Customer Reviews

Victims in the War on Crime: The Use and Abuse of Victims' Rights (Critical America (New York University Hardcover))

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I couldn't disagree more with the previous review. I think Dubber's presentation is singularly well thought out, and constitutes the only work on this subject that can be fairly described as even handed. My personal biases run in the opposite direction of the previous reviewer and I think it is telling that I occasionally found it frustrating because it seemed to favor the other side. What better evidence could there be of its neutrality?

Because it is a book that closely analyzes contemporary trends there is less reliance on "research" methodology and instend a focus on close readings of policies and cultural behaviors.
The book is subtle in its repositioning victims at the center of criminal justice system. To quote the comments by of Stanford Law Professor Robert Weisberg that appear on the book jacket:

"Dubber . . . shows how the War on Crime, in which victims are enlisted, has little to do with real human victims in the first place. Where, he asks, are the victims in the vast array of possession offenses that are the heart of the War on Crime? He ends by conceiving what a legal system would look like if we were truly interested in victims as persons, not as pawns. This is a bold work of jurisprudence and also a practical blueprint for better policy--one of the most original books on criminal law in recent years." The real trick here, and what may have bothered the previous reviewer, is that he does the same thing for criminal defendants, also maintaining their humanity.

As for its use on a college campus, I guess I agree that it may be too sophisticated for the average college student, and would be better suited for use only be very advanced undergraduates and by graduate students and law students.

This is a book based on the bias of the author. Poorly researched and presumptive, it is filled with assumptions. Victims are assumed to be vindictive and out for blood and offenders are assumed to be ignored by the system, now, supposedly focused on victim's rights. Nothing could be further from the truth. Just as there are as many kinds of offenders and reasons for their offenses, so are there a variety of opinions within the victim's rights movement. Not all victims are in favor of the death penalty and capital punishment was never the issue in most of the cases cited. Laws passed, like Jenna's Law and Megan's Law were safety issues and had nothing whatsoever to do with capital punishment, yet they are both used as examples of the bloodlust of victims and survivors.
Dubber has written a book that should never be used on a college campus because of its extreme bias without research, yet in his position at SUNY Buffalo it will almost certainly be used as one of the assigned texts. Pity the poor law student who believes this mess of circuitous logic and biased assumptions.