Chief victims advisor says independent body needed to focus on crime victims' rights

December 13, 2019

Dr Kim McGregor says the system is too focused on offenders.

As sweeping changes to New Zealand’s criminal justice system were announced yesterday, the Government’s Chief Victims Advisor is pushing for victims’ rights.

Justice Minister, Andrew Little announced yesterday there will be a "comprehensive system change" as well as new specialist courts for dealing with specific offending, and changing "the environment in which justice is administered".

The changes are announced alongside two new reports released yesterday.

Dr Kim McGregor, who wrote one of the reports, Te Tangi o te Manawanui told TVNZ1’s Breakfast that victims often feel mistreated within the justice system.

“Victims said they didn’t feel safe, didn’t have enough information, enough support and their overall experience of the system was particularly negative.”

She said there is no monitoring in place for victims’ rights and support in what she calls an offender-centric system.

“The system is focused on the accountability of offenders and so police will investigate reports of crime made to them, they will be focused on interviewing the offender,” she says.

Ms McGregor says the way to address the problem is to establish an independent body to focus on victims rights.

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