There is no question of going back to the days when victims were largely irrelevant in criminal proceedings," said Dame Sian, "But I would like to see some serious assessment of whether the emotional and financial cost of keeping victims in thrall to the criminal justice processes (through sentencing and on to parole hearings) does help their recovery from the damage they have suffered, or whether they are re-victimised through these processes.
I however, do not.
The underlying premise is that the convicted criminal has rights is utterly wrong. The criminal is so named because of transgressions against what as a society we deem to be the norm. Having broken those rules, the criminal forfeits his rights.
Particularly rights to live within society at large. And to incur punishment for the crime.
Think about that if you will.
The criminal justice processes that the learned Dame refers to are not there to help criminals, but to exact retribution for criminal actions. And if there is an emotional and financial cost of keeping victims in that thrall, then so be it. That is the cost of crime in our society.
Posts
1 comment:
When we have a system named "corrections" then perhaps it is a hint that the behaviour need to be corrected. Or am I just being my silly old logical self again.
Dame sean would not know an injustice if it stared her in the face.
Post a Comment