Victims in the War on Crime

Markus Dirk Dubber is Professor of Law at the University of Toronto. His many books include Victims in the War on Crime: The Use and Abuse of Victims' Rights (NYU Press, 2002).

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionI The War on Victimless Crime1 Waging the War on Crime2 Policing Possession 3 State Nuisance ControlII Vindicating Victims' Rights4 The Legitimate Core of Victims' Rights 5 Vindicating Victims 6 The Law of Victim- and Offenderhood Conclusion NotesIndex About the Author

"Dubber pulls off quite an intellectual feat. First, he offers a ruthless expose on the so-called Victims Rights movement. Then he shows how the War on Crime, in which victims are enlisted, has little to do with real human victims in the first place. Where, he asks, are the victims in the vast array of possession offenses that are the heart of the War on Crime? He ends by conceiving what a legal system would look like if we were truly interested in victims as persons, not as pawns. This is a bold work of jurisprudence and also a practical blueprint for better policyone of the most original books on criminal law in recent years." - Robert Weisberg,Edwin E. Huddleson, Jr. Professor of Law, Stanford University "Dubber's book is an outstanding achievement: original and insightful, well-written and well-informed, deeply humane and at times even passionate. It deserves to have a significant impact not only on the way criminal justice is thought about by scholars, but also on the wider public policy debate." (Criminal Law Forum) "Victims in the War on Crime includes a valuable review of the development of victims rights and the war on crime and an interesting link of the two movements that have occurred in the same place and time." (Contemporary Sociology) "Interesting, well-argued, and provocative. [Dubber] raises new and important issues about the role and impact of the victims rights movement." (Law and Politics Book Review) "Dubber gives some powerful examples of how the law has developed haphazardly in response to individual victims' experiences." (The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice)