Sir, – In a country which fought hard for democracy, it seems incredible that our courts now seem more concerned with what could be perceived as an over-leaning towards political correctness . . . an over-interpretation of the laws, rather than the crime which has been committed.
Sentences for serious crimes, specifically crimes against the person, including vicious assaults, muggings, home and business break-ins, are serious life-changing events for most people who experience them.
These crimes often result in post-traumatic stress disorders, chronic insomnia with its damaging consquences, anxiety states, loss of earnings, personal relationship and business failure, to name but a few of the outcomes for victims of these crimes.
The perpetrators, often with a string of convictions are assigned social workers, including free legal aid and there begins a biographical picture-building of a person who was possibly denied all that is needed in childhood and adolescence to avoid criminality in his or her life, that the criminal is almost eulogised, awash with copious reasons as to why any potential punishment or incarceration should not be handed down.
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The victim is more often than not vapourised, in this system.
One must wonder what the law and law keeping of the land is really about?
It often does not appear to include the victim’s rights, rather it’s all about the perpetrator’s rights, as is played out in the courts every day. There appears no real incentive for criminals to stop doing what they do, as they confidently know in many cases brought before the courts, they will never, ever be punished.
It’s the victim who received the life-changing sentence and the criminality and its management through the courts, goes on and on. – Yours, etc,
EDEL HURLEY,
Blackrock, Co Dublin.