Terms
This site is a writing tool, not a law firm or a victim support service. It does not give legal advice and is not a substitute for a lawyer’s advice. Your victim advocate at the prosecutor’s office can help you.
What this site does
This site asks you questions and sets your own answers out as a victim impact statement that you can read, print or change. Nobody here reads, reviews or edits what you write, because your answers never leave your device. We don’t file, send or submit anything, and we never contact the court, the prosecutor, a parole board or anyone else for you.
Not legal advice
We aren’t acting as your lawyer or your victim advocate. The questions, the gentle check and the guides are general information, not advice about your case. Courts’ rules differ: who may give a statement, the deadline, who reads it, whether you may ask for a sentence, and whether you give it under oath. Your victim advocate or the prosecutor’s office can tell you what applies in your court.
Not a private conversation
What you write here isn’t protected the way a conversation with a lawyer or a victim advocate can be. Once you hand your statement in, the judge, the lawyers and usually the defendant can read it, and it may become part of the court record.
Your words
Your statement is yours, and you are responsible for what it says. Write only what is true, and keep to what happened in this case and how it affected you. In some states, such as Florida, a victim impact statement is given under oath. What you say to the court or the parole board is usually protected by law, but the same words posted online or given to reporters may not be.
Giving your statement
Give your statement through your victim advocate, the court or the parole board’s victim office. Don’t send it to the person who did this or to their family. If a court order limits contact in your case, ask your advocate before any contact.
Who can use it
This site is for adults writing about a crime that affected them, and for parents and guardians writing for a child. If you are 13 to 17 and the crime happened to you, you can write your own statement. Before you hand it in, show it to a parent, a guardian or your victim advocate. If the person who hurt you lives with you, show it to your advocate or another adult you trust instead. Children under 13 shouldn’t use this site themselves or leave an email address.
Where it is offered
The writing tool is not offered in North Carolina or Missouri. Visitors there can still read the guides, and their victim advocate at the prosecutor’s office can help them write a statement.
Prices
Writing your statement, seeing it, the reading copy and printing from your browser cost nothing. A print-ready PDF and an editable Word file will cost $9 once; that download is not ready yet, and nothing can be bought on this site today.
Mistakes and gaps
We work to keep the questions, the gentle check and the guides accurate and the site working, but we can’t promise that they are free of mistakes, complete or right for your court, or that the site will always be available. The gentle check looks for some kinds of words and misses others. Read your statement through before you hand it in, and check anything you are unsure about with your victim advocate.
What we are responsible for
We aren’t responsible for what your statement says or for how a court or parole board uses it. Your answers live only in your browser, so we can’t bring them back if they are cleared or lost. Nothing in these terms limits any right you have under the consumer laws of your state.
Which law applies
The laws of the State of Illinois and of the United States apply to these terms, without regard to rules about conflicts of law. If you have a claim about this site, you can bring it in the courts where you live.
Changes and questions
If we change these terms, we change the date at the bottom of this page; the terms shown when you use the site are the ones that apply. To ask about these terms, write to hello@victimimpactstatement.com.
If you need support
If you need to talk to someone now, call, text or chat 988, or call or text VictimConnect at 1-855-484-2846. If you’re in danger right now, call 911.
Last updated October 30, 2026.