November 13, 2006: Offenders Writing Memoirs

A Home Office consultation has been launched to find the best way to make sure offenders make no money from selling the stories of their crimes. The consultation, Making Sure that Crime Doesn't Pay, looks at different methods that could be used to stop criminals from profiting from the stories of their crimes after conviction.

In the past, some offenders have written books or been paid by newspapers to tell stories of their criminal exploits. Others have been paid by television or film companies for the rights to their stories. The government argues that criminals should not be able to gain financially from activities that devastate the lives of victims and their families. The proposals being considered include the following:

• making it a crime for criminals to receive money from publications for stories or information about their crimes
• introducing a new civil scheme to recover such profits (this is the government's preferred option)
• extending the self-regulatory approach that governs the press to book publishers and filmmakers

The government states that all of the proposals are aimed only at the offenders, not at independent authors or filmmakers who wish to investigate or write about crime without providing any pay to the criminals involved. Because this is a complex area - and the government states that it does not wish to interfere with the freedom of filmmakers and writers - the final plan must walk a fine line between allowing freedom of expression and the need to ensure that the system takes into account the rights and feelings of victims.

The proposals were welcomed by the group Support After Murder and Manslaughter. Spokesperson Rose Dixon said:

"It is distressing and a source of great pain to bereaved families when they realise that a convicted offender is profiting from the death of their loved one. Many bereaved families struggle financially after a traumatic death, and to know that the person who caused that death is profiting financially from writing their memoirs adds insult to a very traumatic injury."

Gillian Guy, Chief Executive of Victim Support said:

"Victims and their families will have just been through the devastating experience of the crime, and then relived it during the criminal justice process only to be further re-victimised by seeing their experiences set down in print. We believe it's wrong for criminals to capitalise on their crimes, so we welcome this consultation on criminal memoirs."

This consultation, which will run until 9 February 2007, is one of a number of measures to be introduced to rebalance the criminal justice system in favour of the victims.