Over the last thirty years, victims of crime have become a staple topic of media interest and policy-making discourse. Drawing on an extensive program of first-hand empirical data gathered at some 300 English criminal trials, this book examines the practical outcomes of this reform agenda and assesses the meaning, implications and impact of the government's pledge to put victims 'at the heart' of the criminal justice system. The study also draws on in-depth interviews with barristers and solicitors, as well as court administrators and other Local Criminal Justice Board members. The book delves into the policy- making process behind these reforms, based on interviews conducted at key government departments, and offers a model for what a genuinely 'victim-centered' criminal justice system might look like in the twenty- first century, drawing on the psychological and sociological literature on narrative responses to traumatic events. This book: provides hands-on analysis of the place of victims in criminal trials as they actually operate, based on extensive empirical research and data gathered first- hand at courts; places the development of victim-related policy-making into its wider, international and societal context; offers a systematic analysis of the occupational cultures of criminal justice practitioners when dealing with domestic violence and sex crime; and, uses a narrative analysis to understand the needs and expectation of crime victims becoming involved with the criminal justice system.