Purpose

Legal scholars have criticized the introduction of victim impact statement (VIS) delivery in criminal proceedings due to their potential of biasing legal decisions about guilt and sentencing. The purpose of this study was to review studies which tested the validity of this criticism.

Methods

Twenty-one databases were systematically searched to identify relevant studies. Studies were included in the review if they investigated the association between VIS delivery and legal decisions about guilt and/or sentencing and tested the significance of this association, either directly or indirectly through mediation or moderation by third factors. Data were synthesized in a narrative way using a predetermined procedure.

Results

Thirty-six studies were included in the review: thirty-one experimental studies and five criminal case file studies. Overall, these studies indicate that it is currently too early to draw any definite conclusions about the systematic impact of VIS delivery on these types of legal decisions and the mediating or moderating role of third factors. For example, the majority of the reviewed studies focused on the impact of VIS delivery on sentencing recommendations in American death penalty cases and therefore lack generalizability.

Conclusions

More research is necessary to gain a more thorough understanding of the impact of VIS delivery on legal decision making in criminal proceedings.

中文翻译：

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受害人影响陈述对刑事诉讼中法律决定的影响：跨司法管辖区和决定类型的文献的系统回顾

目的

法律学者批评在刑事诉讼中采用受害者影响陈述（VIS）的做法，因为他们有可能偏legal关于有罪和量刑的法律决定。这项研究的目的是回顾检验该批评有效性的研究。

方法

系统地搜索了21个数据库以识别相关研究。如果研究调查了VIS交付与关于有罪和/或量刑的法律决定之间的关联并直接或间接地通过调解或通过第三因素进行调节来检验这种关联的意义，则该研究包括在本综述中。使用预定程序以叙述方式合成数据。

结果

本评价包括36项研究：31项实验研究和5项刑事案件档案研究。总体而言，这些研究表明，就VIS交付对这些类型的法律决定以及第三因素的中介或调节作用的系统性影响得出任何明确的结论，目前还为时过早。例如，大多数已审查的研究集中于在美国死刑案件中，VIS交付对量刑建议的影响，因此缺乏可概括性。

结论

为了深入了解VIS交付对刑事诉讼中法律决策的影响，需要进行更多的研究。