By Tess Bartlett - Rethinking Crime and Punishment

Support (N.Z), 2008a) 20 . But what sets Victim Support apart from contemporaryvictims’ rights advocates is the fact that they are not only focused on crime victims,they also offer continuing support for those suffering trauma from disasters and otherlife crises (Victim Support (N.Z), 2003b, 2008a). Victim Support has remained ageneric victim support agency, and, with the support of the New Zealand Police,continues to offer advice and support to victims of crime and trauma. Theorganisation operates on a non­political, non­campaigning platform, and because ofthis, has kept a relatively low public profile. In this respect they stand separated fromthe subsequent law and order pressure group Sensible Sentencing Trust thatadvocates, in a much more public manner, not only victims’ rights but also thepunishment of offenders.Introducing the Sensible Sentencing Trust: ThePressure GroupThe 1999 law and order referendum increased public awareness of victimisation andviolent crime in New Zealand. Around the same time, public attention was drawn towhat seemed to be the contrasting treatment of victim and offenders in theNew Zealand justice system. In August 1999, Mark Middleton, the former stepfatherof a murdered teenage girl, learnt that her murderer (Paul Dally) was eligible toapply for parole 21 . In a subsequent television current affairs show (indicative of thesensational style of this genre in New Zealand), Middleton stated: ‘I’ll take him if hecomes out and so will my friends and we’re organised and waiting for him’ ("Threatcould haunt stepfather," 1999). Thereafter, Middleton was convicted of threateningto kill and given a nine month suspended sentence ("How Middleton," 2001). Theguilty verdict angered members of the public, including Garth McVicar, a Napierfarmer who felt the sentence seemed to typify the way in which the priorities of thecriminal justice system were all wrong, and in particular, were slanted towards theoffender (Pratt & Clark, 2005). The judge’s decision to punish Middleton and thefact that, from his point of view, the government had still not put the 199920Since their inception, New Zealand has experienced an enormous growth in the number of VictimSupport offices throughout New Zealand, with numbers rising from just one in 1987 to 71 across thecountry in 13 districts in 2007 (Victim Support (N.Z), 2008a), and by 2008 they also received 80percent of their funding from the Crown (Victim Support (N.Z), 2008b).21Paul Dally was sentenced to life imprisonment in March 1990 and became eligible for parole inSeptember 1999. He was not granted parole on this instance and still remains in prison.44