When we think about the victims of crime, we often worry or feel sorry for those who have been attacked, killed, or ripped-off.  But there’s another, large group of victims we seldom see or hear about.  They’re called, “collateral victims” of crime.

Who are they?

These are the families, children, friends, and employers of those individuals charged with crimes.  Even arrests can cause collateral damage to these innocent victims.  Here’s a great article from the New York Times by Shaila Dewan exposing this group of victims of crime.  http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/06/sunday-review/the-collateral-victims-of-criminal-justice.html?ref=international

These people can become victims even at the time of arrest of a family member.  Even if charges are later dismissed, the collateral damage may be done already.  How does this happen?

1.  People are charged with a crime and held in custody for a long time.  Their family and friends may depend on the arrested person to work and support the family—now that support is cut off.  The entire family may be flipped upside down for a month or two as they scramble to pay for rent, food, clothes, etc.

2.  If the charged person is convicted and sent to prison, the family not only loses the income, but they lose the time and help the individual provides to the family.  Even though the family and children are innocent, they become victims of crime because they lose a parent, partner, and helper around the house, especially if the person in prison is the mother.  And when you consider that the United States puts more people in prison than almost every other country in the world, you can see how this unexpectedly affects the victims of crime.

3.  Even if the charges are dropped or are minor, the collateral damages still happen: a criminal record (even a minor one) is now so easy to find that it affects job prospects, rental opportunities, car purchases, credit scores, etc.  All of these will have a horrible impact on the family and friends of the individual.

4.  Some states are moving to limit the use of background criminal checks by institutions and employers.  Because the governments understand the problems of the victims of crime who don’t get into the news or courtrooms.

5.  Even if charges are dropped, the American Bar Association found there are 45,000 regulations among the states that prohibit people with any criminal record from doing so many things like voting to cutting hair!

6.  But what about the idea that the offender should think about the unexpected victims of crime before he commits the crime?  Great idea, but I’ve found in almost 40 years of working as a lawyer, most criminals don’t think more than about three minutes ahead as they commit crimes.  In my experience, they never think about collateral damages to their families and friends.  Meanwhile, these unexpected victims of crime still suffer.

What do you think?