This thesis deals with the topic of protection of victims of crime. The topic is quite broad therefore the main focus is at the assistance for victims of crime and forms of such assistance. The thesis is divided into three main parts which are further divided into chapters and subchapters. The first part is concerned with victimology in general. It contains four chapters. First chapter describes the science of victimology. The knowledge of basic principles of victimology is fundamental for further understanding of the topic of crime victims. Brief overview of the evolution of victimology is also mentioned. The second chapter defines the basic concepts of victimology, such as the term victim, victimity, harm and factors that influence the extent of the harm caused by a crime to the victim. The third chapter is closely focused on the process of victimization and its specific issues. It contains more detailed subchapters on primary, secondary, terciary victimization and on repeated victimization. The fourth chapter concludes this part. It is concerned with sources of information about crime victims that are available. Particularly it deals with official statistics and victimology researches and studies. The second part is contained in chapter number five and its subchapters. Its main focus is on...

The 1999 Constitution of Nigeria provides expressly for the safety and protection of the rights of citizens in general terms, including other provisions which guarantee the safety of the Nigerian people; however, the Constitution places priority on the rights of criminals over and above the rights and interests of crime victims. This position and situation has engendered public dissatisfaction with the Nigerian criminal justice systems in general and the Constitution in particular. This study has analysed the means and mechanisms available in the Nigerian legal system for crime victims’ compensation and restitution for criminal acts committed against them, and it has found that those means are different to what are obtained in other jurisdictions. The study further found that state-funded compensation for crime victims is practiced to various degrees in places like New Zealand, Great Britain, the United States of America, Canada, Australia, Germany, Finland, Colombia and the Philippines to mention but a few. The study discovered that, as it stands presently in Nigeria, there are no public compensation schemes for crime victims and that the compensation mechanisms that exist in the country which the courts award are grossly inadequate. The study also found that the Nigerian government does not see the need to establish state-funded compensation schemes for crime victims on the premise that crime victims should exercise their rights to claim compensation from the criminal offenders in delictual or tort claims. This study, therefore, argues that the extant legal frameworks in Nigeria are manifestly inadequate to provide for the needs of crime victims effectively in the aftermath of victimization and recommends the development of a system for state-funded compensation for crime victims in Nigeria building on comparative best practices and international guidelines such as the UN Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power and the Commonwealth Guidelines for the Treatment of Victims of Crime. / Thesis (LLD)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Centre for Human Rights / LLD / Unrestricted

The chosen topic for this MastersThesis is "Assistance to Victims of Crime" - primarily due to its growing social significance. Society as a whole should not turn a blind eye to the serious impact of crime, focusing only on the punishment of convicted criminals; it should also focus on assistance to those harmed and affected by crime. Criminals usually commit crimes with a strong conscious awareness of their misbehaviour, while victims have no similar expectation; for them, a criminal event is like something "out of the blue". The shocking and traumatic impact following the crime, is something unbelievable for one who never had such an experience; hence, the return back to normal life is often very difficult for victims of crime. A society which aspires to be modern and developed should make this return as easy as possible, implementing a series of measures in the field of assistance. My goal was to describe the possibilities which exist in this area but also to concentrate on the current legislation, especially on new rights being brought into practice by the new Victims of Crime Assistance Act No 45/2013 Coll. The Thesis consists of eight chapters including an Introduction and a Conclusion. The first part is dedicated to victimology, a part of criminology that comprises a scientific study focused on...

Rights of the victims of crimes and options of their employment during the criminal proceedings Abstract This master's thesis inquires into crime victims' rights, their status in the criminal proceedings and actual employability of their guaranteed rights. It contains a brief history of development of the legislative concerning the topic. My thesis comes to a conclusion that especially in the last fifty years, the status and range of crime victims' rights has been constantly improving. Crime victim is becoming less and less just a bearer of evidence of the crime and is more and more becoming an active subject of the criminal proceedings, on which they also have their interest. With the passing of the new Crime Victims' Rights Act, the Czech legal system was enriched by a wide array of victims' rights that provides special care and approach from the state and its authorities. In the heart of the new act is the victim as a target of an undeserved attack in the form of a crime and as such is entitled to help. Necessary help provided to the victim is not only specialized psychological and social assistance, but also straightforward financial help and a kind and understanding approach. One of the main goals of the Crime Victims' Rights Act is prevention and protection from the secondary victimization, which is...

The aim of my dissertation is to describe in detail the issue of victim of crime. The thesis is composed of seven chapters which include three main topics. The first three chapters create general introduction to the subject, its matter of interest, present historical overview, explain the general terms of the topic, such as victimology, damage, victimity etc., define the subject of victimology and describe the possible factors of the relation between victim and trespasser, their mutual interaction during and after the criminal act. Chapter four concentrates on the negative aftereffects created during the criminal investigation process, which is called victimization. This chapter is divided into four subsections (primary victimization, secondary victimization, tertiary victimization and revictimization). The fifth chapter focuses on assistance to the victim and ways of obtainable compensation. The chapter mainly deals with family assistance, psychological assistance and social assistance. In connection with the psychological assistance, the chapter gives a brief overview on Bílý kruh bezpečí (White Circle of Safety), its activities and work methodology. This chapter also deals with rights of victims and protection of witnesses. The chapter six describes current Czech proposal of the Act on Victim of...

<p>Syftet med uppsatsen är att göra en kritisk diskursanalys av begreppet brottsoffer i internationella, nationella och vetenskapliga dokument. Utgångspunkten i analysen är Norman Faircloughs tredimensionella modell. Analysen leder till en redovisning av brottsofferdiskursen och dess konsekvenser för samhället. De huvudsakliga slutsatserna är att brottsofferdiskursen är en del av en större diskursordning och underordnas en diskurs i vardera typen av text, internationell, nationell och vetenskaplig typ av text. Synen på brottsoffer och brottsofferdiskursen är avgörande för hur brottsoffer bemöts och vilket stöd de får. </p> / <p>The purpose of the essay is to perform a critical discourse analysis of the concept: crime victim in international, national and scientific documents. The basis of the analysis is Norman Faircloughs three-dimensional model. The analysis demonstrates the discourse of crime victims and its consequences for society. The main results are that the discourse of crime victims is part of a larger order of discourse and is subordinate to a discourse of each type of text, the international, the national and the scientific type of text. The general view of crime victim and the discourse of crime victims are decisive of the treatment of crime victims and the support they receive.</p>

2007, Swedish television, “Uppdrag granskning,” aired their story about “Louise” from Vetlanda. A drug dependent father had gotten custody of his daughter and sexually abused her from the age of 10 to 15. The local social services got several notifications about Louise suffering of negligence, and did investigate the family several times without taking any actions to protect her. At one time, father and daughter were living in his trailer placed in a gravel pit, and the police worried about her and called social services, because it was below cero degrees outside. That time the social services did not even start another investigation, and did not visit Louise in the trailer. How could that be possible? Why did not the social workers take any actions? Upon that, reportage followed a debate program in Swedish television, huge media hype in general and a street manifestation in Vetlanda. The purpose of the manifestation was to force the chiefs of the social services in Vetlanda to leave their positions. (In addition, they did) Between 2007-2009 Swedish television aired three programs about Louise (one to tell Louise’s story, one to debate how it could happened, and finally one last episode about her life today.) TV channel 8, aired one program “Adaktusson”, in witch the grandparents of Louise was welcome to tell their version of the story. They claimed that she had been living with them most of the time and that things were not as bad as they seemed in the Swedish television reportage.The aim of this report is to examine how narratives was constructed in institution’s and Media’s documentation about the child Louise, to find out how a Grand narrative can be built, and see if it is possible to get a kind of understanding for the actors by analyzing the process of storytelling.

Syftet med studien var att studera hur nyhetsrapporterande media framställer och konstruerar offer- och gärningsmannaskap i fallet Lisa Holm. Det insamlade materialet utgjordes av artiklar tillhörande två av Sveriges ledande nyhetsmedier. En kritisk diskursanalys användes genom Faircloughs tredimensionella modell för att analysera texten, den diskursiva praktiken samt den sociala praktiken. Resultatet analyserades sedan med hjälp av Christies teori om det ideala offret. Resultatet och de slutsatser som drogs visade starka indikatorer på att Lisa Holm kan erkännas en legitim offerroll och är att anse som ett idealt offer, samt att Nerijus Bilevicius till viss del innehar, enligt teorins ramverk, ett idealt gärningsmannaskap. Familj och anhöriga bar dessutom inverkan på förstärkningen av de konstruerade rollerna, främst avseende Lisa Holms offerskap. Resultatet stämmer väl överens med tidigare forskning avseende att artiklarna reproducerar diskurser om offerskap, stereotypa gärningsmän samt om gärningsmän med annan etnisk härkomst. / The aim and purpose of this study was to investigate how the newspapers portrays and constructs the victims and offenders in the case of Lisa Holm. The collected material came from articles gathered from two of Sweden’s leading newspapers. A critical discourse analysis was used through Faircloughs three-dimensional model to analyse text, discourse practice and social practice. Then the results were analysed with help of Christies theory of the ideal victim. The results and conclusions drawn showed strong indicators that Lisa Holm can be recognized as an ideal victim and that Nerijus Bilevicius to a certain degree possesses, according to the theory's framework, an ideal offender.The family and relatives, in addition, have influence over the strengtheningof the constructed roles, most importantly regarding Lisa Holm’s role as a ideal victim. The results are in line with previous research, which shows that the articles reproduce discourses about victimhood, stereotypical offenders and offenders with different ethnic backgrounds.

Syftet med studien var att studera hur nyhetsrapporterande media framställer och konstruerar offerskap och gärningsmannaskap i fallet Lisa Holm. Det insamlade materialet utgjordes av artiklar tillhörande två av Sveriges ledande nyhetsmedier. En kritisk diskursanalys användes genom Faircloughs tredimensionella modell för att analysera texten, den diskursiva praktiken samt den sociala praktiken. Resultatet analyserades sedan med hjälp av Nils Christies teori om det ideala offret. Resultatet och slutsatser som drogs visade starka indikatorer på att Lisa Holm kan erkännas en legitim offerroll och är att anse som ett idealt offer, samt att Nerijus Bilevicius till viss del innehar, enligt teorins ramverk, ett idealt gärningsmannaskap. Familj och anhöriga bar dessutom inverkan på förstärkningen av de konstruerade rollerna, främst avseende Lisa Holms offerskap. Resultaten stämmer väl överens med tidigare forskning, med avseende på att artiklarna reproducerar diskurser om offerskap, stereotypa gärningsmän samt om gärningsmän med annan etnisk härkomst. / The aim and purpose of the study was to investigate how the newspapers portrays and constructs the victims and offenders in the case of Lisa Holm. The collected material came from articles gathered from two of Sweden’s leading newspapers. A critical discourse analysis was used through Faircloughs three-dimensional model to analyse text, discourse practice and social practice. The results were analysed with help of Nils Christie's theory of the ideal victim. The results and conclusions drawn showed strong indicators that Lisa Holm can be recognized as an ideal victim and that Nerijus Bilevicius to a certain degree possesses, according to the theory's framework, an ideal offender. The family and relatives, in addition, have influence over the strengthening of the constructed roles, most importantly regarding Lisa Holm’s role as an ideal victim. The results are in line with previous research, which shows that the articles reproduce discourses about victimhood, stereotypical offenders and offenders with different ethnic backgrounds.

The thesis focuses on the assistance to crime victims, mostly in terms of Czech legislation, its compliance with the European legislation and its application in real life, it does, however, provide historical and theoretical explanation about crime victims. The thesis reflects the legislation, that is in effect at the time. The main aim of the thesis is to offer a comprehensive view on the issue of assistance to victims, to analyse and evaluate the legislation of victims' rights, especially under the Victims of Crime Act, and to assess the benefits of its first major amendment. The last goal of the thesis is to evaluate the current quality of assistance provided to crime victims. The thesis consists of five parts, in addition it also contains an introduction and a conclusion. The first part offers historical and international insight into the assistance of crime victims and details how this field has evolved over the last hundred years. It also places the issue into historical context while analysing international requirements laid down by the Council of Europe, the European Union and the United Nations. Part 2 explains legal terms "victim" and "injured party", providing a comparison of these two terms with a view toward their use in subsequent chapters of this thesis. Part 3 contains theoretical...