Book review: Victimology and Victim Rights: International Comparative Perspectives
| Date | 01 September 2020 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0269758020936494 |
| Author | Hildur Fjóla Antonsdóttir |
| Published date | 01 September 2020 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
Book reviews
Tyrone Kirchengast
Victimology and Victim Rights: International Comparative Perspectives
Routledge: London, UK, 2017; xxii þ254 pp.: ISBN 9781138606395 (pbk).
Reviewed by: Hildur Fj´
ola Antonsd´
ottir, EDDA Research Cent er, University of I celand, Iceland
DOI: 10.1177/0269758020936494
The acknowledgement of the importance of victim rights continues to gain momentum with the
increasing recognition of victims’ marginal status in the criminal procedure and limited rights in
many countries, most notably in the common law jurisdictions. In his book Victimology and Victim
Rights: International Comparative Perspectives, Kirchengast successfully takes on the complex
task of comparing and analysing how victim rights have d eveloped in different international,
regional and domestic jurisdictions within the framework of victimology and human rights in the
21st century. Kirchengast is particularly well suited for this task given his previous works in the
field, which include The Victim in Criminal Law and Justice (2006), The Criminal Trial in Law and
Discourse (2010), Criminal Law in Australia (with L. Finlay, 2014), and Victims and the Criminal
Trial (2016).
The stated purpose of the book is to ‘provide an international comparative analysis of victim
rights frameworks as they have emerged on an international, regional, and domestic basis’ and to
show ‘how international norms and practices are often synthesised into domestic law and policy’
(p. 5). Against the background of recent debates within victimology, Kirchengast does this by
outlining, comparing and analysing the ways in which victims’ interests and rights are framed and
articulated in select legal and policy documents at different levels of governance. The frameworks
selected for analysis include: the UN frameworks and international courts, tribunals and panels; the
EU frameworks and courts; and domestic legal and policy frameworks representing different legal
systems – that is, inquisitorial systems (Germany and France), mixed systems (Sweden, Austria
and the Netherlands), common law systems (England and Wales, Ireland, Scotland, the USA,
Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India and South Africa) and hybrid systems (Japan and Brazil).
A key finding in the book is that although the status and r ights of victims dif fer historicall y
between legal systems, we have seen the advancement of victim r ights as human rights in all
jurisdictions under review in the 21st century. These developments are, however, shown to be
uneven. One of the main comparative findings highlighted in the book is the way in which victim
rights can either manifest in hard or soft law. For example, in the European civil law jurisdic-
tions, victim rights tend to be enforceable rights within the framework of criminal law and
procedure (hard law), while in the common law jurisdictions, victim rights tend to be governed
through policy frameworks where they only have a quasi-legal status (soft law). As the author
International Review of Victimology
2020, Vol. 26(3) 368–371
ªThe Author(s) 2020
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