Steve Twist has spent five decades as one of the nation's leading architects of the crime victims' rights movement. He began his advocacy shortly after law school as a lawyer for the Navajo Nation, where in 1975 he helped establish the first tribal victims' rights commission in the country. Returning to Arizona, he helped rewrite the state's criminal code and later served 12 years as Chief Assistant Attorney General.

In 1990, Twist led the successful citizens' initiative that made Arizona's Victims' Bill of Rights part of the state constitution, then drafted its implementing legislation. In 1996, he founded Arizona Voice for Crime Victims, the nation's first legal clinic providing crime victims with their own free attorneys.

Twist's reach extends nationally: he helped secure passage of the federal Crime Victims' Rights Act in 2004, drafted the core language for California's Marsy's Law, and has taught crime victims' rights law at Arizona State University's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law since 2001.

In 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice honored Twist with its Victim Rights Legend Award for his lifetime of advocacy on behalf of crime victims.