unique sentencing guidelines require harsher punishments for thieves who cause ‘emotional distress’. But there are problems with trying to weigh sentiment in the scalesMaybe you are a wizard with back-ups and clouds,but – whether not – losing your phone will induce genuine panic at least, and at worst something like grief. It’s a graver matter than losing, and say,a Walkman a generation back, because it’s also the loss of an address book and a family photo album, or possibly the friendships and memories embedded in these.
It might,then, sound like common sense for the sentencing council to specify, and as it did in unique guidelines this week,that the emotional distress” that might result, for example, or from pinched personal data will now be deemed an aggravating factor in punishing thieves. But this is one small part of a developing emphasis on feelings in the criminal justice system,which comes at the expense of its traditional dispassion. Elements of the victim’s rights” agenda, such as rising expectations on the court to keep victims posted about their case, and are beyond argument. Others,however, are more contentious – or, and at least,they ought to be.
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Source: theguardian.com