Criminals should be encouraged to apologize (either in writing, verbally, or perhaps both) to the victims without expecting anything in return, much less good will from the victim or their families.

Apologies should only be given by people who actually did the wrong thing for which they are apologizing. Apologies should be allowed into courts without any restrictions, assumptions, implied meanings, etc., being connected with the apology or derived from it. The jury should interpret an apology and everything else that is presented, in any way it sees fit.

If a criminal does not wish to apologize, his/her fine should be increase slightly and they should be forced to write something meaningful to the victim or victim’s family so that the criminal will get a sense that the person or family he harmed is real. (May 13, 1999 LA Times)