Concluded projects
of the Institute of Conflict Research
Supporting victims of violence during court proceedings
| Project Team: | Dr.in Birgitt Haller Mag.a Veronika Hofinger (Institute for the Sociology of Law and Criminology) Mag.a Maria Pohn-Weidinger |
| Financed by: | Federal Ministry of Justice |
| Concluded in | May 2007 |
Since January 1st, 2006 ,victims of deliberate violence have been guaranteed by law both psychosocial and legal support during the police investigation and the trial of the perpetrator. Support is provided by victim support organisations which are contract partners of the Ministry of Justice and financed by it. This kind of support has been provided since 2000, but until 2006 there existed no legal claim to any assistance. As there is a EU-wide trend to strengthen victims’ rights, the right to support is now guaranteed by Criminal Procedure Law.
The research project focuses on experiences gathered with this type of support not only by victims and victim support organisations, but also by lawyers, the police, judges and state prosecutors as well as youth welfare authorities. The system of victim support has been successfully implemented within a short period of time and is in principle accepted by all professional groups concerned.
Nevertheless, evaluation showed up some problems. For example in connection with easy access to support for everybody throughout Austria. Since institutions are concentrated in bigger towns, people living in rural areas are disadvantaged. Other disadvantaged groups are migrants (because of language problems) as well as people who are mentally ill (because there are no specialised institutions for them). Best supported are victims of sexual violence, both children and adults, and also a high number of victims of domestic violence. Victims of other forms of crime are frequently unaware of their right to support.
Often police, judges and public prosecutors were criticised by victims and victim support organisations for their lack of insight into the situation of victims and for not treating them respectfully and sensitively. It seems that especially the public prosecutors do not want to co-operate with the support organisations and that they distrust them (in other words, they do not see what the support is good for).
Networking of all institutions involved is an essential precondition for effective victim support. Without it, the victims protection cannot be guaranteed. There are many initiatives both at the federal and at the national level but what is still needed, is a stronger will to co-operate with victim support organisations on the part of police, judges and prosecutors.
