Ele Ludemann: Putting victims before criminals

The government is prioritising victims with tougher sentences for criminals:

The Government has today agreed to introduce sentencing reforms to Parliament this week that will ensure criminals face real consequences for crime and victims are prioritised, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says.

“In recent years, there has been a concerning trend where the courts have imposed fewer and shorter prison sentences despite a 33 per cent increase in violent crime.

“Public confidence in the ability of our sentencing system to deter and denounce offending has diminished.

“These changes will help ensure there are 20,000 fewer victims of violent crime by 2029, alongside reducing serious repeat youth offending by 15 per cent.”

The upcoming reforms will strengthen the criminal justice system by:

 

• Capping the sentence discounts that judges can apply at 40 per cent when considering mitigating factors unless it would result in manifestly unjust sentencing outcomes.

• Preventing repeat discounts for youth and remorse. Lenient sentences are failing to deter offenders who continue to rely on their youth or expressions of remorse without making serious efforts to reform their behaviour.

• Responding to serious retail crime by introducing a new aggravating factor to address offences against sole charge workers and those whose home and business are interconnected, as committed to in the National-Act coalition agreement.

• Encouraging the use of cumulative sentencing for offences committed while on bail, in custody, or on parole to denounce behaviour that indicates a disregard for the criminal justice system, as committed to in the National-New Zealand First coalition agreement.

• Implementing a sliding scale for early guilty pleas with a maximum sentence discount of 25 per cent, reducing to a maximum of 5 per cent for a guilty plea entered during the trial. This will prevent undue discounts for late-stage guilty pleas and avoid unnecessary trials that are costly and stressful for victims.

• Amending the principles of sentencing to include requirement to take into account any information provided to the court about victims’ interests, as committed to in both coalition agreements.

“The Government has also confirmed two additional aggravating factors will be added to the Bill,” Mr Goldsmith says.

These respond to:

• Adults who exploit children and young people by aiding or abetting them to offend;

• Offenders who glorify their criminal activities by livestreaming or posting them online.

“These provisions have been transferred from the Ram Raids Bill that is currently before select committee so that amendments to the Sentencing Act can be considered together as a coherent package.

“These changes send a clear message that social media cannot be a tool to glorify or celebrate the actions of callous individuals, and nor should adults exploit children and young people in the commission of crimes.

“Communities and hardworking Kiwis should not be made to live and work in fear of these offenders who clearly have a flagrant disregard for the law, corrections officers and the general public.”

The previous governments kindness to criminals didn’t work.

New Zealand became more dangerous and more people became victims of crime.

This is a welcome rebalancing which will make victims a higher priority than criminals and help make the country safer.

Rehabilitating criminals and addressing the drivers of crime must also be addressed to decrease the chances of reoffending and committing crimes in the first place.

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Ele Ludemann is a North Otago farmer and journalist, who blogs HERE - where this article was sourced.