Third Party Victims of Injustice: Families of Defendants

Abstract

There is no question that crime has immense ripple effects on communities all over the United States. Direct victims of crimes suffer immense consequences and often times are never able to fully seek justice for the wrongdoings against them. However, in the State of Texas, Victim Compensation Programs (VCP) allow for direct victims to receive aid for the harms they have experienced. This aid is not offered to other victims who are not directly targeted by the specific crime. However, when a defendant is arrested and subsequently incarcerated, the people in their immediate family often experience consequences of that punishment even though they are innocent of any wrongdoing. They are third-party victims of the crime. This is an injustice. It is clear that direct victims and third-party victims like the families of defendants experience similar versions of injustice but are treated very differently. Financial strains and emotional trauma are just some examples. This suggests there is further research to be done on why the government has not addressed this side of injustice. VCPs are not available to third party victims in Texas and the same is true in most other states. There are many hypothesized reasons for this. Additionally, there are many different forms of punishment that defendants are sentenced to that vary in scope. This idea of scope focuses on how harmful this punishment is to the defendant, those around them, and their community. Some forms of punishment have a wide scope in which third parties experience dire consequences for a crime they did not commit. Incarceration is found to have the biggest impact on third parties. Other forms of punishment, such as fines, still affect third party victims but the harms that they experience are not as detrimental. These punishments have a smaller scope. In this thesis I will argue that the state ought to help third party victims in either a proactive or reactive way. A proactive approach would be keeping in mind the family of the defendant when considering what punishment is appropriate. Prosecutors often consider direct victims in punishment but rarely do the same for third party victims. A reactive approach would be to offer them aid through VCPs like they do with direct victims. Regardless of which option is appropriate, every criminal case involves many individuals and the state ought to consider all parties, not just the defendant and the direct victim. This negligence in considering third party victims is problematic and contributes to the systemic problems that the criminal justice system has created in the United States.