Final answer:
Victims began to be recognized as an essential part of crime in the late 20th century, with crucial legal developments like The Hate Crimes Statistics Act of 1990 and subsequent legislation recognizing and protecting specific vulnerable communities, including the LGBTQ and transgender victims.
Step-by-step explanation:
Victims were first recognized as an important part of crime when societal attitudes began to shift towards ensuring victims' rights and recognizing the impact of crime on individuals. However, it was during the latter part of the 20th century that significant legal and societal changes occurred.
One of the landmarks in recognizing victims, specifically hate crime victims, was The Hate Crimes Statistics Act of 1990. This act explicitly acknowledged victims of crimes based on sexual orientation, granting federal recognition to the gay, lesbian, and bisexual community. By documenting these crimes, the act laid the groundwork for enhanced legal protections.
Furthermore, serious attention to the issue of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and the in-depth understanding of self-report surveys, marked by research such as Cantor and Lynch's work in 2000, shed light on the importance of crime reporting for capturing patterns of abuse that help in recognizing and addressing victimization more effectively.
By the 2000s, legal and police practices regarding transgender victims had gradually improved, and the first convictions for hate crimes against transgender individuals were recorded, marking an important milestone in the legal system's acknowledgement of all victims.