Does it seem to you that US law treat criminals better than their victims?

Question

It seems as if the rights of the criminal always override the rights of the victim?

Answer 1

Yup!

You betcha.

Gotta "love" our country!

Our justice system sucks.

We need a revolution!

Answer 2

All the courts can do for a victim is to prosecute the criminal. A victim's right's have already been violated, which cannot be undone. this is not a good reason to limit the rights of the person accused of being the criminal...

the wording of your question seems to suggest that taking some rights away from accused persons would somehow level the playing field. I disagree. Taking away due process rights would not help any victim, even though it might make a victim feel better.

I can't imagine what rights a victim would have that would be lost by giving the accused the right to due process. Would you care to elaborate?

Answer 3

NO it sucks. Now having said that how do you purpose we make it better? If you are a victim of a crime and have to go to court and relive that crime again. Not only relive the crime but the defense attorney tries to poke holes in your story.
Now the problem here is if we didn't have a system like we do any Joe Blow off the street can decide okay I don't like you so let me go to the police and tell them you did this that and the other they will have to arrest you. OR you can do this that and the other and not have to worry about being arrested.
The system has to weed out the guilty and the innocent. Not a fair way to do it however is there any other way? Even with this system we have innocent people get put behind bars Guilty people get released.

Answer 4

Until I became a victim of crime myself, I'd always believed our legal system was fair & impartial. I was niave to think "innocent until proven guilty" applied to the accused AND the accuser. Not so.

If the victim is the accuser, they are immediately discredited from a credible complaint because- 1. the victim is ANGRY, 2. the victim KNOWS the accused (so bias or malice is assumed!) 3. the victim has no physical evidence to prove the allegation without stepping on the 4th Amendment Privacy laws. Victim's paper trail of phony invoices, excess cash, forgery, and secret business investments are declared "suspicious" but not probable cause w/out real financial records. A catch-22.

Police side with the criminal to preserve his privacy, & victim is denied proof thru an investigation. The victim is assumed guilty of false allegations...no proof of victim's guilt...just presumtion. Proof of innocence can only be seen in PRIVATE bank records etc.

Imagine if Enron's CEO wife (Fastow?) had come forward to police regarding her husband's excessive cash & concealment of corporate fraud PRIOR to the collapse? Would it alter the outcome for thousands of workers?

I'm in this twilight zone. I want to protect the innocent CPA, bankers, vendors & customers who don't KNOW they are involved w/ a money laundering operation. But the law won't allow me "equal access" to the judicial system. I can't save the innocent or clear my name in it. I'm told "you have nothing to worry about." Common sense tells me that WHEN an investigation is pursued, I'll be contacted on my new job & the "association" to the crime will NOT be in my boss's best interest. I'm an accountant. How can I have a future or a career in finance CLEAR of this crime? Only by getting exposure NOW.

Criminals are guaranteed a speedy trial...victims are not. I will be forced to deal w/this in 3,4,5 years. It will taint my future & scar me once again. I'm powerless to clear myself as all rights are on the side of the accused.

Answer 5

I recently toured a prison. I wouldn't want to go there. If you look at the criminal social structure it would be like going to hell if you ask me. They think different. I've heard tell by several prison guards that what you are saying is basically right. I also feel people are due a legal trial but some lawyers have made a mockery out of the courtroom. In my particular area where I live it's starting to get like a money making machine rather than a court of law. Unless the DA sees money or political points he won't prosecute. The recipe for legal criminals having court in the realm of public opinion. Still, it could be worse.

Answer 6

Heck yes...
I received a lesson on this one tonight. A 300 dollar bicycle was stolen from me when someone broke into my car this summer. The police never came out to take a report or anything. This week, I saw the person riding my bike and confronted them, giving the impression that I was going to offer to buy it. This person was willing to come to my place and bring me the bike--so I alerted the police department (in San Diego) and requested an officer to assist me in recovering something that was mine.
10 hours later, the police never showed up and the opportunity was lost. So I set out and found the first policemen and merely asked him, "How was it possible that I called [them] this afternoon and here it was 10 hours later and no cop had shown up nor had the department called and followed up?"
I explained to them that I'd did all of the dirty work, I just needed their support and they couldn't give me a solid answer as to why they couldn't help me. When I asked them to suggest what would I have to do to correct the situation. Again, they had no answer. So basically, I tried to do the right thing and the police wouldn't help me. When I asked the 3 officers what would've happened had I assaulted the person on the street would they have responded, neither of the three refused to look me in the eye and give me a solid answer.
It was all I needed. The valuable lesson that I learned this evening was simply; [I suppose] there are times when one has to do the WRONG thing to receive a little justice.

Answer 7

DEPENDS on the crime and who is the victim. for example, rapist and child molesters usually spend less time in jail then drug offenders.
now ask yourself who is the victim of the drug offender crimes
- drug users are victoms of them selves
-drug dealers dealt their drugs to people that wanted them

my point is sometimes us law overrides every ones rights!

if it makes you feel any better criminals get a record by committing crimes, right!

when you have a felony record;
getting a job is almost impossible.
you cant vote
or get any kind of government programs like welfare, student loans, ssi, medicaid or medicare, food stamps, disability,
finding a place to rent like an apartment or home is very hard,

criminals may have payed their debt to society in thew eyes of the law
but society rejects them and legally can and will never give that criminal another chance to change their lives

dose that that feel like justice

Answer 8

Its always easy to critisize our justice system until you find yourself on the wrong side of things....

I have known people who brag that they simply won't do anything wrong to end up speeding and having an accident in which the could be charged with a serious crime, or even doing something they didn't know was illegal, only to then claim they didn't know, which,. ignorance to the law is no excuse,...

funny how the legal system was so bad,.. yet the only thing that prevented the person from taking two to the back of the head like some countries was that terrible legal system

yes,.. its flawed,... but so are people,.. and they created it...

Answer 9

It sometime does seem that way...whether it happens out of laziness from the police (don't care if they catch the bad guy or not) or indifference, the criminals rights are always tiptoed around. There is a reason for this though...When they DO arrest a person for a crime, & it is the wrong guy, then the reason for your rights kick in!

Answer 10

The criminals are on the outside.
We are prisoners inside.

We pay a heavy price for crime.
Taxes, insurance, lawyers, alarm systems, nuisance alarm noise, etc.

Need more jails.
Would create good government jobs for lefties.

Answer 11

You have a natural right to protect yourself. Better to do that than become a victim with the laws we have in place.