Victim Impact Statements Free Essay Example, 2000 words

According to the public opinions, victim impact statement gives voice to the victim and makes the defendant and the public understand more about what the victim went through. In public’s opinion, victim impact statements are not an ethical concern because if the justice system fails to listen to the crime victims, then they are directly in conflict with the ideology of their justice system’s foundation, which is fair, swift and equal justice and with punishments, which are aligned with the nature of the crime. Moreover, it is also a fact that the suffering which a victim goes through, doesn’t stay with the victim only and often moves into the extended family, like children or spouse. Thus, these real and measurable impacts shouldn’t be ignored, and those who want to make the justice system know how they have been affected by a crime, the justice system should give them a chance to do so (Cassell, 2009). The reason why the justice system accepts the existence of victim impact statement is because the victims were being pushed to the side, were only called in the courtroom, in case they had to testify or present evidence. We wil l write a custom essay sample on Victim Impact Statements or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now This was alienation and the victim impact statement has given them a reason to participate in the trial proceedings. It is also important to note that crimes don’t happen to the State, they happen to people and many victims have a direct interest in the outcome of their case, particularly in homicide cases. However, many victims don’t exercise their right to give an oral or written impact statement, mostly because they find it hard to face the defendant; they find it extremely difficult to put their sufferings and emotions into words (Moriarty, 2003). Moreover, there was also a lack of knowledge on the victim’s part, as to what the impact statement is, how to write it, what things to include and the impact that statement would have. For the justice system, victim impact statement would become an ethical issue, if the judges don’t keep in view the law that applies to the case and instead, base their decision on the victim impact statement and the emotions expressed in the statement. The main reason why the judicial system has given this right to the victim is because; the reason for the success of the judiciary is based on how they treat the victim of a crime. It is not necessary that the victim impact statement would change the sentencing, in fact, according to a research conducted in South Australia, it was found out that 34% of the victims, who created a victim impact statement, felt that their statement didn’t change the sentencing at all and they didn’t get the result, that they were expecting.