Victims' rights and victims' wrongs
Subtitle: comparative liability in criminal law
By: Vera Bergelson.
Series: Critical perspectives on crime and law; Critical perspectives on crime and law
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Stanford, Calif
Language: eng
Number of pages: 234
ISBN-13: 9780804755382; 9780804755399
Subjects: Criminal liability -- United States; Victims of crimes -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- United States; Criminal law -- Philosophy
Description: ""Don't blame the victim" is a cornerstone maxim of Anglo-American jurisprudence, but should the law generally ignore a victim's behavior in determining a defendant's liability? Victims' Rights and Victims' Wrongs criticizes the current criminal law approach and outlines a more fair, coherent, and efficient set of rules to recognize that victims sometimes co-author their own losses or injuries." "Evaluating a number of controversial cases involving euthanasia, sadomasochism, date rape, battered wives, and "innocent" aggressors, Vera Bergelson builds a theoretical foundation for reform. Her approach to comparative criminal liability takes into account the actions of both the perpetrator and the victim and offers a unitary explanation for consent, self-defense, and provocation. This book supplies a practical and coherent mechanism for evaluating the impact of a victim's conduct on a perpetrator's liability in a variety of circumstances, including those that are now artificially excluded from comparative analysis."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Victim's conduct in criminal law and criminology; title: Why criminal law needs a generic defense of comparative criminal liability?; title: What happens to victim's rights in situations of consent, self-defense and provocation?; title: The principle of conditionality of rights; title: How long do victim's rights remain limited?; title: The defense of comparative criminal liability.