Including the Forgotten Party in Legal Education: Victims of Crime

New article about the CJVAC available here.

Abstract :

Since the 1970s, victimologists have identified victims as the ‘forgotten party’ in criminal law, emphasising its failure to recognise them as more than a witness to a crime. While victimology and our understanding of the effects of crime on victims have advanced considerably in recent years, victims largely remain the forgotten party in legal education. Law schools in Canada continue to approach victims as witnesses and fail to offer tomorrow’s legal professionals comprehensive training in victimology. Based on the premise that change starts with education, we created an interdisciplinary legal clinic for victims of crime in which law students work together with criminology students, providing legal information to victims. This article presents findings from an evaluation of the programme, which is based on a qualitative study of law students who participated in our legal clinic for victims. After a brief presentation of the programme and the training provided to students, we explore the experiences of the law students and examine how they feel their experience impacted the way they view law and prepared them to work with victims of crime.

Reference :

Jo-Anne Wemmers, Amissi Manirabona, Marika Lachance Quirion e.a. (2023). "Including the Forgotten Party in Legal Education: Victims of Crime". Erasmus Law Review, 4.

DOI : 10.5553/ELR.000265