Quote from dievas

BBC News - Should victims have a say in sentencing criminals?

This news article from the BBC is going over whether we should keep our "impartial" legal system, or implement one where the victim gets to choose the sentence for the accused.

Can anyone guess who might gain the most from this?

Women will benefit most off course... and considering women's attitudes and fragile feelings, such system would bode catastrophe.

Such system would likely be even more dangerous. It is true that the current system is broken, because it is 1) not applied in a fair way due to law enforcement and judges, and 2) the laws are corrupt or not fitting. To let victims decide a punishment however, will always end up in a subjective and ridiculously high sentence. Everybody will give death sentences and ridiculously high jail sentences. Victims will often enough be hellbent on punishing and getting payback/revenge; at that point justice is lost out of sight. For that reason, I find it a scary notion to leave matters too much to victims.

A slightly stronger form would be when the impact on victims is considered as part of assessing the moral seriousness of the crime.

Current UK sentencing practice for almost all crimes - and all serious crimes - takes into account the effect of the crime upon the victim. As an example, murdering an old man, in a coma in bed and not expected to recover, will receive (all other factors being equal) a lesser sentence than murdering a healthy man of middle years. (Somewhat against that example, however, is culpability and heinousness, also taken into consideration: murdering someone defenceless is more heinous than murdering someone who had some chance of defence. These things are never straightforward.)

I'd say no because the decision of a judge and jury become lessened and therefore undermining the system.

As people have stated, it will benefit those who can be the biggest performers in convincing others.

A case must rest on the facts and not a creeping trend towards emotionalism and hysteria passing as evidence. This is something women will have a greater winging tendency towards. See, I was being subtly controversial in light of the Sky debacle.