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I have been looking forward to this conversation since I started recording the Taking Action series. Iain Smith has done a massive amount to try to ensure that the justice system in Scotland recognises, and takes account of, the impact of trauma on people's lives. It is challenging work as Iain is so aware of the need to support the victims of crime as well as taking account of the circumstances of the perpetrators
Iain feels that his greatest achievement since he began campaigning was the introduction of the Young Persons Sentencing Guidelines which have been operational from January 2022 onwards.
Many Law Schools now teach trauma aware law and the Law Society of Scotland run a specialist accredited course for lawyers on Trauma.
As Iain says "The raising awareness of trauma is really the start for change. Real change is created by how individuals and systems “respond” to this knowledge. That’s trickier.
The justice system rightly focus’ on victims but fails to understand the vast majority of those who perpetrate crime start off as victims. Their victimhood is too soon forgotten in our desire for retribution and punishment."
That courage to take on what is often an unpopular view - remember the response to the other David Cameron's comments when he moved away from John Major's dictum that "we need to condemn a little more, and understand a little less - is admirable. In Iain's case it is balanced with sensitivity and an awareness of the complexity of the all that the Justice System tries too achieve
