Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2015
Published In
Violence and Victims
Keywords
Crime victims, Financial compensation, Informational justice, Interpersonal justice, Procedural justice
Abstract
Restitution is a court-ordered payment by offenders to their victims to cover the victims' economic losses resulting from the crime. These losses can be substantial and can harm victims and victims' families both directly and indirectly. But most victims do not receive reparation for their injuries, both because judges do not always impose restitution and because of problems with collecting restitution payments, even if there is a court order to do so. In this article, we review the literature on restitution and suggest that this compensatory mechanism is necessary to restore victims to where they were before the crime occurred. But monetary restitution alone is not sufficient. Making victims whole requires not only financial compensation from the offender but also procedural, informational, and interpersonal justice from the criminal justice system.
DOI
10.1891/0886-6708.VV-D-13-00049
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Rights
© Springer Publishing Company
Recommended Citation
Cares, A. C.; Haynes, S. H. ; and Ruback, R. B. (2015). Reducing the Harm of Criminal Victimization: The Role of Restitution. Violence and Victims 30(3): 450-469. https://doi.org/10.1891/0886-6708.VV-D-13-00049
Included in
Criminal Law Commons, Criminal Procedure Commons, Criminology Commons, Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons
Comments
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Springer Publishing Company in Violence and Victims, available online: https://doi.org/10.1891/0886-6708.VV-D-13-00049.