I have mixed reactions to this piece.

I agree that victim impact statements can delay recovery, as well as reminding us of the Cultural Revolution in China. New believe-the-accuser protocols for sex accusations discourage the seeking of truth, hence violating the Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial.

Some other victims’ rights reforms, however, were a step in the right direction, eg keeping victims informed about the status of offenders who pose a continuing threat to them.

I was hoping an increased emphasis on victims’ rights would siphon away resources from prosecution of victimless crimes, but that has not panned out.

I am more sympathetic than Ms. LePore toward tough-on-(real)-crime policies. The rollback of the barbarous crime rates of the 1970s-1980s was one of the proudest achievements of the Buckley-Goldwater-Reagan conservatism that expired around year 2000. In protest, we are told that comes at the cost of an extravagant increase in the imprisonment rate, but actually the prison increase matches a precipitous decline in mental institutionalization. The criminally insane, discharged from institutions, found their way to prisons, and then the
crime rate began to fall.