Crime, Punishment, and Victim Distress

Abstract

The costs of crime to victims are well-known and research has described the physical, emotional, and financial injuries sustained by crime victims. To date, however, there has been little empirical work which investigates the correlates of victim distress vis-à-vis victim involvement in the criminal justice process. The present study explores the role played by the criminal justice experience in victim distress level and the relative importance of victim, offense, and system participation variables. Multivariate analysis revealed that the level of distress following the victimization is largely a function of offense type, victim perception of sentence severity, and victim demographic characteristics of sex and age. Investigation of the factors predictive of current victim distress level indicated that receiving restitution and the level of distress following the victimization are most important, in addition to the personal characteristics of race and marital status. The implications of these findings for research on victim participation and for policy concerning crime victims are discussed.

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