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"MORAL PANIC IN THE DOCK" (click for article)

My reply:

How very, very wrong you are, David Wilson.

First of all, before we start, let's look at the time and expense that's put into the imprisonment of an offender, compared to the time and expense that's put into helping a victim (or survivor, if we're going to be a little more proactive).

There's cost of court, legal team, judge, jury, police; then after conviction there's the expense of locking him or her up, prison staff, food, education, and everything else that goes into keeping the offender off the streets for however long his sentence is. Then there's probation, resettlement, half way houses, and all the other support the offender gets, post prison. He'll likely get some pretty good counselling during all the spare time he has to think about what he's done.

All the people that work around this offender are professionals. Some are very highly paid.

And what does the victim get? Well, there's the initial support and care from the police, but most of what the victim gets is voluntary: victim support is funded by the government, but minimally. Most of the staff are non professional people who simply care. Admirable, yes, but adequate? Certainly not.

It's well proven that victim/offender confrontation is hugely beneficial for both parties. Does that happen in the UK? Very, very rarely. And why should it be effective? Well, it's effective for a number of reasons: firstly, it gives the victim the chance to say what he or she needs to say to the person that had committed the crime against them. You might not be able to grasp this, Mr, Wilson, but that in itself is empowering for any victim.

Secondly, it enables to offender to see that his or her victim is a person, and not some object that's a source of funds or sex or whatever he or she has taken with no concern to the wronged party. Surprisingly, many offenders feel shame when confronted with what they've actually done, and the healing that can come about can certainly work both ways.

Now let's go back to that matter of empowerment for a moment, shall we? Why do you think that should matter? I mean, if the authorities, which we know to be the finest arbitrators of fairness and justice - incorruptible bastions of truth and honour that they are - are putting these nasty people in prison and punishing them, then why should any victim worry? Is that what you're saying?

Well, Mr. Wilson. The fact of the matter is that victims have lost their sense of power already, and what they want is to get it back. Why should they trust a legal, judicial and penal system that is ineffective, unjust, and corrupt as it is? Why should they trust a system that has little real regard for those that have suffered crime, but that functions merely to pander to the fears, mostly, of those who have yet to experience its horrors?

When you find yourself in a face to face conversation with a shadow home secretary whose sole purpose in attending your victim support scheme is to appear to care, and the reply from your local MP that your letter regarding the fact that rapists commonly receive absurdly short sentences whereas rape victims and their families and loved ones are changed for life can't be commented on because he finds it much easier to not actually bother to read the letter in the first place, you do tend to lose faith in the people who are paid, and therefore responsible for, the security of our nation.

People choose to take the law into their own hands for the simple reason that the law doesn't do its job properly. And, perhaps, people become offenders because the system we have now, right from the head of government, church, and legal system all the way down the line is corrupt, stupid and uncaring.

Involving victims in the process of sentencing and rehabilitating offenders is essential - for their own rehabilitation as well as that of the offenders.

And besides, they could hardly fuck things up any worse than the people that are entrusted with our so-called society right now.

Government is only interested in one thing: the disempowerment of the individual. And it's that disempowerment that's been one of the key reasons society has been breaking down of late.

Every citizen is only a victim-in-waiting, and victims are a special club that really understand what the shit is about in this world.

You need to find some respect for the victims, Mr. Wilson. And let me tell you this: each of them deserves a lot more say in what goes on in their world - more so, perhaps, than anyone else.