The Ministry of Justice is working with New Zealand Police, Oranga Tamariki, the New Zealand Parole Board, Corrections and sector partners to look at how victims’ experience of the criminal justice system can be improved.
Over $18 million has been committed to support six victim-focused initiatives, over four years, to improve outcomes for victims. This is in addition to $8 million provided through Budget 24 to the Victim Assistance Scheme to provide financial support to victims of serious crime.
Currently, victims of youth crime do not receive independent guidance until Youth Court, when Court Victim Advisors are available. Through this initiative, victim navigators will guide and inform victims of youth crime as they participate in the Family Group Conference process.
Many court cases don’t include a Victim Impact Statement, so are missing the victims’ voice, or statements have been redacted without the victims’ knowledge. This initiative will take a different approach to how victim have a say in the justice system through trialling specialists to help victims write Victim Impact Statements that are provided to Judges.
A restorative justice process that is victim focused and provides a sexual violence restorative practice option is not currently offered to victims of sexual violence within the youth justice process. This initiative will provide victims with access to a victim-centred restorative justice process provided by sexual violence specialists.
Some victims of serious crime are not on the victim notification register, so are not automatically notified of significant events, such as when the offender is due to be considered for parole or released from prison. This initiative will seek to locate and contact victims to ask if they want to be supported to participate in the parole hearing process. The focus will be victims who are identified in relation to hearings for offenders who are serving a life imprisonment or preventive detention sentence or have been convicted of manslaughter.
The way that complaints from victims are received, processed, recorded, tracked and responded to by justice sector agencies varies. This initiative will establish a centralised victims’ team to identify and implement opportunities for improvement, by analysing complaints from across the sector, as well as build and maintain a network of justice sector stakeholders who engage with, and advocate for, victims.
Following changes made to the Victim Assistance Scheme (VAS) in November 2022 and July 2023, and increases to grants for victims of serious crime through Budget 24, an evaluation of the VAS is required. This initiative will evaluate how the scheme is performing and the impact of these changes and inform future investment decisions.
The programme includes planned legislative changes to further strengthen legal protections for victims of family violence and sexual violence. These changes address known issues within the current settings and build on the significant work to date. They will focus on three areas: strengthening protections for child victims of sexual violence; strengthening autonomy for adult victims of sexual violence: name suppression and strengthening legal framework to recognise and respond to litigation abuse.