Should victim impact influence sentences? Understanding the community's justice reasoning

Victim impact statements have been introduced in response to growing commun ity concern about apparent neglect of victims in the criminal justice syste m. Their use in sentencing is a contentious issue, because victim character istics such as resilience or fragility can contribute to impacts. Is it app ropriate for sentences to be influenced by consequences arising from chance victim circumstances unforeseeable by the offender? In the interest of ach ieving an optimal fit between the justice system and community expectations , this research examined a neglected question: how does the public reason a bout the issue? Using offense vignettes presented to 260 people in Western Australia, sentencing decisions were found to vary according to consequence s arising from victim characteristics. There was little to indicate partici pants fully appreciated the issue; thus, further research is needed to clar ify how justice reasoning principles are used, and to ascertain whether dif ferent decisions are taken when people are informed about the problem. Copy right (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.