Major focus is on the transition from one system, in which victims were seen as deserving of compensation, to a very different system, in which compensation was gradually supplanted by the support of the state. Two related themes -- the emerging distinction between crime and tort, and the state's attempts to monopolize the prosecution of serious offenses -- also are treated. The paper concludes that, while victims eventually lost the right to compensation, they gained the valuable advantage of being represented by the might and power of the state, a development that relieved them of the heavy burdens that were inherent in the compensatory system of justice. (Publisher abstract)