Americans would enjoy significant cost savings and other benefits if the “criminal justice” system emphasized victims’ rights to restitution instead of punishment for offenses against the state. Focusing on “victim justice” would be easier to achieve with the adoption of full-scale privatization (not government “contracting out”) of security services, investigations, pursuit, prosecution, adjudication, and sentencing.

Bruce L. Benson is a Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute and DeVoe L. Moore Professor and Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus of Economics, Florida State University.
Constitutional LawCrime, Criminal Justice, and PrisonsLaw and Liberty
Other Independent Review articles by Bruce L. Benson
Winter 2014/15 The New Scarlett Letter?: Negotiating the U.S. Labor Market with a Criminal Record
Winter 2007/08 The Evolution of Eminent Domain: Market Failure or an Effort to Limit Government Power and Government Failure?
Winter 2006/07 The Market for Force
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