Effects of victim impact statements on sentencing outcomes

Victim impact statements (VIS) have become an essential component of the Canadian criminal justice system, allowing victims to participate in the judicial proceedings that follow a crime. These statements allow victims to express the personal impact of a crime, including emotional, psychological, and financial harm, at sentence hearings (Dufour et al., 2023).The research examines the effects of VIS on sentencing decisions in Canada and whether using it results in fairer or more inconsistent outcomes? How do judges, victims, and legal practitioners assess the influence of VIS on the equity and efficacy of sentencing.