Historically, the American criminal justice system was patterned primarily after the English judicial system. One significant difference has been the manner in which criminal prosecutions are viewed. Traditionally, criminal prosecutions in England were private actions brought by the victim or a representative of the victim. While this was also true during the American colonial period, the new United States of America soon moved to a tradition of public prosecution, undertaken by a public official -- the prosecuting attorney. In the United States, a crime is considered to have been committed against the state -- in other words, against society as a whole -- rather than solely against a victim. One especially unfortunate result of our system is that victims have been treated as evidence against the accused, usually included only as a witness to the crime committed against them. Since the crime is considered to have been committed against the state, and it is the state's job to prosecute, victims are not even recognized as a party to the case. Thus, they have had little or no involvement in the process of bringing offenders to justice.

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