[stupac2]

What's troubling about victim impact statements is that in the criminal justice system, the approach is that the accused committed a crime against the community - not just the victim. It is for this reason that the victim has no say in plea bargaining, choice in charging offenses, how to proceed at trial, and the sentence length sought if convicted. All of these choices are made not by the victim but by the state, because the crime was committed against the community and the state, and so the party that has standing to prosecute the accused is the state.

The victim gets to choose whether to press charges or not, at least in some crimes.

Anyway that seems like kind of weak argument to me. "The victim's voice is mostly irrelevant, so it should stay that way." I think the opposite makes more sense, personally.

[stupac2]

What's troubling about victim impact statements is that in the criminal justice system, the approach is that the accused committed a crime against the community - not just the victim. It is for this reason that the victim has no say in plea bargaining, choice in charging offenses, how to proceed at trial, and the sentence length sought if convicted. All of these choices are made not by the victim but by the state, because the crime was committed against the community and the state, and so the party that has standing to prosecute the accused is the state.

The victim gets to choose whether to press charges or not, at least in some crimes.

Anyway that seems like kind of weak argument to me. "The victim's voice is mostly irrelevant, so it should stay that way." I think the opposite makes more sense, personally.