Key words: secondary victim, personal misfortune, psychiatric injury The aim of the thesis is to analyse secondary victims in Czech and English law. In general, secondary victim is recognised as a person whose harm was caused by harm occurred to an immediate victim. However, Czech law does not provide a detailed framework as well as the interpretation of the law by judicial decisions and literature. Therefore, the purpose is to define secondary victims and scrutinize their legal rights. The thesis is divided into three parts. The first one focuses on Czech law. The purpose is to outline secondary victims in accordance with current legislation and court decisions. It presents a description of the former law serving as a useful tool for understanding the applicable law. The analysis of the section 2959 follows, constituting, in the case of death or severe injury, legal rights for persons with close ties to an immediate victim. The positive approach could be perceived as a response to a criticism towards the former legislation. The Civil Code removed fixed amounts of compensation and unified the process into a single section. Furthermore, an inability of secondary victims with close ties to receive compensation for their psychiatric injury is scrutinised. Multiple questions arise from the section 2971...

Secondary victims of traumatic violent crimes are subject to continuing the process of fighting for the loved ones they have lost. Once the offender is incarcerated, such victims may still have to face the process of parole if the offender has been granted a possibility of parole after years served. There is a gap in the literature and a need for research in the area of lived experiences for secondary victims as they progress through the parole process. For this study, a phenomenological study was utilized with 10 secondary victim participants. Participants were interviewed questions via telephone and the data were clustered and then thematically analyzed, revealing that participants had feelings of fear, depression, and being forgotten. The participants also stated a lack of aid and knowledge during the parole process and expressed their experiences of difficulty during the parole process. The study found a need for victim aid and resources. The study has positive social implication through research examining the need for victim aid and education for the criminal justice system.

This final thesis "Compensation for a non-pecuniary harm of secondary victims" deals with the issue of secondary victims. A secondary victim is defined as an injured person who suffered a non-pecuniary harm as a consequence of what happened to another person (primary victim) to which the tortfeasor caused imminent harm. I focused exclusively on secondary victims under the section 2959 of Czech Civil Code. The section 2959 of Czech Civil Code enables secondary victims to require a monetary compensation for the harm which they suffered as a consequence of a death or a serious injury of their close person (primary victim). Within the analysis of section 2959 of Czech Civil Code I described the nature of a harm suffered by the primary victim, the circle of eligible secondary victims and the quality of their harm, as well as the extent of the compensation for the harm of secondary victims. Doing so, I used the comparative method. I compared the legal regulation of the Czech Civil Code with the former Czech regulation and corresponding decisions of Czech courts. For the purposes of international comparison, each chapter includes a part of the legal situation of secondary victim (close person) under the Austrian law. The analysis showed that the new regulation under Czech Civil Code improved in general...

Thesis title: Secondary victims in law: a comparative analysis This thesis deals with the secondary victims in the Czech and German law. The aim of the paper is to analyse mentioned issue of the secondary victims, to determine mutual similarities and differences in both jurisdictions and to suggest a possible inspiration from the German law in the future also. The thesis is divided into three parts. The first part focuses on the secondary victims in the Czech Republic. The paper defines the general concept of harm, the secondary victims and their particular groups. The thesis also describes the evolution of their position with the respect to the Czech case law. The main emphasis in this chapter is put on the individual claims of secondary victims, but the paper deals with the claims for non-pecuniary damages and its limits in detail. In this context, the thesis provides a detailed interpretation of § 2959, which grants a compensation to the close persons in case of death or serious bodily injury, and of problematic § 2971 Czech Civil Code, under which the another non-pecuniary damage can be replaced to the wide range of people. The second part deals with the secondary victims in Federal Republic of Germany. Its structure is similar to that in the first chapter. The paper analyses the secondary...

The indirect victim's experience of suicide and the victimisation resulting from the incident was studied. The Indirect Victim's Experience Model of a Suicide Incident (see Figure 2.1) was designed as a theoretical framework to direct the research findings and for the interpretation of data. A qualitative exploratory approach was used and a group of 20 respondents was selected by means of purposive and snowball sampling methods. All the respondents were interviewed personally. The interpretation and analysis of the data showed that the assumptions based on Janoff-Bulman and Frieze's theory and certain societal myths regarding suicide still exist. These assumptions and myths could subconsciously have an influence on the nature and extent of the victimisation experienced by the next of kin. The respondents themselves accepted these assumptions and myths. Research findings further showed that these assumptions are affected upon receiving the news of the suicide, while myths are destroyed. This could have an influence on the victim's experience of suicide. Every indirect victim functions before, during and after the suicide incident within a specific family and social system. The way in which the indirect victim experiences the support and integration from within the family and social system, determines the acceptance or non-acceptance of the death by suicide of a significant other. This will also have an influence on the indirect victim's reintegration into society in the short and long term. The need of the indirect victim to be involved within a family and society was clearly identified during the study. These findings made it possible to make practical recommendations with regard to the indirect victim's experience of suicide. Society should be informed about the realities and results of suicide. In addition, these findings highlighted further areas for research. / Thesis (MA (Criminology))--University of Pretoria, 2004. / Social Work and Criminology / unrestricted

Violent cnme is among the most prominent distinguishing characteristics of South African society, it has a severely traumatising effect on the populations concerned. Based on research :findings and existing literature, this study explores traumatic effects of violent crime on the most intimate associate of the victim (the partner). Accordingly, this study deals with the much-neglected topic of secondary trauma, by focusing on the following aspects of or conditions associated with violent crime and the secondary victim: cognitive, emotional and relational effects the experience of trauma, loss, vulnerability, depression and acute stress. It reveals that, depending on the severity of the incident, its consequences for the partner of the victim may range from post-traumatic stress to acute stress or secondary traumatic stress. From the similar results returned for primary and secondary victims, it is apparent that in the future, both victim and supporter should have their needs addressed with equal emphasis. / Educational Studies / M.Ed. (Specialisation in Guidance and Councelling)

Violent cnme is among the most prominent distinguishing characteristics of South African society, it has a severely traumatising effect on the populations concerned. Based on research :findings and existing literature, this study explores traumatic effects of violent crime on the most intimate associate of the victim (the partner). Accordingly, this study deals with the much-neglected topic of secondary trauma, by focusing on the following aspects of or conditions associated with violent crime and the secondary victim: cognitive, emotional and relational effects the experience of trauma, loss, vulnerability, depression and acute stress. It reveals that, depending on the severity of the incident, its consequences for the partner of the victim may range from post-traumatic stress to acute stress or secondary traumatic stress. From the similar results returned for primary and secondary victims, it is apparent that in the future, both victim and supporter should have their needs addressed with equal emphasis. / Educational Studies / M.Ed. (Specialisation in Guidance and Councelling)

The aim of this thesis is to provide an insight into the topic of causation in law and to acquaint its reader with the common methods of proving the causation before courts. Among the most used methods such as the 'but for' test, this paper focuses on specific aspects of this topic which were introduced to the Czech legal system together with the adoption of the Civil Code 2014. The thesis also includes description and analysis of alternatively used methods of proving 'multiple causation' cases such as the theory of 'loss of chance' and 'pure economic loss'. Among this analysis the comparison between Czech and British legal system is used extensively. The core of this thesis is the effort to confirm or to refute the hypothesis that despite the Czech legal system does not officially recognize distinction between 'factual causation' and 'legal causation' as it is done in the British legal system, methods from both categories are actively used by Czech courts. This paper also aims to analyze whether, due to the fact that recognition between 'factual causation' and 'legal causation' is not explicitly expressed in the Czech legal system, does exist any negative or positive impact on judicial decisions. The last goal of this thesis is to demonstrate whether, similarly as in the British law, the significant number...