Introducing Victim Impact Statement in India: Reconceptualizing Victim Status

Abstract

The right to fair trial is inherent in the concept of due process of law, which now forms part of Article 21 of Indian Constitution after the Maneka Gandhi judgement. Pertinently attached with the same comes the responsibility of the criminal system to treat victims with increased awareness and sensitivity. However, the established convention shows that in planning and developing administration of criminal justice, proper attention is not given to the victims of crime in achieving goals of criminal justice; the major cause of it being that a victim is heard only as a witness not as a victim. A credible response to the said issue has emerged in the form of victim impact statement (VIS) in the modern legal system across the world. With that being said, the researchers through this article try to deduce the need for incorporating a VIS in India through the various jurisprudential understandings of what it means to be a victim, including the gap between the subjective experience of the sufferer and the interpretation of the same by others, and what restorative justice would mean to heal a victim. Establishing upon the same premise of victim status, the researchers try to suggest that the introduction of VIS, with the primary purpose of it being a therapeutic tool and not an instrument of changing the course of justice, will serve to make us reconsider our contours of a ‘victim’.

From ‘Victim’ to ‘Survivor’: Deconstructing the Pervasive Notion of Victimhood in Discourses Around Programmes Dealing With Gender-Based Violence

“…It is noted that the label "victim" is used with great frequency to refer to women who have experienced GBV. Arguably, being a victim is neither simple nor straightforward (Walklate, 2017), yet it is necessary to be classified as a "victim" to get assistance from the criminal justice system (Dubey & Jain, 2020). However, there is great ambiguity attached to the label.…”

“…Within the criminal justice system, the term "victim" describes a person who has been subjected to a crime. The word serves to indicate a particular status that confers certain rights under the law (Dubey & Jain, 2020).…”

“…When someone acquires the status of being a victim, that person becomes aware of their victimisation and social acknowledgement of the victimisation. This leads to the categorisation of the victim as someone who receives the "complete and legitimate status of victim" (Christie, 1986) when he or she is affected by violence or crime (Dubey & Jain, 2020). The legislation asserts the value of the victim by the way it protects them.…”

“…The legislation asserts the value of the victim by the way it protects them. This means that identifying oneself as a victim is disempowering (Dubey & Jain, 2020), and in other ways, using the term victim can classify people to be in need of care and assistance (Weisstub, 1986). The question arises: what does the law say about those who do not conform to these prescripts of not viewing themselves as victims?…”