Draw Breath

I'm in the middle of an enormous teaching burst here which, despite the fears expressed in my previous post, is most enjoyable indeed. For me at least...

Anyway, that coupled with a temporary lack of broadband at home has meant that a number of interesting issues have slipped by.

Primary among them was Justice Carney's speech (also here) referring (obliquely in the end apparently) to Majella Holohan's Victim Impact Statement at the end of Wayne O'Donoghue's trial. Chris Gaskin has an nuanced general piece about Victim Impact Statements over on Balrog and there's a characteristically intelligent discussion about the matter on GUBU.

I have to say that this sort of problem brings the arch-formalist out in me. While we all ought to feel enormous sympathy for the victims of crimes (clearly including the family of victims) that does not mean that courts are an appropriate venue for catharsis, even if after a trial.

The state may be under an obligation to devote significant resources to assisting victims, but - to be rather blunt - victims do not own crimes. To imagine otherwise, even to the limited degree that a VIS does, is I think wrongheaded. It legitimises the idea that criminal justice is a matter of retribution and that victims' impressions ought to drive the state's response to crime. Compassion can be the business of the state, but it's certainly not the business of the court.