Victim Status Research Articles

Comparative analysis of the status of a victim of a criminal offence in Kazakhstan, Russia, and Germany

Relevance. The relevance of the study lies in the examination of the status of a victim of a crime, the protection and enforcement of their rights, the consideration of the victim institution in different countries, in particular in the Russian Federation, the Republic of Kazakhstan, and Germany. Purpose. The purpose of the research is to examine the features of the victim's status and conduct their legal analysis in various states, to study and ensure the interests and rights of the victim, which are violated during the pre-trial investigation and trial. Methodology. The methods by which the research of the given subject is conducted include dialectical, legal, formal legal, hermeneutic, logical-legal, structural-functional, analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, etc. Results. The results of this study include the establishment of a definition of the term victim. The essence and content of the status of the victim are determined. A list of legal regulations is provided, which forms the basis for regulating the victim institution in criminal proceedings. A legal analysis of the status of the victim in different countries, specifically Russia, Kazakhstan, and Germany, is conducted. The experiences of these countries highlight both the negative and positive aspects of the regulation of this institution. Conclusions. In the course of the study, a legal analysis and comparison of the common and distinctive features inherent in the victim institution in criminal proceedings were conducted. Recommendations on the effective protection and enforcement of the rights of victims were included. The provisions enshrined in this study are of practical value to citizens and all persons whose rights may be violated by a criminal act, as well as to state bodies whose powers are aimed at ensuring the protection of the rights of crime victims. Keywords: victim's rights; enforcement; criminal proceedings; procedures; interests

Child Criminal Exploitation and the Interactional Emergence of Victim Status

Abstract This article draws on observations and interviews with youth justice practitioners and young people involved in county lines drug dealing to explore the processes by which young people are identified as victims of child criminal exploitation (CCE). The findings reveal that interpersonal interactions between practitioners and young people, specifically young people’s capacity to share information and accept intended acts of care, are vital in producing their status as CCE victims. Yet, a lack of appreciation for young people’s divergent experiences of these interactions can create barriers to their realization. The article concludes by exploring the implications of these processes for contemporary youth justice practice, and by questioning the utility of CCE victim identification as a response to children experiencing harm.

Explaining the Relationship Between Intimate Partner Violence Victimization and Human Immunodeficiency Virus Status in Transgender and Nonbinary Individuals.

Previous research has shown that human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) status and intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization are correlated. Furthermore, it has been consistently reported that transgender individuals are at an increased risk of experiencing IPV victimization and testing positive for HIV compared to cisgender individuals. However, past research examining the potential explanations for the correlation between HIV status and IPV victimization in transgender individuals using a large and inclusive sample is nonexistent. A total of 12,592 transgender and nonbinary individuals from across the United States were included in the analyses. Through a bivariate probit analysis of data from the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, this study examines potential explanations for the association between HIV and IPV victimization in a sample of transgender individuals. The results support previous research, which indicates that a transgender individual's HIV status is significantly correlated with their likelihood to experience IPV victimization. Additionally, a participant's involvement in sex work and other risk-taking behaviors, such as binge drinking, was found to, in part, explain this co-occurring relationship. Other variables, such as coercive control and prescription drug misuse, were found to correlate significantly with IPV victimization but not HIV status. The relationships between participants' demographic variables, such as their race, sexuality, sex assigned at birth, IPV victimization, and HIV status, were examined and discussed as well. We conclude that it is imperative for LGBTQ + organizations to provide services aimed at protecting transgender individuals suffering from IPV victimization who have also tested positive for HIV through increased accessibility of care and a deeper understanding of the potential relationships in which a person may be involved. This type of outreach would likely be an important first step in allowing transgender individuals to feel safer in their romantic relationships while simultaneously encouraging safe sex practices and a healthy lifestyle, which would increase overall quality of life.

Playing the Victim: Mockery, compassion, and racialization in premodern English Buffeting plays

Passion episodes such as the Buffeting are known for the powerful acts of compassion they occasioned within audiences through their performance of violence on the person of Jesus. Few critics, however, have considered that these episodes depend on antisemitic, Islamophobic, and anti-Black depictions of antagonists when engendering such emotional dispositions. By investigating the dynamics of mockery through a deeper look into the composite identities of Jesus’s antagonists, this study reveals that these plays and the communities that produced them rely on a disingenuous stance of victimhood for their effectiveness. This ‘victim play’—the collaborative community effort to claim the status of victim while simultaneously participating in the victimization of others—obscures that those who are attributed cruel acts of mockery are actually its targets. The powerful rhetorical strategies of the premodern English episodes are thus unearthed in this study.

A latent class analysis of campus sexual assault.

Campus sexual assault (CSA) is a pervasive problem among U.S. college students. Large-scale studies frequently find that between 20%-25% of women and 6%-7% of men are sexually victimized during their time at U.S. colleges and universities (Cantor et al., 2015, 2019; Fisher et al., 2000; Krebs et al., 2007; Krebs et al., 2010). The purpose of the present study is to examine individual responses to campus climate surveys in an effort to determine how students perceive their risk of being sexually assaulted and how they interact with campus policies. The present study addresses the research gap by utilizing latent class analysis with campus climate survey data in order to identify subgroups of students based on their responses to elements of campus climate. Climate in this context is measured by the perceptions of campus constituencies and the policies of institutions of higher education. Additionally, the present study seeks to determine if latent subgroups could be predicted by victimization and gender. Results provided evidence for the existence of latent subgroups of students on elements of campus climate, and supported the hypothesis that latent class membership could be predicted by victimization status and gender. Implications of the present study may help institutions of higher education identify students who would benefit from focused outreach efforts to improve safety based on class membership. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Consequences of Identity Theft Victimization: Disabilities and Mental Distress

This study contributes to the growing literature on consequences of identity theft victimization as well as the broader literature on disabilities and victimization by exploring the connection between mental distress and disability status of an identity theft victim. This study analyzes data from the 2018 iteration of the National Crime Victimization Survey Identity Theft Supplement. Specifically, through logistic regression analysis, this study examines if severe mental distress experienced by identity theft victims varies in relation to their disability status and disability type. Identity theft victims with physical disabilities and multiple forms of disabilities are more likely than individuals with no disabilities to experience severe mental distress after their identity theft victimization. Practice and research implications are discussed.

‘Life should go on’: a qualitative inquiry of parental reactions, experiences, and perceived needs following adolescents’ recent traumatic exposure

ABSTRACT Background: Parents have a significant role in supporting children who have been exposed to traumatic events. Little is known about parental experiences and needs in the wake of traumatic exposure, which could help in designing tailored early interventions. Objective: This qualitative study explored experiences, perceived needs, and factors impacting those needs being met, in parents of adolescents aged 11–16 years who had been exposed in the past 3 months to a potentially traumatic event, in the city of Montpellier, France. Method: We purposively sampled 34 parents of 25 adolescents aged 11–16 years meeting the inclusion criteria and used semi-structured in-depth interviews. Thematic analysis was applied using a multistage recursive coding process. Results: Parents lacked trauma-informed explanations to make sense of their child’s reduced functioning. They experienced stigma attached to the victim label and were reluctant to seek help. School avoidance and lack of collaboration with schools were major obstacles experienced by parents. Parents trying to navigate conflicting needs fell into two distinct categories. Those who experienced distressing levels of shame and guilt tended to avoid discussing the traumatic event with their child, pressuring them to resume life as it was before, despite this perpetuating conflictual interactions. Others adapted by revisiting their beliefs that life should go on as it was before and by trying to come up with new functional routines, which improved their relationship with their child and helped them to restore a sense of agency and hope, but at the cost of questioning their parental role. Conclusions: Key domains of parental experiences could provide potential early intervention targets, such as psychoeducation on traumatic stress, representations about recovery and the victim status, parent–child communication, and involvement of schools and primary caregivers. Further research is needed to validate the impact of these domains in early post-traumatic interventions.

Framed as (Un)Victims of Sexual Violence: An Intersectional Model

This study presents an intersectional analysis of beliefs about and experiences of Black women regarding sexual violence, using focus group and survey methods with BIPOC college students ( N = 37). Based on the analysis, we propose a theoretical model of “(un)victimization” that integrates two inequality frames – misogynoir and legal cynicism – applied to sexual assault. Specifically, this model explains the experiences of Black women survivors of sexual violence who simultaneously experience sexual victimization, are denied legitimate victim status, and have reason to distrust legal forms of justice. We theorize the process of (un)victimization enables future sexual assault of Black women.

Les distorsions cognitives des victimes : symptômes et levier thérapeutique

Cognitive distortions are mental processes that affect individuals and partially govern their relationship with the world. They manifest themselves at a very early age and are directly influenced by an individual's early life experiences, from which implicit learning about the world and oneself occurs. This acquisition is personal and biased, leading to the formation of cognitive filters that individuals reinforce in a self-perpetuating cycle. The information selected depends on these filters, and the processing of this information depends on the subject's distortions. These mental processes are present in everyone; however, certain populations, such as individuals with anxiety or depressive symptoms, victims, or those with post-traumatic stress disorder, exhibit specificities based on their life experiences. In light of the various therapeutic approaches and treatments related to the cognitive dimension, we propose a syllogistic model for understanding how victims from different social backgrounds and with a victim status perceive and confront the world. Two clinical vignettes are provided to illustrate this model. This approach is rooted in philosophy and cognitive psychopathology but is intended to be trans-theoretical and applicable regardless of the therapist's orientation.

Beyond the turn to human rights: a call for an intersectional climate justice approach

ABSTRACT Climate litigation against states is increasingly based on international human rights law. As a result, more climate cases are filed at international human rights courts and treaty bodies. Strict standing requirements pose significant hurdles, however, for individuals and communities to access such courts and treaty bodies, especially for those most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. This article argues that an intersectional perspective aids in overcoming procedural hurdles and can help international and regional human rights courts and treaty bodies to provide access to justice in climate cases, thus enforcing international human rights standards. Intersectionality unveils how climate change exacerbates pre-existing injustices and how society’s most vulnerable are structurally hit the hardest by climate change. It thus offers courts a more complete view of the impact of the climate crisis on human rights. Moreover, it illuminates how certain individuals are particularly affected by the climate crisis, aiding them in meeting standing requirements such as victim status and individual concern requirements. Examining recent cases brought on by generational groups, the article illustrates how intersectionality uncovers how the intersection of age and climate make certain generations particularly susceptible to climate change-induced human rights violations.

The Legal Status of Victims of Sexual Violence in International, European Union and Domestic Law

The study describes the concept and the legal status of the victim of sexual violence in view of the fact that the definition of victim in criminal procedure law is not the same as the broader definition of victim used in criminology at domestic or international levels. The Me Too movement drew attention to a problem in 2017 that is still waiting to be solved years later: preventing and eradicating violence against women, as well as making the role of the victims during procedure and their legal options more effective. A brief, overview categorization of this legal situation shows what emerging tendencies can be discovered in the European Union’s legislative process nowadays, and based on these, what the problematic areas are in domestic law where change is needed.

ՀԱՅԿԱԿԱՆ ՍՓՅՈՒՌՔԻ ՁԵՎԱՎՈՐՄԱՆ ՊԱՏՃԱՌՆԵՐԻ ԵՎ ՑԵՂԱՍՊԱՆՈՒԹՅԱՆ ՄԻՋԱԶԳԱՅԻՆ ԻՐԱՎԱԿԱՆ ՀԻՄՆԱՀԱՐՑԵՐԻ ՄԱՍԻՆ/ON THE CAUSES OF THE FORMATION OF THE ARMENIAN DIASPORA AND INTERNATIONAL LEGAL ISSUES OF GENOCIDE

The article is dedicated to the causes, stages and main features of the formation of the Armenian Diaspora. The author mentions that the Armenian Diaspora is one of the largest Diasporas in the world in terms of the proportion of people living in the Homeland and in the Diaspora, as 2/3 of the nation lives outside the borders of the nation state. Historically, it mainly arose as a result of the Armenian Genocide, and in Diaspora Studies it is accepted as a Diaspora with a victim status, such as the Jewish and Palestinian Diasporas. Reference is made to the legal status of the Armenian Diaspora in different states. It is registered as a constitutional community (Lebanon), a religious community (Iran), nongovernmental organization (Western Europe, America), a national minority (Eastern Europe) and so on. Reference is also made to the issues of international legal responsibility for the Armenian Genocide. The conclusion is drawn about the need to review and supplement the international law to an extent that its norms are applied on an imperative basis. If a UN member state commits a crime, violates international norms and fails to fulfill its obligations, then it should be subject to international responsibility, regardless of its natural reserves and resources. The author analyzes the three forms of reimbursement of damages caused by an international offense: restitution, compensation and satisfaction. The challenges faced by the Diaspora and the problems of preserving the national identity are discussed, ways of confronting and solutions to these problems are proposed.

Peer Victimization Trajectory and Psychosocial Maladjustment in Early Taiwanese Adolescents: A Longitudinal Study.

This study examined the peer victimization trajectory and maladjustment outcomes among early Taiwanese adolescents. Data were extracted from a large-scale longitudinal study with a national representative sample. A total of 1691 school students in 4th, 6th, and 8th grade were analyzed. Using latent profile analysis, students were classified into four trajectories, chronic victims, late onset victims, desisters, and non-victims, based on their self-reported physical and verbal victimization at three time points. Maladjustment, including psychological distress, reduced school attachment, internet addiction, and suicidal ideation in 8th grade, were assessed. The results showed significant differences in adjustment among students in the four trajectories. Chronic victims had the poorest outcomes on most variables, followed by late onset victims and desisters, while non-victims had the least maladjustment. The findings highlight the need for future interventions that would consider students' victim status over time and pay particular attention to those who suffer constant bullying and abuse.

Drawing out perceptions: Using drawing as a method to understand public perceptions of homelessness and crime

This article considers the ways in which we as a society see victims of crime, particularly those who fall into Miers’ category of ‘delinquent victims’. Focusing on homelessness in the United Kingdom, the article is critical of the ‘victim’ label, which is arguably at odds with real crime victims, yet produces the victims we do see as well as those we do not. While those experiencing homelessness suffer from heightened levels of victimisation, they are also less likely to attain victim status. The following discussion seeks to rationalise this paradox by suggesting that being seen as homeless is somehow incompatible with being seen as a victim. Given the importance of the visual, drawing is employed as a research method to understand public perceptions of homelessness and crime. The resulting visual representations are unanticipated, yet significant, and often omit the crime component entirely, instead focusing on stereotypical representations of homelessness. The article concludes by emphasising the importance of seeing and suggests directions for future research.

Online and school bullying roles: are bully-victims more vulnerable in nonsuicidal self-injury and in psychological symptoms than bullies and victims?

BackgroundBullying leads to adverse mental health outcomes and it has also been linked to nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) in community adolescents. It is not clear whether different roles of bullying (bully, victim, bully-victim) are associated with NSSI, furthermore the same associations in cyberbullying are even less investigated.MethodsThe aim of the current study was to test whether students involved in school or online bullying differed from their not involved peers and from each other in psychological symptoms (externalizing and internalizing problems) and in NSSI severity (number of episodes, number of methods). Furthermore, mediation models were tested to explore the possible role of externalizing and internalizing problems in the association of school and online bullying roles with NSSI. In our study, 1011 high school students (66.07% girls; n = 668), aged between 14 and 20 years (Mage = 16.81; SD = 1.41) participated.ResultsLifetime prevalence of at least one episode of NSSI was 41.05% (n = 415). Students involved in bullying used more methods of NSSI than not involved adolescents. In general, victim status was associated mostly with internalizing symptoms, while bully role was more strongly associated with externalizing problems. Bully-victims status was associated with both types of psychological problems, but this group did not show a significantly elevated NSSI severity compared to other bullying roles. Externalizing and internalizing problems mediated the relationship between bullying roles and NSSI with different paths at different roles, especially in case of current NSSI that happened in the previous month.ConclusionsResults highlight that students involved in bullying are more vulnerable to NSSI and to psychological symptoms compared to their peers who are not involved in bullying. It is suggested that bullying roles, especially bully-victim status, need to be identified in school and online settings and thus special attention should be addressed to them to reduce psychological symptoms and NSSI, for example by enhancing adaptive coping skills.

Problems of Teaching the Topic of the Armenian Genocide in Primary School

Key words: historical and cultural heritage, international crime, Holocaust, UN Convention, historical memory, methods of teaching The article discusses the issues of teaching the history of the Armenian Genocide in the primary schools of Armenia. The article deals with the number of methods, which have been used over the past decade, for the representation of this topic in Armenian reality. As a result of our research, we came to the conclusion that is significant to use such teaching methods that will help teachers to detach students from the status of victim. We propose to represent the heroic struggle of our people and increase the number of hours for teaching this topic. The pupil may also be assigned to conduct independent research to identify, collect, and edit story fragments of Genocide among his/her relatives. The few teaching hours allocated to the teaching of the Genocide are not enough to achieve the intended results, so we propose to increase this number of hours. Teaching this topic is important not only from the perspective of preserving and transmitting the collective memory of the peoples who have undergone genocide, but also of all mankind. As a result, the student will learn about the negative connotations of Genocide, will learn not to tolerate such incidents, no matter where they occur, and most importantly, will understand that one cannot remain indifferent to injustice committed against others.

A comparative study of the formation of doctrinal directions of the institution of legal protection of crime victims in the USA and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

The United States and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland have a long history of forming and developing legal protection of the rights of crime victims, which is based on the recognition of state responsibility for the failure to protect society from crime and provision of comprehensive support to crime victims, including compensation, benefits, medical care, social services, support of specialized public organizations. At the same time, the norms of public law regulating state compensation for harm to victims of crime are important. In fact, a study of the leading legal institutions of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which has accumulated positive regulatory and legal experience in ensuring the rights of crime victims and their legal protection, which can be perceived as legislative novelties in the Russian Federation, is indicative. The relevance of the topic is also conditioned by the social significance of the issue of legal protection of the rights of crime victims, as well as the legal reality that has developed in the Russian Federation in the field of legislative regulation of the status of victims of criminal offenses, which directly affects the right to compensation for harm caused to them.

Victim Status of Individuals in Climate Change Litigation before the ECtHR

Abstract The climate change applications currently pending before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) present substantial challenges to the status quo of the Strasbourg system, encompassing both merits and admissibility issues. Of particular concern is their compliance with the admissibility requirement outlined in Article 34 of the European Convention of Human Rights (echr), which stipulates that applicants must be victims of a violation of the Convention by a State to file a case before the Court. Given the diffuse nature of the harms stemming from climate change, identifying individuals as victims of its effects and, consequently, whose rights are allegedly infringed upon, becomes a complex task. Furthermore, establishing a direct causal link between the harm endured and the actions or omissions of a single State proves to be equally challenging. Therefore, the aim of this article is to scrutinize how this admissibility requirement might operate in the cases at hand. In particular, it argues that, albeit with some caveats, it is legally possible to consider some climate change applicants as both direct and potential victims, as per the definitions established by the case law of the ECtHR. Nevertheless, this solution could pose significant challenges to the legitimacy and efficiency of the Strasbourg system, which the Court will have to prevent when deciding these cases.

Social connectedness and adolescent suicide risk.

Despite evidence of the importance of interpersonal connectedness to our understanding of suicide risk, relatively little research has examined the protective and buffering effects of connectedness among adolescents. The aims of this study were to determine: (a) whether overall connectedness (composite of family, peer, and school) and specific domains of connectedness were related to a lower likelihood of suicide attempts, and (b) whether these factors buffer the prospective risk of suicide attempt for high-risk subgroups (i.e., recent suicidal ideation and/or lifetime history of suicide attempt, peer victimization, or sexual and gender minority status). Participants were 2,897 adolescents (64.7% biological female), ages 12 to 17 (M = 14.6, SD = 1.6), recruited in collaboration with the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) from 14 emergency departments for the Emergency Department Screen for Teens at Risk for Suicide Study (ED-STARS). Suicide risk and protective factors were assessed at baseline; 3- and 6-month follow-ups were completed (79.5% retention). Multivariable logistic regressions were conducted, adjusting for established suicide risk factors. Higher overall connectedness and, specifically, school connectedness were associated with decreased likelihood of a suicide attempt across 6 months. Overall connectedness and connectedness domains did not function as buffers for future suicide attempts among certain high-risk subgroups. The protective effect of overall connectedness was lower for youth with recent suicidal ideation or a suicide attempt history than for those without this history. Similarly, overall connectedness was protective for youth without peer victimization but not those with this history. Regarding specific domains, family connectedness was protective for youth without recent suicidal ideation or a suicide attempt history and peer connectedness was protective for youth without peer victimization but not youth with these histories. In this large and geographically diverse sample, overall and school connectedness were related prospectively to lower likelihood of suicide attempts, and connectedness was more protective for youth not in certain high-risk subgroups. Results inform preventive efforts aimed at improving youth connectedness and reducing suicide risk.

Analysis of the Severity and Cause and Effect of Occupational Accidents in South Korea

The industrial sector in South Korea has recently undergone significant growth; however, it is also known for its hazardous workplaces. Occupational accidents have had a widespread impact across various industries; therefore, the identification of accident-influencing factors is crucial to improve workplace safety. We analyzed the occupational accident database from the Ministry of Economy and Finance to examine the influencing factors, including worker information, project details, time-related variables, and accident descriptions. Exploratory and correspondence data analyses were performed to identify patterns and relationships between variables. We applied multinomial logistic models and random forest algorithms to understand the correlation between victim status and independent variables. Results showed that 67% of all accidents occurred among workers with less than one month of employment. The multinomial regression model achieved a prediction accuracy of 97.66% with a kappa value of 0.846, outperforming the random forest model (kappa = 0.844). The receiver operating curve illustrated that the random forest had higher misclassification rates when distinguishing between injuries and fatalities. To mitigate accidents among new workers, enhanced safety training and protective measures are needed to enforce a healthy workplace. This study contributes to ongoing efforts to advance workplace safety, reduce occupational accidents, and promote a healthier working environment.