Towards the Victim Participation Model in the Criminal Procedure: A Study on the Victims' Rights Development in the Law of the United States of America

Abstract

The participation of victims in criminal proceedings is a controversial issue which lies at the core of the understanding of criminal procedure law. According to the criminal procedure approach of the United States of America and Turkey, the crime is mainly committed against the public not the individual, therefore, only the public prosecutor has a right to decide whether or not to prosecute. British criminal law, despite its role as the origin of U.S. common law, takes the opposite approach in which the individual is also entitled to initiate a public case before the court as well as public prosecutor, which is called as private prosecution. Also, whereas the charged or the accused has rights ensured by the United State Constitution, the victim of crime has no rights, a fact that has been criticized. The critics arguing that victims have a limited participation in the criminal proceeding has led to a new approach to provide the victims with new rights in criminal procedure.