By Tess Bartlett - Rethinking Crime and Punishment

Governments and their civil servants can be persuaded by reasonedargument supported by well researched evidence. But once a pressuregroup strays into idle speculation, and above all, inaccuracy, then allis lost.The criteria for the acceptable (liberal) pressure group, then, as detailed by Ryan(1978), emphasised the need for informed debate where there was a reliance onfactual information to advocate change. However, the Sensible Sentencing Trustemploys a different approach than that of the Howard League. The Trust opposescriminal justice elites (for example, judges and academics), using victims of crime toadvocate reform, and evidence that is in the form of anecdote and common senserather than research based facts. In this chapter it will become evident that theapproach adopted by the Sensible Sentencing Trust is markedly different from that ofthe early pressure group, but this approach has become acceptable in New Zealandsociety, thus indicating that the criterion for what constitutes pressure groupacceptability has changed.Victim Support Groups in New ZealandThe momentum with which pressure groups gained force in New Zealand at the turnof the twenty­first century was in many ways a reflection of the growth of singleissuewomen’s groups throughout the world from the 1970s (previously noted in theintroduction). At that time, the strong sense of social cohesion and solidarity that hadsupported society throughout the post­war period was diminishing. This made theintroduction of a multitude of women’s groups (see Grey, 2008) all the moresignificant to New Zealand, as individuals linked by a common identity – namely thevictimisation and oppression of women in society – joined forces to push for social,cultural and political change (Sawer & Grey, 2008). One group in particular wasWomen’s Refuge, a service developed in 1971 to confront the issue of familyviolence (Rape Crisis Dunedin, n.d: Par. 1). By 1981, the ‘National Collective ofIndependent Women’s Refuges Incorporated’ was established to further advance thecause (Rape Crisis Dunedin, n.d). Its voice was reflected in various legislativechanges made in the 1980s, one of which was the Domestic Protection Act 1982,41