Rights of Crime Victims - A Critical Legal Study

The purpose of Criminal Jurisprudence and penology is to ameliorate the problems of victims of crime. But the focus of Indian criminal justice system is on the offender. A victim is a person who is at the receiving end after crime is committed. For any offence there are two sides. The victim and the offender are two sides of the coin of Criminal Justice System. But more attention and focus was given only on the problems of offender. Our judicial system is popularly known as adversarial system of justice where the role of a judge is that of a referee. The judge plays no role either in favour of the accused or in favour of the victim. It is also one of the reasons for neglecting the victim in the present Indian criminal Justice system. The victim is called as neglected stock in the present system. Every person and the institutions including the media are highlighting the rights and problems. The academicians and judiciary is more concerned with the welfare of the accused or the offenders. More attention is being given about reformation and rehabilitation of the offenders..