Care in Collaboration: Preventing Secondary Victimisation Through a Holistic Approach to Pre-Court Sexual Violence Interventions

<p>Although men's sexual violence is well known as a problem of epidemic proportions and a cause of significant harm, effective prevention strategies have yet to be developed and the effectiveness of services for victims cannot be guaranteed. Most victims of sexual violence choose not to report, but those who do may still incur exacerbation of rape's destructive effects by those who are meant to help. Interested to know how responsiveness could be improved, I began this study by examining the literature on services for victims in order to identify the ingredients of good practice. Integrated specialist services which include support and advocacy with legal/forensic services emerged as the ideal. Finding that such systems had been positively evaluated in their real-life applications, New Zealand' s responsiveness was analysed with reference to this multi-agency model. I was particularly interested to know what supported the development of such a model and what the impediments might be to its development in New Zealand. Since literature indicated that government input was vital to implementation of specialist holistic practice, examination of New Zealand government and its Police responsiveness became the primary goal of data-gathering. With Police Districts as the units of study, data was collected from site visits and semi-structured interviews with police in each District. This data was triangulated through prolonged participant observation and interviews with medical/forensic and support/advocacy personnel. I found that specialist holistic services were regularly available for child sexual abuse victims. In contrast, for adult sexual violence victims these were rare and service gaps were rife. This was due to governance bodies failing to coordinate nationally or locally in funding and supporting service development. Explanations for this failure are found in feminist critiques of the patriarchal systems which privilege men' s needs over women's safety. I argue that with women's movement into public life and with the political will, nationally-based reform of services is now possible. Given its small size, New Zealand is particularly well-placed to achieve this reform if current governance structures are employed in constructing a national framework for nationwide development of specialist multi-agency practice.</p>

Care in Collaboration: Preventing Secondary Victimisation Through a Holistic Approach to Pre-Court Sexual Violence Interventions

<p>Although men's sexual violence is well known as a problem of epidemic proportions and a cause of significant harm, effective prevention strategies have yet to be developed and the effectiveness of services for victims cannot be guaranteed. Most victims of sexual violence choose not to report, but those who do may still incur exacerbation of rape's destructive effects by those who are meant to help. Interested to know how responsiveness could be improved, I began this study by examining the literature on services for victims in order to identify the ingredients of good practice. Integrated specialist services which include support and advocacy with legal/forensic services emerged as the ideal. Finding that such systems had been positively evaluated in their real-life applications, New Zealand' s responsiveness was analysed with reference to this multi-agency model. I was particularly interested to know what supported the development of such a model and what the impediments might be to its development in New Zealand. Since literature indicated that government input was vital to implementation of specialist holistic practice, examination of New Zealand government and its Police responsiveness became the primary goal of data-gathering. With Police Districts as the units of study, data was collected from site visits and semi-structured interviews with police in each District. This data was triangulated through prolonged participant observation and interviews with medical/forensic and support/advocacy personnel. I found that specialist holistic services were regularly available for child sexual abuse victims. In contrast, for adult sexual violence victims these were rare and service gaps were rife. This was due to governance bodies failing to coordinate nationally or locally in funding and supporting service development. Explanations for this failure are found in feminist critiques of the patriarchal systems which privilege men' s needs over women's safety. I argue that with women's movement into public life and with the political will, nationally-based reform of services is now possible. Given its small size, New Zealand is particularly well-placed to achieve this reform if current governance structures are employed in constructing a national framework for nationwide development of specialist multi-agency practice.</p>

(Preventing) Secondary Victimisation of Trafficking Victims through Law Enforcement Interventions

Secondary victimisation during criminal proceedings is a serious risk for victims of trafficking who participate in these proceedings. Psychological consequences of trafficking and pre-existing vulnerabilities make them prone to secondary victimisation. Based on empirical research among trafficking victims, stakeholders and of criminal files, the article provides insights on the psychological consequences of human trafficking and identifies a number of risk factors. These are: lack of identification, lack of safety and trust, not being believed, repetition and intensity of hearings, disrespectful treatment, lack of empathy and lack of knowledge about victim's rights. These factors are discussed and contextualised in the current discourse with the ultimate aim to provide indications on the prevention of secondary victimisation. The article unveils the discrepancy between victims' expectations towards the police to take them out of a trafficking situation, even if they decline assistance and police's perceptions on their ability to intervene only if the victim accepts assistance. This leads to the call for further research in order to answer the question to intervene or not to intervene.

THE PHENOMENON OF SECONDARY VICTIMISATION IN THE CONTEXT OF VICTIMS OF SEXUAL OFFENSES WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE CRIME OF RAPE

This article addresses the issue of secondary victimisation of victims of sexual crimes, with particular emphasis on the crime of rape. The main goal is to answer the question, why victims of rape are particularly vulnerable to experiencing this negative phenomenon. The article will also discuss selected legal measures to prevent secondary victimisation of victims of sexual crimes, as provided for by substantive criminal law and criminal procedure. The character of the article is theoretical, but it describes the problem not only from the perspective of Polish law, but also from a socio-ethical perspective.

Reporting as Risk: The Dangers of Criminal Justice for Survivors of Sexual Violence

For many victims of sexual violence, the trauma does not end with the incident itself, but may be drawn out for several months or even years. Secondary victimisation caused by conscious or non-conscious promotion of rape myths, negative stereotypes, or empathy fatigue can happen at the hands of both the public, personal relations, or sadly even those who are meant to support and protect victims. For those few victims who do engage with criminal justice, secondary victimisation poses a serious threat to their wellbeing, with the potential to negatively affect both mental health and future willingness to report crime.Sexual victimisation is seriously under-reported by both male and female victims. The social stigma attached to sexual victimisation, the trauma of police interviews, court proceedings, and medical examinations, as well as the psychological implications of victimhood, are all significant motivations to avoid reporting, especially in cases of sexual violence. The risk of experiencing this secondary trauma is so severe that some go so far as to suggest that victims may be better off not reporting their ordeals to the police at all.This chapter will firstly introduce the data on the under-reporting of sexual crimes, review current explanations and discuss the dismal prosecutorial success rates in relation to sexual violence in Scotland. It will then present evidence regarding the traumatic nature of the criminal justice system for victims of sexual violence, drawing on the academic literature including a critique of existing policy and practice, ongoing qualitative research with victims of crime in Scotland, as well as some highly publicised recent cases in the British media. Finally, the chapter will end by providing suggestions for reducing the risk of secondary victimisation and making the criminal justice system more victim friendly

Whither the Protection for Cyberstalking Victims? Some evidence from Malaysia

Cyberstalking leads to a chain of reactions such as identity theft, rape, and even murder. Despite the severe ramifications of cyberstalking, the perception of the adequacy of the law and the legal protection for victims remain ambiguous. This paper aims at examining the perception of the criminalisation of such crime, the gendered nature of such crime and the attendant legal protection for its victims. This paper adopts a qualitative methodology. The preliminary findings revealed that such crime is not considered as a gendered crime and there exists ambivalence on the perception of the crime and the legal protection of victims. Keywords: Cyber Stalking, Criminalisation, Gender, Secondary Victimisation, Victim-Blaming Mentality. eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2020. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v5iSI1.2297

The Visibility of Children Whose Mothers are Being Sentenced for Criminal Offences in the Courts of England and Wales

Set within a general understanding of the judicial interpretation of mitigation, and the development of sentencing guidelines, this article presents a study exploring the visibility of children within the sentencing process, and the way in which judges in the courts of England and Wales regard dependent children as a mitigating factor in sentencing. The findings, taken from the results of an analysis of sentencing transcripts from court cases in England and Wales, indicate that the visibility of children of defendants is increased at the initial sentencing hearing if the judge requests a pre-sentence report. In appellate decisions, the children have enhanced visibility as their limited impact on mitigation at first instance usually forms part of the grounds of appeal. There is, however, divergence on a case by case basis as to their impact on mitigation. In offences where a deterrent theory of punishment underpins the sentencing guidelines, the sentences have higher starting points and judges are less able to take the personal mitigation of the defendant’s dependent children into consideration. The discussion then considers the impact of these findings on the broader debates about the punitive impact of maternal imprisonment on children, issues of secondary victimisation, vulnerable populations and human rights.

Wykonalność ugody mediacyjnej w sprawach karnych w kontekście idei sprawiedliwości naprawczej

<p>The European Union is committed to protect and establish minimum standards with regard to victims of crime. Directive 2012/29/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime. The Directive builds upon the key principle of the ‘role of the victim in the relevant criminal justice system’, so that any victim can rely on the same basic level of rights, regardless of their nationality and country in the EU in which the crime took place. The core objective of this Directive is to assume an individual approach to victims’ needs and to offer protection for victims of certain crimes, in particular, due to the risk of secondary victimisation. In this text, I am going to concentrate on the problem of enforcement of settlements reached in the presence of a mediator and to show samples of the results from qualitative and quantitative studies conducted in Łódź. The research aim is to show that the idea of restorative justice, in the light of the victim’s right to remedy of damage, when the settlement reached in the presence of a mediator is not performed, is fiction because it is only the perpetrator who benefits from the beneficial procedural effects of the settlement while the victim may be subject to secondary victimisation. I’d like to show a few important facts that should be taken into consideration when referring a case to mediation and when conducting a restorative justice process and current practice it in Poland.</p>

Stories as property: Narrative ownership as a key concept in victims’ experiences with criminal justice

This article offers a novel approach to the difficulties experienced by victims in relation to their social surroundings in general, and to justice processes in particular, by expanding on an emerging paradigm of narrative victimology. For victims, ownership of their narrative is a key element of their experience, but this ownership is contested. The article brings together a body of victimological literature drawn from social and personality psychology, criminology and sociology to illuminate mechanisms underlying possible tensions between victims’ narratives and other perspectives on their ordeal. These tensions are relevant to understanding secondary victimisation in the criminal justice processes, as well as to understanding the strengths and weaknesses of restorative justice as a possible avenue for meeting victims’ needs.

Dogs in the criminal justice system: Consideration of facility and therapy dogs

It is known that the criminal justice process is most often perceived as a negative experience by victims, witnesses, as well as defendants. Whilst measures have been put into place across the globe to improve their experiences, there is still much more which needs to be done, especially as the process can involve secondary victimisation of those participating in it and prolonged trauma. The current opinion piece centres on the use of trained dogs to help the experiences of criminal justice system users during active cases. Whilst this practice is mostly used in North America, hints at bringing varying types of dogs into the criminal justice system are visible elsewhere, too. With the criminal justice users in mind, it is key to establish, from the offset, the positives of such service, but also be very aware of its limitations and challenges, in order for the service delivering what it aims without causing a disruption to the criminal justice process or its users. This piece provides a theoretical and practical analysis of topicssurrounding the use of specially trained dogs to support criminal justice system users with the view of highlighting our lack of knowledge on the topic and practical challenges of this service.