Voiceless victims  the way it should be
Just for a moment, real politics has invaded my tiny little life. This isn’t an ‘all about me’ masturblog, so I’ll write a couple of paragraphs then shut up.
Two weeks ago, I was in court.
Briefly, the story: my partner and one-year old were kidnapped, robbed and assaulted at screwdriver-point last year, by a very fat, very black crack-head. (And, no, I hold no lasting prejudice against fat people as a result.) The guy got 9 years. The police were efficient, the lawyers approachable, and the judge even managed to stay awake. The Witness Service were top-drawer. No sign of a system in crisis. Job done. Move on.
Well, not quite. Because it seems that this remarkably efficient self-publicist speaks for me, or at least people like me. I have a right to a say in the sentence handed down, apparently, and maybe if NuLabour are re-elected that right will become law. My ‘feelings’ as a parent of the victim ought to be considered when the punishment is handed down by the court.
To which the only appropriate response is: complete bollocks. This isn’t Sharia law, or any other form of populist LCD ‘justice’. We have a legal system based on sound principles which deals with this sort of thing. The only way to ensure an equitable outcome is for judges and juries to take a dispassionate view. Otherwise what you are left with isn’t justice, but institutionalized and sentimentalized state vengeance. As with ID cards, detention without trial and double jeopardy, Labour seem unable or unwilling to grasp basic law. They might have jettisoned their own principles without a second thought, but they shouldn’t be allowed to dump society’s so carelessly.
On one level I agree with you – the victim should not be part of the sentencing process and it should be dispassionate. The problem seems to be that the essential reason the ‘Justice System’ was established has been forgotten.
At its establishment essentially a ‘contract’ was drawn up with the people – They would abandon the doctrine of ‘an eye for an eye’ and in return the state would administer justice fairly and impartially on their behalf.
Peoples unconscious belief is that contract has been broken. I pay £500+ for my car insurance and I keep my side of the ‘justice’ bargain. Some who does not pay is rarely fined more than £200 if caught. That is not fair, the contract has been broken.
That is a trivial example but a driver who is un-insured, has no licence, has never passed a driving test and is banned kills a child after losing control and mounting the pavement – gets fined £350 and banned for 2 years. Being unable to pay your council tax because you worked hard all your life and have a very modest occupational pension which disqualifies you from relief. Your pension is eroded by horrific increases so that council tax is more than 20% of your total income before tax. Can’t pay – you go to prison. Contrasting those examples is that fair? – the contract has been broken.
Deprive a company of a few pennies in royalties and expect to pay a fine of 10% of your pre-tax income. If your are a company and you kill around 50 people because you put profit before safety and you get a fine of less than 0.01% of profits and the directors who enacted this policy escape because there is no directing mind. That is not fair – the contract is broken.
Get the fairness back into justice and then maybe we can get back to the principle of the victim not being involved in sentencing. But do you think it’s likely to happen?
Gordon – I don’t see the relevance of any of that to ‘victim’s justice’. You’re not going to get any fairness back into justice by making it less just.
I thought your analysis was spot on. I was also very struck by a side-issue, Norman Brennan’s vocal support of Linda Walker – not so much a victim of crime, more a criminal (but the nice kind).
Sing it from the roof-tops. Norman Brennan is a self-righteous egotist who’s ideas about what the criminal justice system should or shouldn’t must be ignored at all costs.
Larrys comments sadden me. The criminal justice system has become the cash cow of the judicery leaving the law abiding public exposed to fear and crime on every other Urban street.
How far will it have to deteriorate further before the people realise that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few?