Public Support for the Victims' Rights Movement: Results of a Statewide Survey

The literature on the victims' rights movement has been largely anecdotal, and little empirical evidence has been produced about who supports victims' rights. This article examines the extent of public support for several programs regularly appearing in proposed victim legislation. Path analytic procedures were used to test variation in support by age, race, sex, education, income, and victimization experience. The results indicate that victimization experience and education were most strongly associated with support for the victims' rights programs examined. Race, on the other hand, was not significantly related to support for victims' rights when other variables were controlled.