Should Crime Pay: A Critical Assessment of the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act of 1996

The victims' rights movement significantly altered the role of the victim in the criminal justice system.1 Beginning in the 1970s, the movement reflected public sentiment that the criminal justice system had become overly offender focused and sought make the justice system more sensitive to victims' needs and concerns.2 At the apex of the campaign, President Reagan commissioned a Task Force on Victims of Crime, which conducted a national study of the plight of crime victims and made a series of policy recommenda tions to improve their situation.3 A central component of the reforms suggested by both the President's Task Force and the victims' rights movement was the right of victims to receive restitution from the perpetrator of the crime.4 Heeding that advice, Congress enacted legislation over the last twenty-five years that significantly enhanced the authority of federal courts to order restitution to victims of crime.5