Abstract: The rise of the victim to a central role in contemporary criminal justice represents one of the most significant transformations in the ways in which crime is defined and governed in late modernity. Historically marginalized within a state-centred paradigm, in which crime was interpreted primarily as an offence against public authority, the victim has progressively acquired a new symbolic, legal and institutional centrality. This paper offers a critical review of the literature on the ‘victim turn’, drawing on contributions from victimology, the sociology of punishment, the theory of recognition and studies on restorative justice.