Ways to Advance Safety and Justice for Victims: New but Essential Content for Teaching

This chapter starts with numbers of victims of homicide, gender-based violence, and violence against children. It recalls the UN magna carta for victims from 1985 and the goals to reduce violence and improve access to justice agreed by all governments. It challenges professors of victimology to teach new courses to the next generations of victimologists to be the catalysts in reducing violence significantly and realizing universal rights for victims. It presents an overview of the knowledge of what has reduced violence, how it gets implemented, and how to build political will to get sustained investment. The knowledge identifies proven examples of programs and cities that have reduced violent crime by 50% within 3 years. It sets out standards for access to justice for persons who are victims of crime as well as ways in which victim rights are being delivered, which show what is possible. It stresses the need to measure whether victims are getting that access to justice and so provide targets for programs. It shows how victimologists can shift governments from a failing criminal justice system to effective violence prevention and access to justice for victims.