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Sexual Violence, Victim Advocacy, and Republican Criminology: Washington State's Community Protection Act

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Stuart A. Scheingold ,
Toska Olson  and
Jana Pershing
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Abstract

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This article focuses on the Community Protection Act (CPA), the State of Washington's legislative effort to control sexual violence, and on the victim advocacy groups that played a prominent role in this effort. It is argued by some, most recently by republican criminologists, that victim advocates serve democratic ideals and introduce into criminal process important values and interests that are neglected by professionals. Others argue that victim advocacy tends to promote punitive policies that empower the state, jeopardize constitutional rights, and divert attention from causes to symptoms. The evidence gathered in this research lends credence to the critics of republican criminology. Victim advocates were not reliable carriers of republican values in their strenuous support of the CPA, the central provisions of which reduce civil liberties and promote exclusion rather than reintegration.

Type
Republican Criminology and Victim Advocacy
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 28 , Issue 4 , 1994 , pp. 729 - 763
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 by The Law and Society Association.

Footnotes

The second and third authors contributed equally to work on this article and are listed in alphabetical order.

We are indebted to a great many people beginning with David Boerner who first suggested that we undertake this research and who helped us at a number of crucial spots along the way. We have also been given invaluable help with data collection by Thomas Sykes and Roxanne Lieb of the Washington State Institute for Public Policy, William Dehmer of the Washington State Special Commitment Center, Arnold Stautz of the Washington State Patrol, and Peggy Smith of the Washington State Department of Corrections. A number of colleagues have provided helpful comments on the manuscript through its several incarnations Among these colleagues are John Braithwaite, John La Fond, Michael McCann, Norval Morris, J. Christopher Rideout, Joseph Weis, anonymous reviewers for this journal and Frank Munger, its editor, whose perceptive and constructive critique enhanced the clarity and coherence of this article. Of course, the heaviest debt is to our respondents who provided insight into the motivations and methods of the victim advocates and into their complex interactions with the political process.

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