Defense attorneys generally view increasing the victim's contribution as an impediment to the defense. Concerns about postponements and additional costs to an already overburdened system if victims are allowed to participate are widely expressed as concerns for the justice system. Some further argue that victim contributions would include virtually no useful or new data not already available to the court. Others propose that criminal law now considers the harm caused to the victim in the sense of a crime and a mitigating or exasperating situation. (Lens et al.,