Communication at Sentencing: The Expressive Function of Victim Impact Statements (From Hearing the Victim: Adversarial Justice, Crime Victims and the State, P 232-254, 2010, Anthony Bottoms and Julian V. Roberts, eds. - See NCJ-231063)

• NCJ Number: 231072
• Author(s): Julian V. Roberts; Edna Erez
• Date Published: 2010
• Length: 23 pages
• Sale Source: Willan Publishing
• Publication Format: Book Chapter
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This chapter examines the debate on victim input in a historical context and describes how the expressive or communicative conception of victim input was replaced by a model that stressed the impact of victim input on the sentence imposed.

Abstract

In that victim participation of some kind is now a requirement of legal proceedings throughout the criminal process, the role of the victim in the sentencing process continues to generate controversy among scholars and practitioners. Victim Impact Statements (VISs) represent a means of providing victims with a voice at sentencing. This essay focuses on the communicative value of the VIS in order to highlight the role of the statement as reciprocal communication and the compatibility of this function of the VIS with current sentencing theories. It challenges the conclusion that the communication of crime impact by victims is bound to be associated with victims' dissatisfaction, showing the benefits inherent in being heard and listened to, regardless of the outcome. Moving away from an approach which emphasizes the instrumental function and towards the expressive function will redirect the concept and practice of the VIS and bring it back to its original course, providing victims with a voice in the sentencing process. Notes and references