News In Focus
30 March 2007
Fear of reprisal hinders pilot project
A two-year pilot scheme run in Edinburgh, Ayr and Kilmarnock sheriff courts which offered victims the chance to give pre-sentence statements to the judge has had limited takeup.
The pilot found that only 14.9% of people offered the choice wanted to use it, most quoting fear of reprisal as the reason not to, although the victims of the more serious crimes (murder and death by dangerous driving) were more likely to take part.
A report into the trial scheme by Aberdeen University found some evidence that cases where victim statements had been taken into account were more likely to result in a jail sentence.
Most sheriffs said, however, that they could put such material out of their minds when passing sentence, and some raised concerns that victim pre-sentence statements could lead to a raised expectation in the mind of victims.
In England and Wales victims' pre-sentence statements have been used in manslaughter and murder cases in a pilot scheme that started last year.
A spokesperson for the Scottish Executive said a number of issues would need to be resolved before the scheme could be rolled out.