Based on local, national, and international sources as well as unpublished documents and original research, the volume outlines and discusses the issues facing victims today. The discussion focuses on how best to ensure justice for victims while preserving the rights of the accused. It examines the wider social context in which some versions of victimology have become more dominant than others and considers how those versions of victimology are interwoven with questions of policy response and service delivery to crime victims. Specific topics include victimization risks and variations from country to country, the impacts of crime on the victim, the response to victims by the criminal justice system and social service agencies, the reasons that governments have become interested in victims, and victim services throughout the world. Tables, index, and more than 300 references (Publisher summary modified)