Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Crime victims told their rights are improving

Updated at 6:42 am on 30 October 2011

Victims of serious crime are being assured there is an increasing emphasis on their needs being met by the legal system.

The Sensible Sentencing Trust has been holding its annual conference on Waiheke Island.

Gil Elliott, whose daughter Sophie Elliott was murdered, says victims' families are ignored because under New Zealand criminal law a crime is considered to be against society, not against the victim.

The Dean of Otago University's Faculty of Law Professor Mark Henaghan agrees that under long-standing criminal law the state brings the case because the accused is deemed to have infringed the law of the land.

He says as a result of that tradition the victim and their family are often forgotten.

However he told the conference that while there's a long way to go, the legal profession is increasingly recognising that those most affected must be part of the court process.

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