began in a response to two main stimuli. The first was the perception, sometimes backed by reality, that the legal system was more concerned with the protection of the consitutional rights of criminal offenders and alleged offenders than they were the victims of their offenses. This was especially inflamed by numerous lawsuits alleging unconstitutional conditions in many U.S. jails and prisons, and a strong emphasis on the education and rehabilitation of those who were incarcerated, especially beginning in the late 1960s and 1970s. Advocates wanted to see affirmative help for crime victims to be at least as extensive as that provided to the offenders, and for victims to receive compensation from offenders whenever this was practicable. The second stimulus was an upswing of media stories detailing instances where released or paroled offenders again attacked their original victims or victims' families. Often the victims had no idea that the offender had been released or was even being considered for release, or that all charges against alleged perpetrators had been dropped; in some cases, these persons then again committed crimes against their original victims, sometimes in retaliation for having reported the original offense.

Most state victims' rights amendments provide for the prosecutors to stay in touch with the victims and their families during all stages of prosecution, and to stay in touch with them post-conviction to advise them of events such as parole hearings, applications for pardons or other forms of executive clemency or relief, and similar news. They may require that any pay received by an offender while incarcerated go at least in part to compensate the victims, and that royalties to any creative works such as books, screenplays or similar works created by the offender judged to be derived from the events of the offense be assigned to the victims (though these latter requirements have been challenged as a violation of the constitutional guarantee of free speech).

The federal victims' rights amendments which have been proposed are similar to the above. The primary contention, and perhaps the main reason that to this point they remain only proposals, is whether they will apply only to federal offenses and the federal system or will mandate all states to adopt similar provisions (the version advocated by at least one very high-profile advocate, John Walsh, host of America's Most Wanted). This second version is offensive to many otherwise conservative "law and order" members of United States Congress because they deem it to be violative of another principle important to conservatives, that of states' rights. Advocates of both sides are adamant on their version, and for this reason neither has been passed by either house of Congress as of 2005.