Law Commons^™

Victim Impact Statements And Sentencing, Sam Garkawe

Associate Professor Sam Garkawe

Legislation allowing for victim impact statements ('VIS') to be presented during sentencing hearings has been introduced into the criminal justice systems of most common law nations, notwithstanding many reservations from defence lawyers and civil libertarians. Despite such legislation being widespread throughout the common law world, the use of VIS remains controversial. The main purpose of this article is to utilise basic sentencing principles in order to critically analyse the question of whether, and if so, to what extent, VIS are relevant to an offender's sentence. In such cases adequate procedural safeguards need to be instituted to ensure that offender's rights …