About This Class
This course will explore the legal, historical, cultural, and psychological frameworks underlying victim rights law, as well as best practices for effective victim/survivor engagement across the American criminal justice system.
Topics will include:
1) the history of victim rights and victim/survivor services in the United States, to include the violence against women and/or Mothers Against Drunk Driving movements, the array of state responses (funding, agency-based direct service, correctional/institutional, etc.);
2) statutory, constitutional, evidentiary, and procedural schemes intended to protect and give voice to crime victims in both traditional and restorative criminal justice processes;
3) the psychology and brain science of trauma and how to competently address trauma in direct service/representation of victims;
4) ethical challenges;
5) interviewing techniques; and
6) theories and strategies for effectively managing vicarious/secondary trauma as a legal or restorative justice practitioner in the field.
MW 12:45 PM-2:00 PM; On-campus, Oakes Hall, Classroom 207