Absolutely. Victims have an interest in the ultimate sentence. In our current use of victim impact statements, we don't actually allow victims to speak to a sentence. Judges have decided that's not appropriate for victims to speak to a sentence. That's actually a frustrating aspect for many families.
I think one of the problems that we have in our system, though, is we don't engage victims very well throughout the process. We don't give them the information they need. We don't explain decisions, or plea bargains. Often there are really good reasons for a plea bargain. We don't take the time to do that very well. So victims will ultimately look at that sentence as this is the measurement that the system puts on the harm done. It's often not what they expect because the harm is so great. My concern is that by just focusing on that and not addressing the process issues, we're never going to meet their expectations. I see that in the U.S. all the time. We're just not going to meet that expectation. If we did a better job here, then they'd understand why. They still might not agree, and some will still ask for different sentences. And why shouldn't they? They've been harmed incredibly.