To Be a Victim Encounters with Crime and Injustice

To Be a Victim Encounters with Crime and Injustice

Edited by

Diane Sank, Ph.D. City University of New York New York, New York

and David I. Caplan, Ph.D., L.L.B. Attorney, Patent Law Madison, New Jersey

With the assistance of Brian Sank Firschein, M.A.

0 SPRINGER SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, LLC

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

To be a victim encounters with crime and lnjustice I edited by D1ane Sank and David I. Caplan ; with thE assistance of Brian Sank Firschein,

p. em. ""Insight books.·· Inc 1 udes b 1 b 1 l ograph i ca 1 references and index.

ISBN 978-0-306-43962-9 ISBN 978-1-4899-5974-4 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-4899-5974-4

1. Victims of crimes. 2. Crim1nal justice, Administration of. 3. Human rights. 4. Justice. 5. Reparation. 6. Victims of crimes­-United States. 7. V1ctims of crimes--Services for--United States--Dlrectories. I. Sank, Diane. II. Caplan, David I. HV6250.25.T6 1991 3G2.88--dc20

ISBN 978-0-306-43962-9

An Insight Book

All rights reserved

9i-22874 CIP

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher

© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media New York Originally published by Plenum Press, New York in 1991 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1991

This volume is dedicated to the memory of Prof. Max Hamburgh, who spoke gently and worked diligently against crime and injustice, and in support of all suffering victims.

Contributors

BERTRAM BANDMAN, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Philosophy, Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus, Brooklyn, New York 11201.

ELSIE L. BANDMAN, Ed.D., R.N., EA.A.N., Professor, Hunter­Bellevue School of Nursing, Hunter College, City University of New York, New York, New York 10010.

}AMES E. BAYLEY, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Phi­losophy, The City College, City University of New York, New York, New York 10031.

DAVID I. CAPLAN, Ph.D., L.L.B., Attorney at Law, Madison, New Jersey 07940-1453.

}OHNT. CHu, Ph.D., Professor, Operations Research/Managemeni Science, Polytechnic University, Brooklyn, New York 11201.

RoDOLPH£ J. A. DE SEIFE, J.D., Professor of Law, Northern Illinois University College of Law, DeKalb, Illinois 60115.

GILBERTS. FELL, Ph.D., Professor, Philosophy Department, Mon­mouth College, West Long Branch, New Jersey 07764.

vii

viii Contributors

BRIAN SANK FIRSCHEIN, M.A., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey 07632.

MARIE-LoUISE FRIQUEGNON, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Depart­ment of Philosophy, William Paterson College of New Jersey, Wayne, New Jersey 07470.

JosEPH G. GRASSI, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Philosophy, Fairfield University, Fairfield, Connecticut 06430.

STEPHEN P. HALBROOK, Ph.D., J.D., Attorney at Law, Fairfax, Vir­ginia 22030.

MAx HAMBURGH, Ph.D., Formerly Professor Emeritus, Depart­ment of Biology, The City College, City University of New York, New York, New York 10031 (deceased 1989).

ALBERT G. HEss, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Department of Soci­ology, SUNY, Brockport, New York 14420. Formerly Represen­tative at U.N. Headquarters of the International Society for Criminology and International Association of Penal Law, New York, New York 10021.

DoUGLAS N. HUSAK, Ph.D., J.D., Professor/Chairman, Depart­ment of Philosophy, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903.

MICHIO KAKu, Ph.D., Professor of Theoretical Physics, Depart­ment of Physics, The City College, City University of New York, New York, New York 10031.

ANDREW KARMEN, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City Univer­sity of New York, New York, New York 10019.

Contributors ix

BILL LAWSON, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Philos­ophy, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19716.

SANDER LEE, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Philos­ophy, Keene State College, Keene, New Hampshire 03431.

BURTON M. LEISER, Ph.D., E. J. Mortola Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Pace University, New York, New York 10038.

TIBOR R. MACHAN, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Philosophy, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama 36849.

SusAN R. PETERSON, M.A., Adjunct Associate Professor, Depart­ment of Philosophy, Adelphi University, Garden City, New York 11530.

DIANE SANK, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Anthropology, The City College, City University of New York, New York, New York 10031.

MARY ELLEN WAITHE, Ph.D., Director, Bioethics Program, and Associate Professor of Philosophy, Cleveland State Univer­sity, Cleveland, OH 44115.

RoGER WERTHEIMER, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, California State University, Long Beach, Califor­nia 90840

WILLAVENE WoLF, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Applied Psy­chology, New York University, New York, New York 10003.

MARLENE A. YOUNG, Ph.D., J.D., Executive Director, National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA), Washington, DC 20010.

Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to many people and sources for help and ideas that contributed to the successful completion of this volume. In acknowledging those who made contributions to this book, we still take full and final responsibility for any of its shortcomings.

First and most important, we express our greatest apprecia­tion to our associate editor, Brian Sank Firschein, who has guided this volume from its inception, contributing invaluable ideas and work at every stage of the manuscript.

We greatly appreciated the help of the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA), its director, Dr. Marlene Young, and their staff, especially Cheryl Guidry Tyiska, Victim Services Coordinator, who provided us with the names of organizations presented in the section, "Help for Victims," that victims of crime and injustice can contact for information and assistance. Dr. Young is also a contributor to the volume, with her very moving account of the victim's view of crime. We wish to thank those of our contributors who also provided us with names of organiza­tions that aid and inform victims.

We also wish to thank the Plenum Publishing Corporation, the staff of Insight Books, and most especially Norma Fox, Execu­tive Editor of Insight Books, for the time, patience, and valued suggestions extended to us during the preparation of this manu­script. We are particularly grateful and appreciative to Ms. Fox for

xi

xii Acknowledgments

her enthusiastic support and encouragement throughout this time.

Both editors were associated with a conference at Pace Uni­versity in 1981 on victims of crime. One editor (Diane Sank) cochaired the conference with the late Dr. Max Ham burgh, who is a contributor to this volume. The other editor (David I. Caplan) was a participant and speaker at that conference, as were some other contributors to the present volume. All have rethought, revised, updated, and rewritten their original ideas and words and have been joined by the other contributors to this book.

The end product of these varied elements and efforts is our present, greatly expanded, contemporary contribution to the field of victimology.

We wish to thank Patricia Murphy, Esquire and Dr. Mary Burres for their encouragement, advice, and constant support throughout the preparation of this work.

Additionally, our appreciation goes to Dorothy Toleno, Linda Joe, Susan Joseph, Gayle Sank Firschein, and Dr. Dean Sank Firschein, who aided in various stages of manuscript preparation. Most especially, we express our deep gratitude to Peggy Moran, for the fine quality of her work and round-the-dock efforts, essential ingredients of every successful project.

We cannot forget or neglect to acknowledge the multitudes of victims themselves, past and present, a few included in this book, but most unknown, unnamed, and represented only by very shocking, shameful, impersonal statistics. We hope this book will aid in the quest to reach the enviable goal that the lessons gained from their experiences, and their mental and physical suffering, will direct us to the road leading to a lessening of the numbers and agonies of all future victims of crime and injustice.

Contents

I. INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW

1. Why the Concern for Victims? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Diane Sank and Brian Sank Firschein

2.

II. PERSPECTIVES ON VICTIMS

Survivors of Crime Marlene A. Young

3. Thoughts about Victims of Crime and Injustice and

27

the Nature of Justice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

4.

Max Hamburgh

The Concept of Victimhood James E. Bayley

Ill. CRIME

A. Victims and Society

5. Victim Compensation: The Joint Responsibility of the

53

Criminal and Society-A Social-Contract Approach . . 67 Rodolphe J. A. de Seife

xiii

xiv Contents

6. Street-Crime Victim Compensation, Retributive Justice, and Social-Contract Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Gilbert 5. Fell

7. Rescuing Victims-from Social Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Tibor R. Machan

8. A Systems Science Approach to Crime, Criminal Justice, and Victim Justice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 fohn T. Chu

9. African-Americans, Crime Victimization, and Political Obligations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Bill Lawson

B. Individual Victims

10. The Rights of Child Abuse Victims: Philosophical Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Marie-Louise Friquegnon and Willavene Wolf

11. Victimology and Blaming the Victim: The Case of Rape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Susan R. Peterson

12. Victims in Seventeenth-Century Witchcraft llials . . . 179 Albert G. Hess

13. Perpetrators of Violent Crime as Potential Victims of Research in Prison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 Mary Ellen Waithe

Contents

C. Corporate or Institutional Victims

14. Computer Crime and Victim Justice John T. Chu

15. Patient-Nurse and Nurse-Patient Abuse: The Well-

XV

217

Kept Secret . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 Elsie L. Bandman and Bertram Bandman

16. Justice for Health Consumers and Providers . . . . . . . . 249 Bertram Bandman and Elsie L. Bandman

IV. INJUSTICE

Victims of Government Injustice

17. Victims of Genocide 271 Burton M. Leiser

18. Weapons Control Laws: Gateways to Victim Oppression and Genocide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295 David I. Caplan

19. Behind Barbed Wire: The Wartime Incarceration of the Japanese-Americans Michio Kaku

315

20. The Law and Morality of War Crimes 'llials . . . . . . . . 333 Sander Lee

xvi Contents

V. OTHER PROBLEMS AND PROPOSED SOLUTIONS

21. Victims and Arms in Classical Legal Philosophy . . . . 359 Stephen P. Halbrook

22. Is Gun Control Legislation a Solution for Protecting Victims? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371 Joseph G. Grassi

23. Why Retributivists Should Care about Deterrence . . 379 Douglas N. Husak

24. The Controversy over Shared Responsibility: Is Victim-Blaming Ever Justified? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395 Andrew Karmen

25. Preferring Punishment of Criminals over Providing for Victims . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409 Roger Wertheimer

VI. EPILOGUE: AFTERTHOUGHTS

26. What Hope for Victims? The Need for New Approaches and for New Priorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425 Diane Sank

Help for Victims: Organizations and Resources . . . . . . . . . . 439

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463

To Be a Victim Encounters with Crime and Injustice