Unfortunately, you may also know from personal experience how little help, information and involvement you can expect from the justice process. If you have experienced crime, you know for a fact that you yourself are the victim, and you would like to be remembered in what happens thereafter. But the legal system does not define the offense that way and does not assume that you have a central role. Legally, the essence of the crime lies in breaking a law rather than the actual damage done. More importantly, the official victim is the state, not you.
Justice establishes blame and administers pain through a contest between offender and state.
It assumes that punishment or pain, usually in the form of a prison term, is the normal outcome. This process concentrates almost exclusively on offenders, but, ironically, does not hold them accountable. To be accountable, offenders ought to be helped to understand and acknowledge the human consequences of their actions. Then they ought to be encouraged to take responsibility for what happens thereafter, including taking steps to right the wrong. Thus neither victim nor offender is offered the kind of opportunities that might aid healing and resolution for both.