The victims' movement that sprung up during the 1980s and early 1990s seemed to be a step in the right direction for helping the victims instead of the offenders. However, as pointed in "Victims Still", this movement did not and has not helped the victim. The victim movement consisted of new legislation, institutions, and programs designed to help the victim. But when scrutinizing the policies, one the notices that many of the policies are deceiving. Rights that are supposedly being given to the victim are just rights that have been taken away from offenders only to strengthen the rights of the officials.

However, in "Victims Still", the crimes have already taken place and now the victim needs justice. As suggested by Elias, many victims do not want revenge, they just want the offender to receive help that he or she needs. There are many different ways for a victim to have say in what happens to the offender, such as victim opinions. Victims may send in a statement or even talk directly to a judge at the sentencing. Elias feels that a victim's statement should have something to do with the sentencing, but that sentencing should fit the harm and not the person. He also feels that criminal penalties should be reduced, because imprisonment only generates more crime.

Also suggested by Elias is that if laws would focus on all victims, not just those who were involved in a serious crime, it is possible that the number of victims of serious crimes would go down. The same idea would work for domestic abuse as well, if it is handled the first time it happens, there would be a lesser chance of things escalating and one's spouse becoming a victim.

The selective

Some common words found in the essay are:
Robert Elias', According Elias, help victim, victims' movement, designed help, programs designed, programs designed help, suggested elias, causes crime, 1980s 1990s, robert elias', crimes drug, elias feels,
Approximate Word count = 717
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)