Criminal Justice System and the Victim (Draft of introduction)

Macmillan English Dictionary (2002) defined victim as “someone who has been harmed, injured, or killed as the result of a crime” and “someone who has been affected by a bad situation such as accident or illness” (p.1595). In the legal context, the word victim is generally applicable in criminal law. In other legal areas, the synonym of victim could be plaintiff or petitioner.
Stark & Goldstein (1985) defined victim as anyone who suffers loss or injury as the result of an act that constitutes a crime…This includes individuals, as well as corporations, relatives, and dependents of persons who themselves are injured or killed during the course of a crime and even Good Samaritans who may be harmed during the act of preventing the perpetrator from leaving the scene (p.11). Thus, victim is one who suffers from criminal behavior. Such victims shall include a person who directly suffers the crime and their next of kin.
The relationship between victim and crime necessitates their entrance into the criminal justice system (CJS). The criminal justice is the system of practices, and organisations, used by national and local governments, directed at maintaining social control, deter and controlling crime, and sanctioning those who violate laws with criminal penalties. The subject of criminal justice is, of course, primarily concerned with the enforcement of criminal law.
Koh, Clarkson and Morgan (1989) stated that the criminal law could be loosely defined as a body of rules prohibiting certain conduct on pain of punishment. The essence of the criminal law is that when it is alleged that someone has committed the prohibited act it must be established, using rules of criminal procedure designed to ensure fairness to the accused, that he did not commit the alleged act or cause the forbidden harm and had no legally recognized excused or justification for what he did. Once liability is established the accused becomes liable to punishment by the state, the type and level of such punishment varying with the seriousness of the crime committed (p.15).
Based on the above definition of criminal law, a victim is not a party to a criminal proceeding and lack legal standing (locus standi) to be heard with respect to prosecutorial decision. In other words, the victims’ legal status is neglected, insufficiently protected, and their position are passive and weak. They were the forgotten actors in the criminal justice system. They were only regarded in extracting evidence admissible in court. The wrong committed by the accused is viewed as a social wrong and not a wrong against the victim. The victim has little input in the judgment of the court and seems to have little knowledge or comprehension of what is happening in their case (Stark & Goldstein, 1985; Schneider, 1982; Davies, 2007; Sanders, 2002).
Therefore, in CJS the victim is at best, a mere witness or object. According to Sanders (2002) and true to the definition of criminal law, the “police and prosecution do not prosecute ‘for’ victim but rather prosecute for the state… Victims are simply citizens who may or may not be used as witnesses, which is again a matter wholly for the prosecution” (p. 201) to decide.
Closer at home, there is no specific legislation governing victims’ rights in Malaysia. In Criminal Procedure Code there are several sections which regulate payment of compensation towards victim. On the other hand, Domestic Violence Act 1994 and Child Act 2001 govern victims’ rights for specific offences such as domestic violence and child abuse. Whereas, in Penal Code there are twenty chapters that list down various offences. This truly reflect that the above discussion represent the status of victim from the most advanced nation to advancing nation like Malaysia.
Consequently, this paper decides that the criminal justice system disregard victims’ rights because it forbade direct participation of victim in the proceeding, neglect existing rights of the victims and provide inadequate governing laws on victims’ rights

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