The first part of the paper outlines the legislative framework in New South Wales (NSW), focusing on the position of the family victim, and contrasts this with similar legislation in other Australian jurisdictions. The link between VIS and sentencing principles is examined in Part II. Part III explores and evaluates the response of the new Supreme Court to consideration of VIS from family victims in the sentencing process. The reasoning of the leading case, R. v. Previtera, is examined and contrasted with the position in other jurisdictions. Part IV of the paper concludes that the current law in New South Wales is the preferred approach compared with other jurisdictions. The law states that VIS from family victims that deal only with the impact of the death of the deceased on the family victim will not be a relevant factor in the sentencing process. This is because a VIS from a family victim adds a dimension to the sentencing process that relates to purely personal circumstances of the family victims and not to the objective circumstances of the offense. These subjective constraints have the potential to impact sentencing in a discriminatory and unjust manner upon sentence outcomes. If a VIS from a family victim should be a factor that impacts the sentencing, the sentencing process may reflect an unacceptable valuation of human lives and result in inconsistent sentence outcomes for similarly situated offenders. 21 references and a list of cases