I just met with Michael O'Connell who works for the Attorney General as the Victims of Crime Co-ordinator. He gave me a 101 lesson in legal studies. I loved legal studies in year 12, but out here in the real world it's so complex. I swear they deliberately make it so complicated, so that layman can’t understand it. Michael gently explained that society can’t have every Tom, Dick, Harry and Sandra implementing his or her own justice, but in saying this, he agreed that the judicial system is out of touch and completely outdated. Lawyers still wear wigs and bow to the judge and the language of law is Latin so the average person can’t understand it. In early days, justice took the form of 'an eye for an eye' or a sequence of retaliations between victims and offenders. Later the state was introduced to the equation and over time completely overshadowed the victim. More recently the needs of victims in the courtroom process are being reviewed. Attempts are being made to re-integrate them into the legal process with programs such as Restorative Justice. Many people in the criminal justice system do not like Restorative Justice because it takes their power away and gives it back to the victims. ‘Victim’ is Michael’s word, not mine. He offers to pay for me to see a defence lawyer so I can be sure I don’t cause a mistrial, but also to give me the chance to hear from a lawyer that is independent from the Prosecution.
Written on 30 Nov 2005
Over 7 years since incident
Tags:
justice, victim
There are no comments yet.
If you log in, you will be able to add comments here.
