The Relevance of the Victim Impact Statement at the Sentencing Stage: A Critical Analysis

The victims of crime are often called the ‘forgotten man’ in the criminal justice system. The adversarial system, which is primarily an accused-centric system, ignores the needs of the victims after the crime. Moreover, there is no way for them to voice their needs, as they have no right to be heard at the sentencing stage. The emergence of victimology and the pro-human rights movement revived victims' participatory rights in a criminal process. It emphasizes that victim justice can only be achieved if an equivalent right to be heard is provided to the victim of a crime. The Victim Impact Statement (VIS) is an excellent tool to make the voice of the victim of crime reach out to the relevant authorities. It helps the court determine the sentence to be imposed and the compensation to be paid to the victim. It helps in the recovery of victims. It also encourages victim participation in the criminal process and makes them an essential part of the criminal justice system. There may be some challenges in its incorporation, but several countries have adopted it and have had good results. In India, its incorporation may pose some difficulty because of the accused-centric approach, but there is still a way to make it available as a right to the victims of crime.