Reimagining justice

As a young prosecutor in the early 1980s, Doug Beloof had seen enough; victims of crime were treated poorly, and that had to change. Since then, Beloof has taken purposeful steps to change the legal landscape for crime victims at local, state, and national levels.

“In keeping with the history of all rights, civil rights of crime victims will not be real until there are lawyers in courtrooms enforcing these rights,” he says.

The nation’s top expert in crime victim law, the author of the first and only legal casebook about the subject, and an advocate who contributed to passage of the federal Crime Victims’ Rights Act, Beloof is the founder and executive director of the National Crime Victim Law Institute. Located at Lewis & Clark Law School, the institute seeks to assert victims’ rights in criminal trial and appellate courts, mentors law students to research and write briefs for attorneys who represent crime victims nationwide, and performs other critical functions advocating for crime victims’ rights.

Beloof’s staunch advocacy is rooted in a clear and compelling belief: “Victims should not have to suffer secondary victimization when participating in the criminal justice process.”