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Taking the Assets of the Criminal to Compensate Victims of Violence

2019; Springer International Publishing; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/978-3-030-28360-5_14

2662-6489

Walter E. Block, Roy Whitehead,

Legal Systems and Judicial Processes

Over 30 years ago, New York was terrorized by a serial killer, David Berkowitz, immortalized by the media as the "Son of Sam." By the time Berkowitz was apprehended, publicity about the case had created an enormous monetary value in the rights to his criminal story. New York's appalled legislature sought to prevent Berkowitz and other criminals from exploiting for profit the tales of their sensational crimes while their victims remained uncompensated. The statute resulting from the legislature's praiseworthy efforts to strip the criminal of his crime-related profits and compensate the victim was called the "Son of Sam Law." Its efforts are praiseworthy because criminals should not profit from their violence against victims. And surely victims deserve to be compensated for the damages caused to them by the criminal's violence.