What is a victim impact statement?

You can make a victim impact statement to tell the court about how the offence has affected your life. Your statement may include medical reports, photographs or drawings.

Your immediate family members can also write a victim impact statement if they want to.

It’s your choice to make a victim impact statement

You don’t have to write one. Just because you don’t make a victim impact statement, doesn’t mean the judge will assume the offence caused no impacts or harm to you.

What information can you include in your victim impact statement

Your Victim Liaison Officer can tell you how you can be supported to write a victim impact statement.

You might want to write about:

• how your life has changed since the crime was committed
• any physical or emotional injuries, and how these have affected you
• financial impact – for example, if you couldn’t go back to work or if you have had other expenses – and how this has affected you.

There are laws which say what cannot be included in a victim impact statement. The statement should focus on the impact of the offending, but not the offence itself. This is because the prosecutor’s job is to tell the judge about the offence and what happened.

If you talk about any medical conditions or diagnoses that have been caused by the offence, you might be asked to include medical reports which support them.

The prosecutor may have to remove parts of your victim impact statement. They will tell you if they have to remove parts of the victim impact statement. You should try to avoid including information about:

• details of the sexual violence itself
• details of other crimes committed by the offender, whether known to the court or not
• any medical conditions without supporting documents from a medical practitioner
• your opinion of the personal character of the defendant or what sentence they should receive
• offensive or inappropriate language.

How to provide your victim impact statement

Your victim impact statement should be in your own words, but someone can help you write it. It can be as long or short as you want it to be. You can write it as a letter to the judge but you don’t have to. You can hand write it or type it.

Once you’ve written your victim impact statement, you need to sign and date it. The investigating officer or Victim Liaison Officer will tell you when they need the victim impact statement by.

Who will see my written victim impact statement?

• The DPP lawyers or police prosecutor
• The investigating officer
• The defence lawyers and possibly the offender (offenders are allowed to see the victim impact statement)
• The judge sentencing the offender.

You can also ask to read your victim impact statement aloud in court, or ask the prosecutor to read your statement aloud on your behalf.

You should be aware that the prosecutor or judge may talk about what you have included in your victim impact statement in court. This means that people in the courtroom, including potentially media, might hear parts of your statement.

You can be supported to read your statement aloud if you want to do this. This might include:

• making sure you don’t see the offender
• reading your victim impact statement aloud from a different room from the offender
• having a support person with you.

You can find out more about how to make a victim impact statement.

FAQ: What if I am unhappy with how the DPP have handled my case or I think the wrong decision has been made?

You can make a complaint to the Director of Public Prosecutions about:

• DPP staff conduct
• How the DPP handled your case – policies, procedures or services
• A review of a decision the DPP have made about your case
• A review of a decision the Court have made about your case.

You can find more information here.

You also have rights in relation to being given information about your case and how you should be treated. More information on your rights can be found here.