Criminal Justice / VICTIMOLOGY - Essay Example

The reason that there are more non-violent offenders than violent offenders in our prisons is simply because there are more criminals committing non-violent crimes than are committing violent crimes. In fact, the number of violent crimes, and therefore incarcerated violent criminals, has recently reached an all-time low (Truman and Rand, 2010). Statistically, this is going to result in most of the space in the prison system being taken up by the non-violent offenders. The government and the criminal justice system are constantly updating and changing the laws to further protect victims of violent crimes.

One main example of this is the Crime Victims Rights Act, which primarily focuses on protecting the rights, dignity, and privacy of victims of violent crime. This act, and the amendments proposed to it, attempt to ensure the full representation of crime victims in court and to continue to protect them after the court process is complete (Cassel, 2008). Our prisons are not unlimited in size. The sheer number of criminals and the number of crimes that result in prison sentences mean that some prisoners may need to be released early.

This is not focused on any one group of criminals or any one group of victims. The criminal justice system is not indifferent to the needs of citizens; they are making every attempt with limited resources to respect their needs. While changes obviously need to be made within the system, the mere existence of flaws does not indicate malice on the part of those who are responsible for designing that system. Child abuse as a crime is difficult to measure and difficult to prosecute. Since its victims are typically powerless in greater society, it is easy for offenders to go unpunished.

Children may not have an outlet to which they feel they can complain about an abuser, especially if that abuser is a member of their own family. Laws that have allowed adults who were abused as children to come forward many years later have been