Adversarial Values, Fateful Victims and Exclusive Justice: Appropriateness of Victim Impact Statement

Victims have mostly been viewed as ‘emotionally’ induced entities which may not contribute any ‘legalistic’ material to the criminal trial in a fundamental way. Due to this foundational belief in non-rational contribution of the victim to the legalistic basis of the trial which is sought to be preserved by the adversarial set up of the criminal trial, the interests of victim do not find direct place in the shaping of criminal justice. Such absence of comforting values leads to exclusion of victim’s voice in the process of sentencing. This research is an attempt to understand the nature of such non-accommodative adversarial values which impact the utility of victim participation in a criminal trial. It juxtaposes such values with the need of securing the interest of victim in order to ascertain the attainment of ‘inclusive justice’ out of a criminal process. This objective is refined by the specific reference to the possible contributions of the Victim Impact Statement (‘VIS) in conditioning the ‘justice sensitive sentencing’ without diluting the adversarial culture. The research focuses on the aspects of conflict as well as possible synergy between the adversarial values of a criminal trial and the voicing of victim’s interest through Victim Impact Statement. Thus, the expected outcome of this paper is a critical analysis of the fate of victim in a criminal trial amidst the adversarial values and an extent of inclusive justice which may be secured using the tool of Victim Impact Statement.