Victim support and the criminal justice system Essay

Victim support and the criminal justice system - Essay Example Previous Governmental Approaches to Victim Support Over the years, the government has created a great deal of reports on the issue of victim support particularly in relation to domestic violence. The main aim of its 2003 report stated that it was â€Å"determined to prevent domestic violence happening...and to protect and support all victims†.1 As the years have passed, governmental approaches towards victim support have recognised that victims need to be given greater access to and degrees of support, yet this has so far failed to be implemented. It is evident however that the government’s focus on making â€Å"the sentence reflect the crime†2 has caused it to place more focus on the offender’s punishment rather than the victim’s need for support. This is particularly the case in instances of domestic violence. Endless references have been made which recognise the need to support victims in order that they be given help to â€Å"rebuild their live s†,3 yet interest in and focus on this need has been sporadic and never a central aim of the government in the past. However, 2009 saw a renewed need to support women and girls who were victims of domestic violence in particular, and the government once again quoted an onslaught of promising plans and strategies to increase access to support, advice and services.4 Arguably, these were never properly implemented, or were applied in a piecemeal fashion, causing support for victims to be patchy and incomplete at best. The approach of the government has certainly not been without its critics; it has been often commented that years after plans were published, they still have yet to be properly implemented in order to provide the support that victims so evidently need.5 There is evident focus placed on the criminal justice aspect of crime, which greatly derogates attention from providing victims with the requisite support. Indeed, it is often claimed that the government has missed t he point in attempting to support victims,6 a result of its mistaken assumption that â€Å"the criminal justice system alone can deal adequately† with victims of crime.7 The reality of proposals and plans is greatly different from the theoretical promises of those plans; funds have been pumped into arresting offenders while victim support services took a step back due to lack of funding and importance. For example, despite research proving that refuges for victims has a major positive effect, minimal funding was assigned to the creation and maintenance of refuges for victims of domestic violence in particular.8 There is blinding evidence that funding has been improperly directed towards offenders rather than victims; promises to increase the number of Rape Crisis centres have actually resulted in many centres being closed down due to major underfunding.9 The government has placed much focus on and investment in convicting offenders, while studies show that over 90% of victims who were given access to shelters felt that they had majorly improved access to safety.10 The acts of the government and its plans and promises have simply not be implemented in reality: victims still stand in the shadow of inappropriate focus placed on offenders and criminal justice.11 There is little doubt that the approach of the government has been unorganised, unstructured and incomplete, despite reports recognising that it should be the complete opposite.12 Such failure on the part of the

History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 3

History - Essay Example Seven years later, Colonel Fairfax constructed a mansion situated on a high slope of land overlooking the river of Potomac in which he subsequently named Belvoir. At 16 years of age, George Washington stayed in Mount Vernon with his elder half brother and he became friends with George William Fairfax, the Colonel’s eldest son. He was a constant guest at the mansion in which the manor was developed and changed by George William and his wife Sally Cary into a center of culture and aristocratic elegance. Sixteen years after his father died in 1757, George William Fairfax and his wife rented out the manor as they went back home to England. The manor was rented for a decade where most part was destructed due to the War in 1812. The conflict continued and in 1814 the mansion was further destroyed by British cannons. In 1840, the Belvoir peninsula was bought by Philip Otterback family and made fisheries out of the Potomac River. In 1910, 1 500 acres of the land was sold to District o f Columbia where it was intended to be converted to a prison. The local citizens opposed to the project and for this reason, in 1912, the land was transferred to the war Department. In 1915, the land was named Camp Belvoir where engineer troops from Fort McNair, formerly called as Washington Barracks, conduct their trainings and became their rifle range. In 1917, the old name was changed to Camp A. A. Humphreys as a training camp for engineer troops for Word War I. The name was again changed to Fort Humphreys in 1922 and in 1935, post colonial era, it was permanently re-designated as Fort Belvoir. In 1938, the US government begins preparing for the possibility of being involved in enlarging world conflicts, at which time was the outbreak of World War II. In 1940, there was a massive influx of military trainees which prompted the government to purchase an additional 3 000 acres of land located north of U.S. Route 1. One training scheme is composed of an obstacle course which is a sim ulation of the field condition. With the war receding in 1945, activities of the Replacement Training Center and the Engineer Officer Candidate School were aborted and were not reactivated until 1950 with the Korean Conflict and in 1960 with Vietnam build up. During those times, distinguishable transformations in the manner of training programs were determined. From training, technology through research and development was incorporated in warfare. The transformation consisted of establishment of chemical/biological/radiological school on the North Post while a close combat range was formed south of the village of Accotink. The laboratories formulated and trialled new techniques for electrical power generation, camouflage and deception, methods of handling materials and fuel, bridging, and mine detection. Other experimentations also included portable map copying machines, fungicides for use in tropical environments, and heavy earth-moving equipment. One breakthrough in the field of r esearch and development is the construction of SM-1 (Stationary, Medium Power, and First Prototype) Nuclear Plant. This was intended to provide commercial electricity and decrease the Department of Defense’s dependency on fossil fuels. The SM-1 Plant was first used on 1957 and its operations lasted for 16 years. For 30 years, from 1950 to 1980, the expansion of Fort Belvoir was witnessed. The post became