Victims And The Legal System

Victims and the Legal System

[Name of the Writer]

[Name of the Institution]

Victims and the Legal System

The course of Victimology has helped acquaint me to a range of different topics. I have learned about the history of victimology in the United States. Furthermore, victimology theories have offered me theoretical insight into the course. Moreover, the course of Victimology enabled me to learn about the types of victims of crimes (Fattah, 2016). Additionally, I came across contemporary issues and challenges in Victimology. Moreover, I have learned about the victims' arduous journey through the legal system. The journey of a victim through the criminal justice enlightened me with the need for advocacy of rights of the victims (Fattah, 2016). Furthermore, I have learned about the rights a victim has following the crime that made them the victim. The structure and working of criminal courts and justice system are imperative for anyone to fully understand their role in the provision of justice in the country (Cole, Smith & DeJong, 2018). This course has provided me insight into the working of the criminal courts in the provision of justice. These are the topics that have intrigued me the most throughout the course. The topics and concepts learned in Victimology would be beneficial not only in the short term, but also in the long term as well.

Discussion plays an important role in developing one's understanding of the topic stronger. To participate in the discussions, I spent a lot of time reading the book, so that I become familiar with a specific topic. By participating in the class discussions, I gained a lot of confidence in public speaking. Furthermore, participation in the class discussion provided me with multiple perspectives on a single topic. These multiple perspectives were put forward by my classmates. Moreover, during the discussion, I tried to argue with my classmates logically based on facts. Taking into account the experiences mentioned above, it can be concluded that I have learned a lot from discussions in the class. To come prepared for discussions required a comprehensive reading of the topic before coming to class. This helped me gain useful knowledge about the topic that was about to be discussed in the class. It also helped me during the discussion as I understood the topics quite easily. By effectively communicating my ideas and points to my classmates increased my confidence significantly. The discussions were quite comprehensive and covered almost all the aspects of the topic under discussion. Therefore, there is little that needs to be clarified about any particular topic.

Although the course is developed comprehensively and there is little to be learned, there are certain approaches that could have resulted in furnishing additional valuable information. For instance, if each student was tasked with reviewing three articles from the last five years regarding the challenges and issues in victimology, it would have been provided an insight into the recent developments in the domain of victimology. Another approach that could have helped provide students with the first-hand experience of the scourge of the victims was to setup interactive sessions with the victims themselves (Kirchengast, 2016). In the sessions, the victims would share their experiences with the criminal justice system. Students would not have only become familiar with the issues the victims face, there exist strong chances of them becoming ardent advocates of their rights (Kirchengast, 2016).

References

Cole, G. F., Smith, C. E., & DeJong, C. (2018). The American system of criminal justice. Cengage Learning.

Fattah, E. A. (Ed.). (2016). Towards a critical victimology. Springer.

Kirchengast, T. (2016). Victims and the criminal trial. Springer.