Protection of Victims of Crime Abstract This diploma thesis deals with the issue of protection of victims of crime. The first chapter is focused on victimology - a branch of criminology that scientifically studies the relationship between a victim and an offender. This chapter also deals with various historical and current approaches in victimology. The partial goal of this chapter is to provide an overview of the theoretical background, which should provide the reader with a basis for understanding the position of victims, protection of victims and their role in criminal proceedings, which are discussed in the following chapters. The second chapter deals with the phenomenon of the victim of crime. This chapter analyzes the concept of the victim of crime, compares the definition of the victim in the law of the Czech Republic and in the law of the European Union. It also deals with society's response to crime, the relationship between society and the victim, and some misconceptions about the so-called ideal victim. The relationship between society and the victim can be key to the victim's willingness to report committing of crime to law enforcement authorities, so I pay close attention to it. The third chapter deals with the individual rights of victims under the Act on Victims of Crime. The aim of the work...

The topic of my thesis is Assistance to victims of crime. I have chosen this topic for its importance in our era full of violence and crime. It is an issue interesting not only for lawyers but for many other different professions and public in general. My goal was to lay out as much information as possible and talk about some problematic spots regarding the rights of victims and their position not only in the criminal procedure. The first part of my thesis is focused on brief explanation of the history and development of the relatively young science - victimology and basic terms used in victimology. Significant part of the first chapter covers analysis of one simple word "victim". The following part of this paper tries to examine individual elements of the complex assistance provided to crime victims. The third chapter discusses possibilities of financial support to the victims from the government when it is impossible to obtain reparation from the offender. Many countries, including the Czech Republic, have enacted appropriate laws and have also become signatories of the European Convention on the Compensation of Victims of Violent Crimes. The following chapter is concerned with the role of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the field of crime victim assistance and their cooperation with the...

This diploma thesis deals with the particularly vulnerable victims of crime and their protection within criminal proceedings. The situation of victim protection is one of the emerging trends in the area of criminal law and because it is a topic that has just recently been addressed by the legal order, there is a room for its assessment and an analysis of problematic areas of concerning legislation. The aim of this thesis is to clarify current legislation regarding the legal position and protection of particularly vulnerable victims of crime that is set out in Act no. 45/2013 Coll., on Victims of Crime. The text is divided into five chapters that are further divided into sub-chapters and the research was done mainly through legislation, explanatory memorandums and concerning comments, specific legal literature and legal journal articles. The first chapter is concerning the historical development, leading to the current legislation regarding the protection of victims of crime within the Czech legal order as well as the international legal order. The second chapter defines important terms for this thesis (victim and particularly vulnerable victim) as stated in the current legislation. It also shortly describes the term criminal proceedings and its specifications in the context of the legal position of...

This diploma thesis deals with the issue of protection of victims of crime. In the first chapter, by using the findings from the field of victimology, it describes victim as a phenomenon and also the process of victimisation while focusing on its causes and the negative impact it may have on victims. The author also summarizes the recent findings regarding the victims' needs. Lastly, some of the most common misconceptions about victims and their impact on the perception of victims are explained. The second chapter addresses the victim from the viewpoint of the law. Firstly, it examines the role which the EU plays in enhancing the standing of victims in the criminal procedure and also outside of it. Secondly, it examines the Act on victims of crime adopted in the Czech Republic. The Act on victims of crime and the particular rights of victims which are provided for in the Act are analysed in the second chapter with the use of the current findings in the field of victimology. The author also explains the main critiques of the Act such as the counter-productive wording of the right to receive information or a threat of corroding the criminal procedure as a whole. On the other hand, the benefits of the Act are also pointed out, such as reducing the threat of a secondary victimisation of victims, which...

Thesis (M.P.A.)--Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, 1993. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2930. Abstract precedes thesis as [3] preliminary leaves. Typescript. Includes bibliographical references.

The thesis deals with the protection of victims of crimes, especially from the point of view of the formal aspect of their guarantee. The aim of the thesis is to identify the rights of victims belonging to such persons by law, taking into account the shortcomings of the law adopted for the protection of victims and its subsequent amendment, together with the concrete implications for the status of the victim. For this purpose, the work is divided into seven chapters. The first chapter is devoted to the necessary definition of the concepts that are crucial to this work, such as the victim, the victim and the particularly vulnerable victim, as well as the determination of the basic distinguishing features between the concepts of crime victim and the victim. The second chapter deals with the legislative development of the protection of victims of crime, at international, European and Czech level. At the same time, this chapter briefly summarizes the legislative development of the adoption of the first independent law on the protection of victims in the territory of the Czech Republic. The third chapter presents the most important shortcomings of the original wording of the Act on the Protection of Victims, which have been widely criticized by the authors of the said law and which have been manifested...

Pour rendre compte des dynamiques sociales et politiques à l’œuvre au sortir d’un conflit, cette thèse prend pour objet les mémoires de la guerre de 1992-1995 en Bosnie-Herzégovine. Inspirée par la sociologie de la mémoire de Maurice Halbwachs, par la sociologie des mobilisations et par celle des relations internationales, elle se penche sur les conditions sociales de l’expression des souvenirs de la détention en camps. A partir d’entretiens et d’observations ethnographiques et grâce au dépouillement d’un large corpus d’archives écrites, cette thèse prend à bras le corps l’hypothèse selon laquelle les mémoires de la guerre seraient clivées selon des lignes ethnonationales. Elle met au jour, dès les années de guerre, un processus de politisation nationaliste des récits publics de la détention. La judiciarisation internationale de la guerre favorise paradoxalement la construction par des acteurs politiques et militants bosniens d’une figure du détenu de camp comme témoin par excellence de la nature de la guerre. Or en déplaçant le regard vers l’échelle locale, on constate les limites de la politisation des récits de la détention. En effet, le devoir de témoignage assigné aux individus y rentre en concurrence avec des normes de civilité retravaillées au quotidien. Loin de l’image d’une « guerre des mémoires » ethnonationale, cette thèse donne à voir, dans les interactions locales, l’évitement du politique et la discrétion des « témoins ». Elle invite ainsi à prendre en compte les régulations sociales locales dans une sortie de conflit que l’étude des entreprises nationalistes et des interventions internationales de construction de la paix ne suffit pas à élucider. / In order to grasp the social and political dynamics at play in the aftermath of a conflict, this research investigates the memories of the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Drawing on Halbwach’s sociology of memory, social movement theory and the sociology of international relations, it scrutinizes the social conditions for the communication of memories of war camp detention. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and on a large corpus of press archives, judicial testimonies and memoirs, this work questions the widespread view of Bosnian war memories as being divided along ethnonational lines. It first delineates a process of nationalist politicization of public narratives of detention in the 1990s. The international judiciarization of the conflict paradoxically contributed to Bosnian politicians’ and activists’ construction of camp detainees as the epitome of the war witness. However, by moving the focus of analysis to the local level, this research signals the limits of the nationalist politicization of war memories. Former camp detainees do not monolithically reproduce antagonistic interpretations of the war as a genocide or a civil war. Moreover, even though they are imposed a national “duty to testify”, individuals also negotiate with local norms of civility in their face-to-face interactions. Far from waging an ethnonational “memory war”, former camp detainees resort to everyday practices of discretion and avoidance of politicized matters. This research therefore pleads for an understanding of post-war societies that does not only focus on nationalist politics and international peacebuilding interventions, but also on war-affected local practices of civility.

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...

This diploma thesis is focused on the topic from the field of forensic psychology, mainly on the relationship between the personality of criminal offender and its reflection in the commission of crime. The theoretical part deals with the analysis of crime scene and crime scene investigation from the perspective of criminalistics with an overlap to other parts of forensic psychology. It also involves the typology of organized and disorganized offender and description of their personalities and behavior at the crime scene, specifically the issue of the characteristics of the modus operandi of murder in relation to the crime scene is classified. Attention is also paid to the forensic medical issues, injuries of the victim, from the point of view of forensic psychology. Last chapter of the theoretical part is focused on offender's personality, especially potential psychopathology. The empiric part is focused on searching for the relationships between personality variables of the offender and the way how the violent crime (murder) was committed. The research based on analysis of evidence and psychologists - experts testimony revealed particular connections and the data from the analyzed sample (of 40 crimes) refer in particular to the disorganized offender and behavior at the crime scene.

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...