Larry Williams Drive

ACT’s released its tougher on crime sentencing policy today, and I'll be honest with you- even I'm shocked at how little consideration judges have to pay to victims when they sentence offenders.  ACT has pointed out that at the moment, basically everything is about the offender. Take a look at the sentencing principles in the Sentencing Act: Judges must take into account any particular circumstances of the offender that means that a sentence would be disproportionately severe. They must take into account the offender’s personal, family, whanau, community, and cultural background in imposing a sentence. And they must impose the least restrictive sentence, as in- the least harsh sentence they can impose. And as for the victim, just one mention: Judges must take into account any information provided to the court concerning the effect of the offending on the victim. And as for the community and the risk to the community for the offender roaming the streets instead of being shoved into jail- absolutely nothing.