How to Write a Victim Impact Statement for Your Child

When a crime is committed against a child, the legal system recognises that a parent, guardian or carer can write a victim impact statement on their behalf. This is one of the most important things you can do to help the court, or a compensation authority, understand what your child has been through, and what it has meant for your family.

This guide is general information only and isn’t legal advice. Rules about who can write a statement for a child are different in each state and territory. For guidance specific to your situation, contact your state’s victims of crime legal service or a community legal centre.

Who Can Write a Statement for a Child

In Australia, a child who has been a victim of crime has the right to have their experience heard. Because children may not be able to write or present a statement themselves, the law allows a parent or guardian to do this on their behalf.

In most states and territories, you can write:

• A statement about the impact on your child
• A statement about the impact on you, as the child’s carer
• A combined statement covering both

Check the specific rules in your state with the court, a victims’ legal aid service, or the compensation authority handling your matter. Some states allow separate statements from each parent.

Why Your Statement Matters

A victim impact statement isn’t just a formality. For sentencing, it gives the judge a direct sense of the human cost of what happened, something that doesn’t usually come through in the evidence. For a criminal injuries compensation claim, it supports your application by setting out the harm your child has experienced in your own words, not just what’s in a medical report.

Courts and assessors can’t see what life looks like inside your home. They can’t see your child flinch at loud noises, or know they’ve stopped sleeping through the night, or that they don’t want to go to school anymore, or that your whole family has had to change how it runs around what your child needs now. Your statement is how all of that becomes part of the record.

Working Through the Questions

Before you start, it can help to read an example. Here is an example statement written by a parent on behalf of their child following Justice Draft’s questions, to give you a sense of what this can look like.

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Justice Draft’s form is built around a series of questions covering the areas that courts and compensation assessors look at most. Because you’re writing on behalf of your child, and often about yourself too, your answers can have two parts: what you’ve noticed in your child, and what’s changed for you. You don’t need to write the same amount for each. Some questions might be a few lines, others a few paragraphs, and some might not apply at all. Skip what doesn’t fit your situation. Write in plain language, in first person, as the parent or guardian. You don’t need to sound formal.

Be specific. Instead of writing ‘my child has been affected psychologically,’ try something like ‘my daughter has woken up crying three or four nights a week since this happened, and won’t go near the park where it happened.’ It’s normal for this to be hard to write. Take breaks. Come back to it over a few days if you need to.

Question 01: How you felt at the time

Start with what happened and how your child reacted in the days and weeks afterwards. What did you notice straight away? Were they frightened, withdrawn, clingy, or unusually quiet? Did their behaviour change overnight?

Write about how you felt too, getting the news, the first conversations with police or hospital staff, the early days of trying to work out what your child needed.

Question 02: Your emotional wellbeing

This is often the most important section for a child’s statement.

Describe the changes you’ve seen in your child. You might write about:

• Trouble sleeping, nightmares, or bedwetting
• Becoming withdrawn, anxious, or fearful in ways they weren’t before
• Regression, acting younger than their age
• Trouble at school with concentration or attendance
• Mood swings or changes in personality

You don’t need clinical language. Write what you’ve seen, and what your child has told you, in your own words. If your child has seen a counsellor or psychologist, or been given a diagnosis, include that here.

Then write about your own wellbeing. Has this affected your anxiety, mood, or sleep? Have you seen anyone for support?

Question 03: Your relationships

Has your child changed how they relate to other people? Have they pulled away from friends, become harder to trust, or started avoiding certain people or places?

Write about your own relationships too. Has this put strain on your relationship with your partner, your other children, or wider family? Has it changed how your household runs day to day?

Question 04: Your physical health

If your child was physically injured, describe the injury, the treatment they needed, and how their recovery has gone. Include any ongoing pain, lasting effects, or health needs that have come from this.

If you’ve had physical effects too, like exhaustion or stress related health problems, you can include that as well.

Question 05: The financial impact

This section matters a lot for compensation claims, so be specific. Include things like counselling or medical costs, school support, security measures at home, and time you’ve taken off work to care for your child or attend appointments.

Keep any receipts. They support both your statement and a compensation application.

Question 06: Your daily life and routine

Describe what’s changed day to day. Maybe your child no longer wants to go to school, or can’t sleep alone, or your family has had to rearrange routines, drop activities, or change how you do ordinary things like school drop offs or bedtime.

These small, everyday changes often say more than anything else about what your family is living with now.

Question 07: Your sense of safety

Has your child stopped feeling safe somewhere they used to, like at school, at home, or in public? Do they avoid certain places or people?

Has this changed how safe you feel as a parent, or how closely you watch over your child now?

Question 08: Your spiritual and cultural wellbeing

This question is for anyone whose faith, culture, or sense of connection has been affected by what happened.

It’s especially relevant for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families. Harm to a child can affect a family’s connection to Country, cultural obligations, and community in ways the other questions don’t cover. If this applies to your family, write about it in your own words.

If this doesn’t apply to you, skip it.

Question 09: Who you were before this happened

Describe what your child’s life looked like before this happened. What were they like? What did they enjoy? How were they doing at school, with friends, with the family?

This matters because the court needs to understand what’s changed. Without knowing what your child’s life looked like before, it’s hard to see what’s been lost.

Question 10: Anything else you want the court or assessor to know

This is your space for anything that doesn’t fit the questions above. If there’s something you want to say directly to the court, this is where it goes.

If you’ve already said everything you need to, you can leave this blank.

Can the Same Statement Be Used for Court and a Compensation Claim

Yes. One well-written statement can be used for both court sentencing and a criminal injuries compensation application. If you’re writing for court, cover the financial losses, ongoing treatment needs, and lasting impact too, so the same statement also works for a compensation claim.

If sentencing has already happened, you can still write and submit a statement as part of a compensation claim.

Getting Help

For more information on victim impact statements, we have put together a step-by-step guide, that you can access here.

You don’t have to do this alone. A support worker, counsellor, or community legal centre can help you write your statement. Your state’s Witness Assistance Service can also help with what to include and how to submit it.