Justice secretary Jack Straw has told prison reform campaigners they must do more to help the victims of crime.
In a speech to the Royal Society of Arts, he argued for a return to "the language of punishment and reform".
"When I hear phrases like 'criminogenic needs of offenders' it drives me nuts," he said.
"First it is pretty impenetrable jargon designed to put a barrier between practitioner and public and second because I profoundly disagree that we should describe someone's amoral desire to go thieving as a 'need' equivalent to that of victims or the law-abiding public."
The prison reform lobby is effective at speaking up for the needs of offenders, he said.
"But we hear far less often from these lobbies about the needs of the victim.
"I think they sometimes forget who the victim is, so lost do they become in a fog of platitudes and debate over the 'needs' of the offenders.
"We can all do more to support victims: Indeed I challenge those of you who rightly work so effectively to keep up the pressure on government over standards in prisons to put the victim more at the heart of your work."
He went on: "To use such language to describe the government's approach does not signal a return to some Victorian notion of crime, its causes and its remedies. And this doesn't mean treating offenders inhumanely.
"But it does mean being crystal clear about what the public expect the justice system to do on their behalf: to punish those who have broken the law."
