Source: (2004) In, Hendrik Kaptein and Marijke Malsch. Crime, Victims, and Justice. Essays on Principles and Practice. Hampshire, England and Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing. Pp. 112-125.
The rights of crime victims have gained far greater recognition in many countries in recent decades. Yet, Marijke Malsch remarks, there remain questions about a number of highly important aspects of the victim’s experience in the criminal justice process. Malsch examines these questions in this chapter. Specifically, she focuses on the consequences of “open justice” for victims of crime. At the time of the Inquisition in the sixteenth century, criminal processes were conducted in secret. In the centuries following the Inquisition, trials gradually came to be conducted in more open conditions where the public could attend. This “open justice,â€? notes Malsch, has a number of consequences for victims both in their role as witness and in their role as claimant of compensation for damages suffered. Malsch explores these consequences and the question of whether open justice serves victims through an examination of the Dutch legal system.
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