Should victim impact influence sentences? Understanding the community's justice reasoning
✍ Scribed by Adelma M. Hills; Donald M. Thomson
- Book ID
- 101281722
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1999
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 126 KB
- Volume
- 17
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0735-3936
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Victim impact statements have been introduced in response to growing community concern about apparent neglect of victims in the criminal justice system. Their use in sentencing is a contentious issue, because victim characteristics such as resilience or fragility can contribute to impacts. Is it appropriate for sentences to be in¯uenced by consequences arising from chance victim circumstances unforeseeable by the oender? In the interest of achieving an optimal ®t between the justice system and community expectations, this research examined a neglected question: how does the public reason about the issue? Using oense vignettes presented to 260 people in Western Australia, sentencing decisions were found to vary according to consequences arising from victim characteristics. There was little to indicate participants fully appreciated the issue; thus, further research is needed to clarify how justice reasoning principles are used, and to ascertain whether dierent decisions are taken when people are informed about the problem.