New Zealand's general intent of reserving imprisonment for only the most serious offenders was created in the 1985 Criminal Justice Act by two basic sentencing presumptions. Section 5 of the Act mandates that, in the absence of special circumstances, serious and repeat violent offenders are to be imprisoned; and section 6 requires that in the absence of special circumstances, most property offenders should not be imprisoned. A further distinction between serious and nonserious offenders was later drawn with the introduction in section 2 of the Act of a special category or type of offender, i.e., the serious violent offender. Under section 2, individuals convicted of one of a list of serious violent and sexual offenses and who receive a sentence of more than 2 years' imprisonment are deemed to be serious violent offenders. These offenders are to be subject to different penal conditions than other offenders; they are not eligible for early release on parole and can be subject to a minimum term of imprisonment set by the court if it regards the circumstances of the offense as exceptional. The classification as a "serious violent offender" lasts only for the duration of the qualifying sentence. In the 1980's there was an emerging concern about both the financial and emotional impact of crimes on their victims. Reparation, victim support services, and other changes resulting from New Zealand's Victims of Offenses Act of 1987 operated within the framework of the existing adversarial system, and they have done little to challenge the underlying purpose of that system or the assumptions on which it is based; however, there have been some efforts to assess the value of the restorative justice model for New Zealand, which would involve a reform of the traditional purposes and underlying assumptions of sentencing and penal practice. 29 references