Victims Of Crime Research Articles

Effectiveness of prolonged exposure (PE) after implementation at a crime victim support centre

ABSTRACT Background: Recent practice guidelines strongly recommend evidence-based psychotherapies (EBPs) as the first-line treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, previous studies found barriers to the implementation of EBPs and a relatively high dropout rate in clinical settings. After proving the efficacy of prolonged exposure (PE) in Japan [Asukai, N., Saito, A., Tsuruta, N., Kishimoto, J., & Nishikawa, T. (2010). Efficacy of exposure therapy for Japanese patients with posttraumatic stress disorder due to mixed traumatic events: A randomized controlled study. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 23(6), 744–750. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.20589], we began implementing PE in a real-world clinical setting at the Victim Support Center of Tokyo (VSCT). Objective: We aimed to investigate the effectiveness and benefit of PE for crime-induced PTSD among VSCT clients and what causes dropout from treatment. Method: Of 311 adult clients who received counselling from clinical psychologists at VSCT due to violent or physical crime victimization from April 2008 through December 2019, 100 individuals received PE and participated in this study. Their PTSD symptoms were evaluated before and after treatment using the Impact of Event Scale-Revised and the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale for DSM-IV. Results: A total of 93 participants completed PE and seven dropped out after six sessions or less. The completers group improved in PTSD symptoms with significant score differences between pre- and post-treatment in IES-R and CAPS-IV. Participants’ symptoms did not exacerbate after treatment. Forty of 49 completers who left their workplace or college/school after victimization returned to work or study shortly after treatment. Compared to the completers, all dropout participants were women and younger. The majority were rape survivors, with significantly shorter intervals between victimization and treatment. The reasons for dropout were difficulty scheduling treatment between work/study schedules and manifestation of bipolar disorder or physical illness. Conclusions: PE can be implemented with significant effectiveness and a low dropout rate in a real-world clinical setting if advantages in the system and policies, local organizational context, fidelity support and patient engagement are fortified.

Community perceptions of contributors and solutions related to neighborhood violent crime: A qualitative interview study.

The current study is part of a community engaged planning phase and aimed to identify perceptions related to the prevalence of violent crime, crime contributors, the relationship between the community and law enforcement, and potential interventions and solutions. In March 2021, semistructured interviews were conducted with individuals from five groups who resided or worked in Bessemer, Alabama: (1) Law Enforcement, (2) Residents, (3) Civic Leaders, (4) Community Leaders, and (5) Victims of Crime. Interviews lasted approximately 60 min and were audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed according to the guidelines of thematic analysis using NVivo 12. Emerging themes were examined in accordance with the CDC Social-Ecological Model: A Framework for Prevention. Participants (N = 18) were 50.0% female and 77.8% African American with an age range of 25-59 (mean = 43.4 years). Themes that emerged related to crime were: (1) impact, (2) contributors, and (3) solutions. Results indicate that impacts of violent crime at the individual level focused on fear, which led to widespread mental health issues. Relationship level impacts included a lack of trust of law enforcement and neighbors, and community level impacts were decreased neighborhood social cohesion as well as decreased safety. At the societal level, the poor reputation of the city was consistently highlighted. For contributors of crime, being a youth under age 30, drugs, and money were discussed as factors at the individual level. At the relationship level, participants mentioned poor parenting and gangs as crime contributing factors to violent crime. Furthermore, contributing issues related to underresourced schools as well as a poor relationship with law enforcement were brought up at the community level. Similarly, poverty was the overarching contributing issue at the societal level. Solutions that emerged included: education and training in life skills, focusing on young people, family/parenting, conflict resolution programs, programs within schools, improved relationships with law enforcement, and inclusive economic opportunities. Intervention plans are discussed that can merge these stakeholder findings with other data sources.

The Other Side of the Coin: Individuals Diagnosed with Schizophrenia as Victims of Crime and Violence

ABSTRACT This retrospective study analyzes crimes against individuals with schizophrenia using data from 91 cases in the Supreme Court database (July 2022, keyword ‘schizophrenia’) through qualitative and quantitative methods.Most commonly violated legal interests of victims: property (33.7%), sexual integrity (19.1%), and physical integrity (15.7%). Predominant crime types include fraud (24.7%), sexual assault (18%), intentional injury (15.7%), and intentional/reckless killing (11.2%). Over half the crimes are moderately violent (65.2%), with victims mainly experiencing economic violence (36.3%). The results underscore the importance of collaboration among mental health professionals, judiciary members, and policymakers to implement a protective plan of action.

Rights of victims in criminal proceedings: challenges and state strategy for improving legal status

The article is devoted to issues of procedural regulation of the rights of victims in criminal proceedings. Based on the generalization of UN data on the increase in the number of victims of murder, statistical data of the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine and the Office of the Prosecutor General, the relevance of legislative initiatives to improve the provision and realization of victims’ rights is substantiated. The directions of state policy regarding ensuring the safety of victims, preventing and countering torture are revealed. It emphasized the “lack of remedies for victims of criminal offenses involving torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” Recommendations are given to eliminate these gaps by creating, taking into account international standards and the practice of the European Court, an effective system of rehabilitation, legal protection of victims of criminal offenses related to torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, including introduction of an effective mechanism for compensation for damage caused to such persons.
 In the conditions of martial law, Ukraine concentrates its efforts on protecting the rights of victims, which requires coordination with the Rules and Procedures of Evidence and Evidence of the International Criminal Court. The full-scale invasion of the aggressor country created new challenges in the field of protection of the rights of victims in criminal proceedings. In order to implement new tasks, a Strategic Plan for the implementation of the powers of the prosecutor’s office in the field of criminal prosecution of international crimes for 2023-2025 was developed, approved by the Prosecutor General on September 15, 2023.
 Improving the system of ensuring the rights of participants in criminal proceedings in accordance with international standards will significantly reduce the number of victims of torture, observing reasonable deadlines for the investigation of criminal proceedings will contribute to increasing the trust of victims in law enforcement agencies, preventing delays in the consideration of criminal proceedings by the court will ensure adequate terms of satisfaction (execution of the court decision in part compensation for physical, moral and material damage). A significant number of victims of war crimes should be aware of their rights in accordance with the procedure of trial by the International Criminal Court, for which it is advisable to make appropriate additions to Chapter 19 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine.

Universal international legal framework to support of victims of terrorism

The article describes the provisions of international legal acts on support and protection of the rights of victims of terrorism (UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, UN GA resolutions, Good Practices in Supporting Victims of Terrorism within the Criminal Justice Framework, The Criminal Justice Response to Support Victims of Acts of Terrorism, the Handbook of Good Practices to Support Victims’ Associations in Africa and the Middle East, Model Legislative Provisions to Support the Needs and Protect the Rights of Victims of Terrorism etc.) It is indicated that the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and its attached Action Plan provide for the establishment of national assistance systems on a voluntary basis that will take into account the needs of victims of terrorism and their families and contribute to the normalisation of their lives. It is emphasised that the UN General Assembly reviews the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy every two years, which makes it a living document linked to the priorities of member states in the fight against terrorism. In particular, in the Eighth Review of the Strategy (2023), the UN GA reaffirmed the role that victims of terrorism, including the role in disincentivising terrorism, stressing the need to promote international solidarity in support of victims of terrorism and to ensure their dignified and respectful treatment. It is pointed out that the resolutions adopted by the UN GA (72/165, 73/305) on victims of terrorism made it possible to lay a more solid foundation for intensifying the efforts of Member States to provide assistance to victims. It is emphasised the role of the UNODC in supporting victims of terrorism, under the auspices of which a number of acts have been developed containing strategies for building institutional capacity to involve victims of terrorism in investigations and prosecutions; national experience, programmes and legislation on supporting victims of terrorism are summarised. It is indicated that in 2022, the Model Legislative Provisions to Support the Needs and Protect the Rights of Victims of Terrorism were adopted, which are based on the international legal framework for victims of crimes and grave human rights violations and are intended to assist Member States in protecting the rights and addressing the needs of victims of terrorism in their national legislation.

Are rescue workers still at risk? A meta-regression analysis of the worldwide prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder and risk factors.

Rescue workers (policemen, firefighters, emergency medical staff, etc.) experience intense stress due to rescuing and helping victims of accidents, terrorist attacks, violent crimes, and natural disasters. Overexposure and ineffective coping with such stressful events may lead to developing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Meta-regression procedures were applied to examine moderators such as the sample sex composition, age, working experience, occupation, country, or type of PTSD evaluation. The 9.8% PTSD prevalence found here was virtually the same compared with earlier findings from 10years ago. There was a large heterogeneity, however, associated with geographical location and the instrument used to evaluate PTSD. The main findings revealed that rescue workers are a high-risk group with increased levels of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Moreover, PTSD prevalence could depend on a great extent on geographical and cultural factors, and on the type of PTSD evaluation.

Rights of Crimevictims: A Special Reference to Women and Children

Victims are the persons who are the sufferers of moral, physical or material damage as a result of crime. The term,’ victim’ also covers those who have close relationship with a person who died as a result of the crime.The basic principle of Torts states that there is no wrong without a remedy. The rule of lawadvocates that wrongs should not remain un redressed. Compensation is the basic right of the victim. It means amends for the loss sustained. Thus, compensation means the money or kind which is either directly given to the victim of crime or to those who have close relationship with the actual victim who have died as a result of the crime. The victims of crimehave some other rights like participation in the trial proceeding, right to appeal, right to protection etc. Inaddition to the common rights, lawhas provided some special rights to the women and children victims of crimesin considerationof their physical, mental condition and age.

Speaking Out: Graphic Narrative as Alternative Jurisdiction

Taking its cue from the recent “graphic turn” in law and humanities scholarship, this essay explores the potentially enabling possibilities of graphic literature as a site of doing justice. In particular, it connects critical work on graphic justice with recent theorisations of victims’ justice to ask whether graphic narrative(s) might provide an alternate space, or what Leigh Gilmore terms an “alternative jurisdiction,” that allows victims of international crimes and/or grave human rights violations to claim justice outside the formal bounds of law. From this perspective, the inquiry pursues two complementary aims. First, it seeks to offer new insight into the possibilities of graphic narrative to give voice to the lived experience of trauma and injustice – not just as testimony or evidence, nor as a mere humanistic gloss on the rigidly defined terrain of law, but rather as a form of justice itself. Second, it looks to present a set of fresh reflections on international law’s treatment of violent trauma, and on the sites and spaces within which victims’ justice might be effectively addressed and attained.

Social Reintegration of Victims of Human Trafficking in Indonesia

Victims of trafficking in persons are understood as Victims of crime are persons who have suffered personal or collective harm, including physical or mental injury, mental suffering, financial loss, or substantial damage to their basic rights, as a result of acts or omissions that violate applicable criminal laws and laws. That prevents criminal abuse of power. Victims of human rights crimes, namely the right to obtain restitution, medical rehabilitation, social rehabilitation, social reintegration, and refoulment. This study uses normative legal research methods with a research approach, namely the statutory approach and the legal concept analysis approach. As well as the data analysis technique used is a qualitative descriptive analysis technique. the result of the social reintegration of victims of trafficking in persons as a process of reuniting victims with their families or communities includes physical, psychological and rehabilitation protection and ensures that the reintegration process of applicable social norms can be understood by victims who wish to return to their hometowns. In the Indonesian context, especially the Social Service in Malang, victims must also ensure that they have identity cards, family cards, and other supporting data as tools for identification and a complete assessment of human trafficking victims. However, considering that human trafficking victims are vulnerable, especially in population data and administration, other identification options are needed to make integrating human trafficking victims easier.
 Keywords: Social Reintegration; Victims; Human Trafficking; Indonesia.

A systematic review of the social impact of diseases in Nordic countries.

We review the literature on the social impacts of diseases, defined as the social consequences of having a disease on the people around the patient, such as spouses, caregivers and offspring. The two objectives of this study are to summarise the social outcomes commonly associated with diseases and to compare the social impact across a range of diseases. A systematic review of the social impact of disease in Nordic countries was conducted using PubMed, PsycINFO and Google Scholar (PROSPERO registration number CRD42022291796). All articles that met the inclusion criteria were reviewed. We tabulated all outcomes and diseases studied, and synthesised the evidence based on the perspectives of patients, spouse/caregiver and offspring. A total of 135 studies met the eligibility criteria, covering 76 diseases and 39 outcomes. From the patient's perspective, diseases impact divorce and marriage rates, social functioning, likelihood of committing a crime and being a victim of crime. From the caregiver's perspective, diseases affect their health-related quality of life and physical and psychological health. From the offspring's perspective, diseases impact their development, health and social adversities in later life. Diseases generally had negative social impacts, but there were some diseases associated with positive impacts. The review provides a useful summary and gross comparison of the social impact of different diseases. The social impact of diseases can be large and significant. Thus, it should be considered when policymakers are setting priorities across disease areas.

The effect of crime on South Africans’ voting behaviour

ABSTRACT What effect does crime have on South Africans' electoral behaviour? Do crime victims and citizens who fear crime enter or exit the electoral arena? If they do vote, do they sanction the ruling African National Congress (ANC)? We use two rounds of Afrobarometer data to provide answers. We corroborate earlier findings that crime victimisation does not appear to shape electoral behaviour. Further, we find that sociotropic perceptions of crime do influence vote choice, although not always in the predicted direction. We explore who tend to be South African crime victims to cast light on these results. We find that opposition parties, specifically the Democratic Alliance (DA), have benefitted electorally from citizens' crime perceptions. We contend that the party's significant focus on crime help account for their ownership of the issue. Lastly, relative to other government performance evaluations, crime does matter, and its salience and importance have increased over time.

Advanced Cybercrime Detection: A Comprehensive Study on Supervised and Unsupervised Machine Learning Approaches Using Real-world Datasets

In the ever-evolving field of cybersecurity, sophisticated methods—which combine supervised and unsupervised approaches—are used to tackle cybercrime. Strong supervised tools include Support Vector Machines (SVM) and K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), while well-known unsupervised methods include the K-means clustering model. These techniques are used on the publicly available StatLine dataset from CBS, which is a large dataset that includes the individual attributes of one thousand crime victims. Performance analysis shows the remarkable 91% accuracy of SVM in supervised classification by examining the differences between training and testing data. K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN) models are quite good in the unsupervised arena; their accuracy in detecting criminal activity is impressive, at 79.56%. Strong assessment metrics, such as False Positive (FP), True Negative (TN), False Negative (FN), False Positive (TP), and False Alarm Rate (FAR), Detection Rate (DR), Accuracy (ACC), Recall, Precision, Specificity, Sensitivity, and Fowlkes–Mallow's scores, provide a comprehensive assessment.

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: feminism and the adaptation of true crime in the #MeToo era

ABSTRACT This article considers what Liz Garbus’s television version of Michelle McNamara’s I’ll Be Gone in the Dark (HBO, 2018) reveals about true-crime adaptation in a post #MeToo era, particularly in relation to questions of gender, authorship, and voice. With reference to Jaimie Baron’s notion of the ‘layered gaze’ (2021), Jennifer O’Meara’s research on the digital remediation of women’s voices and the ‘sonic screen’ (2022), and Lisa Coulthard’s concept of the ‘listening gaze’ (2018), it argues that the feminist force of I’ll Be Gone in the Dark derives from its strategic remediation of McNamara’s voice through digital audio clips of the deceased writer, alongside a voice-over by actress Amy Ryan, who ventriloquizes the no longer physically present McNamara. Through a careful recalibration of women’s voices, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark illustrates how, in bringing the labour of adaptation to the foreground, there is potential for true crime to be deployed for socially and emotionally restorative ends. However, the article also delves into the problematics of the series’ call to viewers to identify with the figure of the dead white woman as both true crime investigator and victim. Exploring the documentary mechanisms and strategies used by the HBO series to adapt the story of the ‘Golden State Killer’ through the voice of the dead McNamara, it concludes with some thoughts on the limitations of its white feminist approach to narrating gender-based violence, suggesting directions for future research into women’s authorship and adaptation of true crime.

Relationship between crime victims’ expression of (dis)satisfaction with the dialogue they had with perpetrators and the punishment required by the public: Examining how people judge the appropriateness of sentences

Relationship between crime victims’ expression of (dis)satisfaction with the dialogue they had with perpetrators and the punishment required by the public: Examining how people judge the appropriateness of sentences

A pragmatic randomized comparison of intensive EMDR and intensive PC for victims of crime.

The intensive therapy format offers clients the opportunity to reduce time to treatment benefit, compared with conventional weekly therapy. Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) has been identified as the most efficient of the leading trauma therapies. Progressive counting (PC) is less resource-intensive for therapists to master and may be at least as efficient as EMDR. Our objective was to evaluate and compare intensive EMDR and intensive PC. We randomized 96 treatment-seeking victims of crime to intensive EMDR or intensive PC. Participants experienced statistically and clinically significant improvements on measures of posttraumatic stress, presenting problems, level of functioning, and quality of life from pretreatment to posttreatment and follow-up, with large to very large effect sizes on all measures. There were no significant differences between EMDR on PC any outcome, including treatment efficiency, and dropout was minimal. These results support previous findings regarding the value of intensive trauma-focused therapy and indicate that PC may be comparable to EMDR in the intensive therapy format. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Meaningful interventions: Applying a citizen-centric approach to problem-solving in community policing

Abstract Citizens generally express confidence in the police organization, but satisfaction with police services can diminish after voluntary contact with an officer. It appears that officers sometimes struggle to understand what citizens expect and need from them. Victims of crime may not necessarily wish to punish an offender; they may just want to be heard and have their problem resolved. In response, the Dutch police have introduced a pilot to provide ‘meaningful interventions’, such as conflict mediation, as a way to bridge institutional and citizen perspectives successfully. This article presents a qualitative evaluation of the pilot by applying the EMMIE framework, which stands for Effect, Mechanisms, Moderators, Implementation, and Economics, to the available data. In conclusion, meaningful interventions show promise in better aligning police service delivery with the needs and expectations of citizens. Future research is necessary to gain a fuller evidence-based analysis of how meaningful interventions work.

Travel and Individual Factors in Determining the Risk of Becoming a Crime Victim while Commuting in the Jabodetabek Metropolitan Area

Travel and Individual Factors in Determining the Risk of Becoming a Crime Victim while Commuting in the Jabodetabek Metropolitan Area

Factors Affecting Control and Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse in Sri Lanka

Child abuse has evolved into a strong social problem in Sri Lanka. In addition to this, children being victims of sexual abuse has grown into a strong social problem in this country today. It is clear from the study of the statistics published regarding sexual abuse that there has not been a significant decrease in the sexual abuse of children in this country. The sexual abuse of children, especially by using them for obscene postings and publications, has grown extremely in Sri Lanka. Thus, children are faced with a lot of effects and problems due to being victims of sexual abuse. This situation has a direct impact on the development of the country. Treatment of child victims after sexual abuse and enforcement of the law against abusers incurs huge economic and service costs. However, 100% compensation cannot be made for the negative impact on the child. Because of this, a strong emphasis should be placed on identifying the factors that affect the control and prevention of children becoming victims of sexual crimes in Sri Lanka. The research problem of this study is to find out what are the causal factors that affect the control and prevention of child sexual abuse. Also, the main purpose of the research is to study the factors affecting the control and prevention of children becoming victims of sexual abuse. In this study, special attention has been given to the relationship between the victimized children and their parents, parental weaknesses that affect the victimization of abuse and what measures can be taken to control and prevent sexual abuse. Data collection was done using two samples, and structured interviews were used to collect data. According to the research results, 79% of the parents have not informed their children about the factors that influence them not to become victims of sexual abuse. 89% of the parents have accepted that some weakness in the family has affected the children to commit a sexual crime. Among these, about 51% of the father’s weaknesses have directly affected the abuse. The main suggestion is that the sexual abuse of children in this country can be controlled and prevented by implementing the law and making new laws. Also, it has been identified in this study that the family should be strengthened to control and prevent children from falling victim to sexual abuse.

U prilog snižavanja starosne granice krivične odgovornosti - drugačiji pogled na "večitu dilemu"

The journal Crimen 3/2023 published an article entitled "Lowering the age limit of criminal responsibility: an eternal dilemma?" in which the author presents arguments against this solution. The aim of this analysis is to provide the opposite arguments, in favor of lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility, so that the reader can make his judgment based on the pro and contra argumentation. Opponents of lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility (MACR) mostly refer to the argument of "accepted international standards" as well as to the humane, altruistic statement that children perpetrators of criminal offenses are most often victims of poor socio-economic conditions that "force them into crime", so that they should not be punished, but that they should be helped. In the first part of the paper are analysed international standards and MACR in European and non-European countries. We are proving that international standards regarding MACR does not exists, but MACR is different in different countries. The structure of juvenile crime in Serbia is analysed in the second part. Statistical data show that juvenile crime in recent years is increasingly violent and brutal, what confirm the thesis that MACR should be lowered. The third part of the paper deals with juveniles sanctions. They are relatively mild and do not differ much from the measures of social protection, except that they are not imposed by social services but by judicial authorities, whose authority can only act encouragingly and frighteningly on the child to stop with criminal behaviour. In this sense, we do not see that lowering the MACR would drastically "deteriorate" the position of children, except that perhaps the fear of "criminal responsibility" would deter them from committing criminal offenses. In the end, we deal with the psycho-physical (in)maturity of children starting from the premise that we should not only observe the protection and interests of the child perpetrator, but also the protection and interests of the child victims and victims in general, who feel powerless in a system in which they cannot achieve material or moral satisfaction. Statistics show that the most common victims of juvenile crime are other children, and protection of the childperpetrator in such cases means neglection of the child-victim. The law cannot and should not be only "particularly human", neither for the sake of abstract "humanity" turn an eye to concrete crimes. The issue of lowering the age of criminal responsibility below 14 should be considered because this limit was set at another time and for minors who had a completely different lifestyle and who committed mostly property crimes. Having in mind all that, we advocate that MACR should be reduced to 12 years for all or alternatively only for violent crimes, and in terms of "criminally irresponsible" children, some form of parental criminal responsibility should be introduced. Because the child, by birth itself becomes a legal subject, and the consequences of his actions or the pain inflicted on the victim cannot be attributed to "force majeure", but exclusively to their guilt or the guilt of their parents.

The right to accompaniment by a person of the victim‘s choice as a key right to avoid secondary victimisation: Exploratory qualitative research in Spain

This paper explores the right of any victim of crime to be accompanied by any person of her choice from the first contact with the authorities. This right was formally acknowledged by the 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, and replacing Council Framework Decision 2001/220/JHA (2012/29/ EU Directive), and transposed to the 2015 Law 4/2015 of 27 April 2015 on the standing of victims of crime (2015 Law 4/2015), subject to exceptions on reasoned grounds. The rationale for this right is the persistent secondary victimisation of victims in the criminal justice system and the need for a procedural justice approach. This article draws on qualitative exploratory research conducted during September, October and November 2019 in the Basque Country (Spain), based on information collected from fieldwork observation, photos, questionnaires and interviews with victims and legal professionals, as well as secondary data on a Basque Government program that offers more comprehensive professional companionship to women victims of intimate partner violence. It analyses some aspects that emerge from the implementation of this right in Spain. Finally, it concludes that, even if relevant, the specific legal inclusion of this right in the Directive should be complemented with a more responsive perspective of human rights.