A Typology of Victim Participation Across Private–Public Conceptions

Abstract This chapter examines how victim participation in the criminal justice process has been conceptualized in the scholarly literature and advances an alternative framework for understanding it. Existing work has developed a typology of victim participation to explain the role of victims and their relationship with state decision-makers. This typology, however, has generally framed victims as actors with predominantly private interests, emphasizing their individual needs and entitlements within the criminal process. The chapter argues that this narrow conception limits the analytical and normative potential of victim participation. It proposes instead a framework that situates victims along a private–public spectrum, recognizing that their interests and roles may extend beyond the personal to encompass broader public responsibilities and claims. By doing so, it adds nuance to existing categories of participation, offering a richer understanding of how victims engage with and influence criminal justice processes. Viewing victims as potential holders of public as well as private interests also enables a more comprehensive discussion of their rights and obligations. This broader conception highlights the ways in which victims may contribute to deliberations about the public interest in criminal justice, and how their participation can be understood not only as the assertion of individual entitlements but also as a form of civic engagement. In this way, the chapter lays important groundwork for reconceptualizing victim participation as encompassing both private claims and public responsibilities within the criminal process.