Graduation Year
2020
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Legal Studies
Reader 1
Mark Golub
Reader 2
Susan Castagnetto
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
© 2020 Samantha R Dresner
Abstract
The Victims' Rights Movement emerged in the 1970s and 1980s, at the same time as the War on Drugs and War on Crime were driving mass incarceration at unprecedented levels. This paper examines the historical roots of the victims' rights movement and its evolution from grassroots organizing into a tool of state power. It interrogates the meaning of "worthy" victims, and looks into the landmark Supreme Court case Payne v. Tennessee as an example of victim impact evidence being used to support the state project of the death penalty.
Recommended Citation
Dresner, Samantha, "Empathy and Worthiness: The Modern Victims' Rights Movement and the Growth of Mass Incarceration" (2020). Scripps Senior Theses. 1586.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1586
