A Focus on Victims of Crime: A Review of Victims' Rights

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Executive Summary

The purpose of the consultation document A Focus on Victims of Crime: A Review of Victims’ Rights is to seek your submission on preliminary proposals that aim to improve government agencies’ responses to victims of crime (victims) and to enhance victims’ rights and role in criminal justice processes.

The benefits of a victim-responsive criminal justice system are twofold. First, a greater focus on victims will assist in reducing the cost and impact of crime on individuals and on society in general. Second, improved responsiveness to victims will enhance the effectiveness of, and the public confidence in, the criminal justice system. Minimising, or failing to recognise, the harm crime imposes on victims may cause victims to become disillusioned. Such disillusionment may result in victims withdrawing their co-operation from the formal justice system. Yet this co-operation is essential to the effectiveness of the criminal justice system, not only to ensure victims report crimes but also because it is often the victim’s information that leads to the conviction of the offender.

It is also the Ministry’s aim that any changes for victims arising from these proposals are consistent with the concept and values embodied in Poutama Manaaki which underpins some of the other work we have undertaken in regard to victims. Poutama Manaaki is a process of making a positive transition from one point to another. It depicts a sense of empowerment and recovery through gaining understanding and information.

The consultation document focuses on the victim’s involvement in the ‘criminal justice system’ which starts from the time a crime is reported and continues until the offender completes his or her sentence.

How to have your say

This consultation document presents the Ministry’s preliminary proposals for change. Your feedback on the proposals will help to shape the final proposals for Government consideration. Many of the preliminary proposals also have significant financial and resource implications. Such costs may also influence whether or not a proposal will proceed in the current economic and fiscal climate.

If the Government decides to make changes to the law, you will have a further opportunity to make submissions to a Parliamentary Select Committee, which must consider any changes before legislation is passed.

Please send your submission to us by Wednesday 31st March 2010 in writing to:

A Focus on Victims of Crime
Ministry of Justice
PO Box 180
WELLINGTON

Or by email to: VictimsRightsReview@justice.govt.nz

Issues

The Ministry has identified three broad issues for victims of crime:

Victims find it frustrating having to deal with multiple government agencies to get information about the criminal justice system, their rights, and how to access services
There are weak mechanisms to ensure criminal justice agencies are accountable for the services they deliver to victims
Many victims find the current criminal justice processes bewildering. Victims often feel they do not have any role in the criminal case involving them and do not know what is happening. Many processes in the criminal justice system need to be more receptive to victims’ needs.

Key proposals

To address these three issues, the consultation document includes 24 preliminary proposals. In developing these proposals we were mindful of the current criminal justice processes and the principles associated with the enforcement of criminal law, and the rights of defendants outlined in the NZ Bill of Rights Act 1990. These processes and principles, and the Victims’ Rights Act 2002 are discussed in Chapter One: Background.

Chapters Two and Three outline a new framework within which further services to victims of crime can be delivered.

Chapter Two – Victims’ Services Centre

Victims are often in contact with a range of agencies as they move through the criminal justice process. Many victims are not familiar with the processes associated with reporting, investigating and prosecuting criminal offences, or with the corrections system. This can be confusing and make it difficult for victims to know who to go to for specific information or advice. As a result, many victims that go through the criminal justice system say that they would have liked more assistance or support from criminal justice agencies. Victims have also commented that they would like better information about the criminal justice system.

To respond to these needs Chapter Two proposes establishing a Victims’ Services Centre in the Ministry of Justice that would have the following functions:

Being a central point of contact for victims
Providing and coordinating information resources for victims
Coordinating the contracting of victims’ services
Facilitating a network of agencies providing services to victims.

Chapter Three - Accountability

Chapter Three discusses the need for criminal justice sector agencies to be more accountable to victims for the information and services they deliver to them. The proposals include: establishing a Code of Practice (a Code), creating the role of the Victims of Crime Complaints Officer (Complaints Officer), and requiring criminal justice agencies to report to Parliament each year about their responsibilities to victims.

The UK government has established a Code of Practice. In the New Zealand context, such a Code could outline what information or services victims are entitled to from each agency within defined principles and guidelines established by the Ministry of Justice to ensure best practice. The consultation document suggests that the scope of the Code could be expanded to include how the special needs of Māori victims and applicants of protection orders in the Family Court could be addressed.

To ensure compliance with the Code, however, we propose a revised complaints process that involves a Complaints Officer. Beyond processing complaints, the Complaints Officer could also be responsible for:

Suggesting amendments to the Code to the Minister of Justice in light of the complaints received or issues brought to his or her attention
Undertaking regular reviews of the operation of the Code
Reporting to Parliament each year on the number of complaints received, the agencies which incurred complaints, the nature of the complaints, and whether and how matters were rectified.

Chapter Three also proposes requiring criminal justice agencies to report to Parliament on their services to victims and any complaints made by victims about those services.

A further 20 preliminary proposals are discussed in Chapters Four, Five, Six and Seven. Many of these proposals require amending the Victims’ Rights Act 2002.

Chapter Four: Improving victims’ role in the criminal court

Victims have often commented that they do not always know what is happening with their case, or feel they do not have any role in the case involving them. Many victims would like more support, especially during the court process. Many victims also want to talk about the offence with the offender. Chapter Four proposes four measures to improve the victim’s role in the criminal courts, they are:

Improving the communication between victims and prosecutors by requiring the prosecutors to meet with (or otherwise contact) victims of serious crimes before the first court hearing; and to discuss with victims the need to amend charges
Permitting flexibility for victims when they want the information they are entitled to under sections 11 and 12 of the Act to be referred to a support person, and extending who could be defined as a “support person”
Enhancing the privacy of victims by ensuring that victims are informed that they may be able to seek name suppression in certain circumstances
Enabling greater access for victims to restorative justice processes.

Chapter Five: Providing further victim information to the court

Chapter Five discusses two aspects of providing information to the court, either by way of a Victim Impact Statement (VIS), or by providing additional information to the court by non-government organisations, family, whānau, or community members.

In regard to the VIS it has been suggested that victims should have more freedom to say what they like about the impact the crime has had on them and on their family members or whānau. To address these suggestions, we propose:

Developing guidelines to clarify what information may be included in a VIS
Giving victims the automatic right to read or otherwise present their VIS to the court if they wish, or to nominate a person to do so on their behalf
Providing that the impact of the offence on a victim’s children or other dependent members of their family or whānau may be included in the victim’s VIS
Improving the format of, and information included in, the VIS form.

Non-government organisations also highlighted concerns they have experienced in providing criminal courts with further information about victims, particularly in domestic violence cases and for sentencing purposes. To permit further information about the victim outside of the VIS being provided to the criminal courts, we propose formalising processes and developing protocols for additional information from sources such as non-government organisations, or family or whānau members about the victim being referred to the Judge by the prosecutor.

Chapter Six: Improving the Victim Notification System

Chapter Six notes that victims want to be kept informed of events relating particularly to the imprisoned offender who committed the crime against them – such as pending parole hearings, and release or escape from prison.

The victim notification system (VNS) is a process that notifies eligible victims of certain events to do with the offender when they are within the corrections regime, or are being considered for bail or deportation, or are detained in a mental health facility. Some victims are, however, concerned about how the current VNS works. For a variety of reasons some victims are not registered, and many victims miss out on receiving the notifications they are entitled to.

The VNS is an important part of the justice sector’s obligation to engage with victims and ensure they can fully participate in criminal justice processes. In order to improve the VNS for victims, we propose:

Tailoring the VNS so victims can choose the level of notifications they receive
Requiring court staff (in addition to agencies involved with the VNS) to check whether eligible victims are registered
Widening the scope of the VNS so that it includes offenders who have been sentenced to home detention.

This Chapter also makes two more operational based proposals. One is to provide a means to ensure victims who are too young to be registered in their own right become eligible once they turn 17; and second to clarify how long a victim’s registration lasts when an offender is sentenced for multiple offences at the same time.

Chapter Seven: Clarifying the rights of victims of child and youth offenders

The Victims’ Rights Act 2002 gives little guidance as to how its various provisions apply to the processes in the Family and Youth Courts to deal with offending by children and young persons.

We propose that the Victims’ Rights Act 2002 should explicitly state when it applies to the victims of offending by children and young people as well as offending by adults. Care would be taken when decisions are made about how the Victims’ Rights Act applies in order to ensure that any proposal is consistent with the unique processes set out in the Children, Young Persons and their Families Act 1989 dealing with child or youth offenders.

Further Comment

The Ministry consulted with government and non-government agencies that provide information and support to victims of crime to identify issues that concern victims in order to arrive at the preliminary proposals. Information was also drawn from the submissions made to the Justice and Electoral Select Committee in their 2007 Inquiry into Victims’ Rights and their final report. Information was also obtained from the New Zealand Crime and Safety Survey 2006 (NZCASS), and the 2006 Audit New Zealand Victim Notification System Review: Report on Stage 2 Review.

However, the use of the above resources for identifying the issues for victims of crime may not have adequately elicited the specific needs facing Māori victims. We would welcome any further proposals that could be of benefit to Māori victims of crime.

We further note that this document is about the response of the criminal justice system to victims of crime. However, NZCASS suggests that only 32% of all offences identified by the survey are reported to the Police. There are various reasons for not reporting offences to the Police. Some offences are not seen as important enough, and sometimes victims assume that the Police could not do anything anyway, or that they can deal with the offence themselves.

However, of greater concern, is that some sexual offences or offences committed by partners or people well known to the victim were considered “too private” by participants to be reported. As family violence is a source of serious violence with intergenerational consequences it is clear that these families need assistance from a range of sources including social sector agencies.

While the scope of this review focuses on the criminal justice system we welcome any feedback from you about proposals that would specifically assist victims of both domestic and sexual violence.

First published in December 2009 by the
Ministry of Justice
PO Box 180
WELLINGTON

ISBN 978-0-478-29084-5

A-Focus-on-Victims-of-Crime-Consultation-Document.pdf — PDF document, 764Kb

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