Prava žrtava i EU: izazovi pružanja pomoći žrtvamaVictim's rights and the EU: the challenges for providingvictim support

First annual conference of the Victimology Society of SerbiaPrva godišnja konferencija Viktimološkog društva Srbije

11th and 12th November 2010, Belgrade11. i 12. novembar 2010. godine, Beograd

Book of AbstractsKnjiga apstrakata

Prav

a žrt

ava i

EUVictim

’s rights and the EU

First annual conference of the Victimology Society of Serbia

Victims’ rights and the EU: the challenges for providing victim support

Каталогизација у публикацијиНародна библиотека Србије, Београд

343.988(4) (048.3)343.232-058.6(4)(048.3)342.726-058.6(4)(048.3)

VIKTIMOLOŠKO društvo Srbije. Godišnja konferencija (1 ; 2010 ; Beograd) Victim’s rights and the EU : the Challenges for Providing Victim Support : Book of Abstracts / First Annual Conference of the Victimology Society of Serbia, Belgrade, 11th and 12th November 2010 ; prepared by Vesna Nikolić-Ristanović. – Beograd : Viktimološko društvo Srbije = Victimology Society of Serbia : Prometej, 2010 (Beograd : Prometej). – 73 str. ; 24 cm

Izv. stv. nasl.: Prava žrtava i EU. – Tiraž 200. – Napomene i bibliografske reference uz tekst.

ISBN 978-86-87971-13-4 (Prometej)

1. Nikolić-Ristanović, Vesna [urednik]a) Жртве – Правна заштита – Европа – Апстракти

COBISS.SR-ID 179430412

First annual conference of the Victimology Society of Serbia

Victims’ rights and the EU: the challenges for providing

victim support

Book of Abstracts

Belgrade, 11th and 12th November 2010

Publishers: © Viktimološko društvo Srbije-VDS

Victimology Society of Serbia, Beograd, Dositejeva 1a „Prometej“, Beograd, Prve pruge 43

For publishers: Prof. dr Vesna Nikolić-Ristanović;

Ing. Borivoje Ušćumlić

Cover page: Tatjana Stojković

Computer design: „Spectral“ Beograd

Published by:„Prometej“, Beograd

Program and organizing committee of the Conference:prof. dr Slobodan Savić, prof. dr Vesna Nikolić-Ristanović,

prof. dr Nevena Petrušćić, dr Ivana Stevanović, dr Sanja Ćopić and Jasmina Nikolić

Organization of the conference was financially supported by the Fund for an Open Society and the Ministry of science

and technology development of the Republic of Serbia

FOND ZA OTVORENO DRUŠTVO - SRBIJAFUND FOR AN OPEN SOCIETY - SERBIA

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PRO GRAM

Day I (11th November 2010)

9.00 – 9.30 – Registration of the participants9.30 – 10.00 – Opening of the Conference10.00-11.30 – Plenary session 1: Victims’ rights and the EU

Moderator: prof. dr Vesna Nikolić-RistanovićDr Antony Pemberton: Challenges for the development of victims’ rights: interpreting the results of project Victims in EuropeDr Magnus Lindgren: Victim support and the police reform in EU: the Swedish experienceDoc. dr Mirjana Dokmanović: International and European standards on victims of gender based violence and the compliance of Serbian legislation with themProf. dr Zorica Mršević: Judgments of the European Court for Hu-man Rights in the cases of domestic violence

11.30 – 12.00 – Coffee break and poster presentations

12.00 – 13.30 – Plenary session 2: Victims’ rights in the legal sy-stem of the Republic of Serbia

Moderator: dr Sanja ĆopićRadmila Dragičević-Dičić: Support and protection of victims in the criminal proceedings in SerbiaProf. dr Nevena Petrušić and Dr Ivana Stevanović: Legal protection of children in Serbia and international standardsDr Sanja Ćopić: Protection of victims’ rights in Serbia and the EU: an overview of the research results of the Victimology Society of Serbia

13.30 – 14.30 – Lunch break

14.30 – 16.00 – Thematic sessions

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Thematic session 1 – Victims of different forms of victimization

Moderator: prof. dr Oliver BačanovićDoc. dr Sаšа Mijаlković, doc. dr Dаrko Mаrinković and doc. dr Gorаn Bošković: Treatment of victims by the members of the security servi-ces while discovering cases of trafficking in personsDr Srđan Žikić, doc. dr Vesna Baltezarević and prof. dr Jane Paunko-vić: Mobbing – psychological violence at the working placeProf. dr Oliver Bačanović and Nataša Jovanova: School violence - victims and school reactionMr Danica Vasiljević-Prodanović: Victim – witness, prosecutor… judge?

Thematic session 2 – Assistance and support to victims and witnesses

Moderator: Slavica PekovićNikica Hamer Vidmar: Specificities of victim and witness service in the Republic of CroatiaSlavica Peković: Victims and witnesses in the proceedings for war crimesSvetlana Nikoloska: Cooperation of institutions in providing assi-stance and support to victims of sexual crimesJanko Radmanović: How can a war victim become an offender?

16.00 – 16.15 – Coffee break

16.15 – 17.45

Thematic session 3 – Violence against women and domestic violence

Moderator: mr sci. dr Bosiljka ĐikanovićMr sci. dr Bosiljka Đikanović, dr Stanislava Otašević, dr Henrica A.F.M. Jansen, prof. dr Snežana Simić, dr Sylvie Lo Fo Wong and prof. dr Toine Lagro-Janssen: Response to the violence against wo-men: creating healthcare policy based on the research resultsMarija Vasić: Victims of violence in the social welfare system and the possibilities for providing further supportNada Golubović and Minja Damjanović: Gender sensitive budgeting as a method for providing assistance for women victims of domestic violence

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Marina Mijatović: Domestic violence – criminal policy of the courts

Workshop 1 – Victim and witness support services

Facilitators: Jasmina Ilić, OEBS Mission in Serbia and Dr. Sanja Niko-lić, mr sci, Institute for mental health, BelgradeParticipants: Judges and prosecutors

Day II (12th November 2010)

9.30 – 11.00 – Plenary session 3: Challenges of victim support

Moderator: prof. dr Slobodan SavićProf. dr Nevenka Žegarac: Victim support and the reform of the so-cial welfare system in SerbiaProf. dr Vesna Nikolić-Ristanović: Challenges of supporting victims in Serbia in the context of the European integrationProf. dr Slobodan Savić and doc. dr Đorđe Alempijević: Victim sup-port and the health care system in SerbiaJasmina Ivanović: Challenges and problems of supporting child vic-tims in practice in Serbia11.00 – 11.30 – Coffee break and poster presentation11.30 – 13.00 – Plenary session 4: Victims of human rights’ violation,

international law and the EU

Moderator: doc. dr Mirjana DokmanovićMiloš Janković: Imprisoned persons as victimsDoc. dr Nina Peršak: European Criminal Law: a new locus of victimo-logical enterpriseJacek Kowalewski: The victims’ right to truth about past serious abuses of human rights in the European context: prospects of and challenges to judicial recognition of the rightMarija Mitić and Olivera Vučić: Guidelines for the use of negotiati-on and mediation techniques in solving conflicts in the situation of discrimination

13.00 – 14.00 – Lunch break

14.00 – 15.30 – Thematic sessions

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Thematic session 4 – Challenges and dilemmas in providing victim support

Moderator: doc. dr Vesna BaltezarevićNikica Hamer Vidmar: Involving volunteers in the work of the De-partment for organizing and providing support to witnesses and victimsTamara Boškić: Voluntarism or professionalization – an example of different practices in providing counseling services in the Psycholo-gical counseling of the War Trauma CenterDoc. dr Vesna Baltezarević, mr Radoslav Baltezarević, dr Srđan Žikic, prof. dr Jane Paunković: Coping with the consequences of mobbingDragan Obradović: Protection of victims of crimes against the envi-ronmentMarjan Jovanović: NGOs in supporting victims of computer crime

Workshop 2 – How do we teach victimology?

Facilitator: prof. dr Vesna Nikolić-Ristanović, Faculty of Special Edu-cation and Rehabilitation, University of Belgrade and Victimology Society of SerbiaParticipants:Prof. dr Vesna Nikolić-RistanovićDoc. dr. Nina PeršakProf. dr Slobodanka Konstantinović-VilićProf. dr Oliver Bačanović

Thematic session 5 – Child and elderly victimsModerator: Ljiljana StevkovićVanja Macanović: Child victims of domestic violence – implementa-tion of the Law on juveniles in the legal practice of the courts and prosecutors’ offices in VojvodinaOlivera Kuljić: Are (only) old people victims?Ljiljana Stevković and Jelena Dimitrijević: Victimization of elderly in the institutions and family surroundingJelena Dimitrijević and Nikola M. Petrović: Victimization and delinquen-cy: analysis of the results of self-reported delinquency study in Belgrade

16.30 – Annual Meeting of the Victimology Society of Serbia

PLENARY SESSIONS

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Plenary session 1: Victims’ rights and the EU

Challenges for the development of victims’ rights: interpreting the results of project Victims in Europe

Dr Antony PembertonInternational Victimology Institute INTERVICT (University of Tilburg, the Netherlands)

In 2001 the European Union adopted the Framework Decision on the standing of victims in the criminal procedure. This milestone in the development of victims’ rights is the first legally binding, hard law, international legal instrument in this field. The 27 member sta-tes should have implemented a rather extensive body of rights for victims of crime.

Should have, because evaluations by the European Commission in 2004 and 2008 of the progress of the Framework Decision and more recently in the project Victims in Europe, undertaken by Portu-guese victim support organization APAV and INTERVICT on behalf of Victim Support Europe in 2008 and 2009, shows that the implemen-tation of the Framework Decision has left much to be desired. Indeed as to the actual improvement of the position of victims of crime the effects of the Framework Decision or not qualitatively different from earlier, soft law, international legal instrument like the UN Declarati-on and the Council of Europe recommendations from the 1980’s.

In the presentation I will discuss some of the main findings of project Victims in Europe and the main patterns in the implemen-tation of victims’ rights that the project revealed. The development of rights appears to be contingent on the accompanying costs, the extent to which it may clash or appear to do so with other crimi-nal justice interests and the existence of a national victim’s rights champion, most often victim support. In addition the presentation

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will show that, the development of the position of victims across the European Union shows a good deal of variety and is generally speaking still rather poor. In the final section of the presentation I will consider underlying factors for these two core features – the relatively low level and variety in development -of the European victims’ rights landscape.

Victim support and the police reform in EU: the Swedish experience

Dr Magnus LindgrenTryggare Sverige (Safe Sweden) and Ombudsman for victims of crime

During the past decades the situation of crime victims has incre-asingly come into focus in the EU, partly as a result of the efforts of the women’s movement to draw attention to men’s violence against women. A number of initiatives and reforms have been im-plemented to improve victim support, protection and assistance, for example, criminal injuries compensation and provision of legal counsel. At the same time it has been emphasized that crime victim care is an important area of police work. In Sweden, the National Police Board has presented a model to how the police should par-ticipate in the provision of victim support in the local community. For example, it is very important that all police staff have a good knowledge of the typical needs and reactions of crime victims. The-re must also be a clear distribution of victim support duties and res-ponsibilities within the police authorities so that everyone knows who is responsible for what. In addition, the police authorities must have routines ensuring that crime victims are correctly treated and given relevant, accurate and ongoing information about the status of their case. Moreover, there are two basic components that must be fully functional 24 hours a day in a police authority: continuous assessments of actual or potential risks and threats to crime vic-tims, and active management of crime investigations to ensure that victims are given the support to which they are entitled. In practice,

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however, it has been difficult to translate this model into action. One reason is that police work traditionally has been focused on the apprehension of offenders, i.e. reacting to offences already co-mmitted, rather than on proactive crime prevention. As a result, the police sometimes have difficulties adopting new work methods. Another reason is that an already overworked organization, such as a police authority, may be reluctant to assume what is perceived as new, additional tasks. In such cases, it may choose to launch tempo-rary campaigns instead of pursuing more structured work aimed at bringing about lasting change in work content and methods. Thus, instead of integrating prioritized duties into everyday police work, responsibility for these duties has often been delegated to one, or a few, police officers, often people with a special interest in them.

International and European standards on victims of gender based violence and the compliance of Serbian legislation

with them

Doc. dr Mirjana DokmanovićFaculty of European Legal and Political Studies, University Singidunum and Victimology Society of Serbia

In recent years, Republic of Serbia has made some progress in terms of suppression and prosecution of sexual and gender-based violence. Adoption of antidiscrimination legislation (Law on the Su-ppression of Discrimination and the Law on Gender Equality) crea-ted a good basis for further improvement of legislation in this field, given the fact that gender-based violence is recognized as a form of discrimination against women. However, national legislation is still much more focused on penalizing violence in general, including gender-based violence in particular, then on prevention and victim protection. Therefore, new procedures in regard to the improve-ment of legislation should focus on these issues, starting from the requirements set forth in the international documents and exam-ples of the successful practices of other countries.

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The aim of this paper is to analyze the compliance of the Ser-bian legislation with the international and European standards on victims of gender-based violence and to make recommendations for improving legislation. In the first part of the paper I will present international and European standards in the filed of victims’ protec-tion contained in the documents of the United Nations, Council of Europe, the European Parliament and the recommendations of the expert forum of the EU conferences on violence against women. This will be followed by a short overview of good practices in imple-menting these standards in other countries that could serve as an example for developing new legislation in our country. In the third part, the focus will be on the overview of current legislation and an assessment of its compliance with international and European stan-dards. In the fourth part of the paper I will give recommendations for the improvement of Serbian national legislation in this field.

Judgments of the European Court for Human Rights in the cases of domestic violence

Prof. dr Zorica MrševićDeputy Ombudsman for gender equality and rights of disabled persons

Violence is as serious and not punishable as weak and inefficient state and its institutions are. In two recent judgments brought in 2009 regarding cases of domestic violence that resulted in death, Tomašić vs. Croatia and Opuz vs. Turkey, both finished with con-demning judgments for these two countries, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has taken a stand that states are responsible in cases of domestic violence for not taking appropriate actions and measures by the competent law enforcement agencies. The Court has also clearly taken the unambiguously expressed view that in cases with the death consequence, in circumstances that might lead to state responsibility, the authorities must act on their own initiative as soon as they become aware of the matter. It is im-

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portant to note that the Court concluded that inability of the state to effectively prevent gender-based violence is a form of prohibited discrimination against women. States are responsible when they fail to, with due diligence, prevent violence against women, inclu-ding violence committed by individuals, and to investigate, prose-cute and punish such violence. The striking similarity between the factual and legal circumstances of both cases with local domestic violence cases could possibly lead to similar procedures and ver-dicts of the Court against Serbia if the European Court would be correctly addressed by the authorized entities.

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Plenary session 2: Victims’ rights in the legal system of the Republic of Serbia

Support and protection of victims in the criminal proceedings in Serbia

Radmila Dragičević-DičićAppellate Court in Belgrade

In criminal proceedings the victim participates as the injured party while under special conditions the victim can also appear as a prose-cutor. The victim is one of the most important participants in the cri-minal proceedings, often the only one, and her hearing is an impor-tant part of the providing evidence. The status of the victim in the process encompasses the rights and obligations of the victim provi-ded for in the Criminal Procedure Code, which also sets the proce-dural safeguards for victims as witnesses. Procedural safeguards are applied before, during and after the criminal procedure, and intend to increase often jeopardized security of a victim and to eliminate all risks arising from the willingness of the victim to testify. The state as a signatory to many international treaties and conventions must be a guarantor for the protection of victims. In criminal proceedings, in the name of the state must be guaranteed by the police, public pro-secutor and the court. Through proper treatment of victims, which is particularly guaranteed by the international conventions for spe-cial categories of victims, necessary preconditions for strengthening the confidence of the victim in the whole criminal justice system are created and the cooperation of the victim in criminal proceedings is ensured. The police, prosecutors and the court must have staff that is able to, first of all, identify the victim, and then ensure that the hearing takes place without additional traumatizing. In this regard the Recommendation of the Council of Europe No. Rec (85) 11 from

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1985, that speaks about the importance of establishing confidence of the victim in the criminal proceeding, getting the cooperation of the victim and the need for providing protection to the victim and the victim’s family is important. Protection of victims can be provi-ded by applying the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code, the Law on the Program of Protection of Participants in the Criminal Proceedings and the direct application of international conventions, especially those concerning organized crime, human trafficking, protection of children, etc. However, the degree of the respect and assurance of victim’s rights, as well as preventing victim’s multiple victimization through criminal proceeding depend on the skills and knowledge of judges, prosecutors and the police, and therefore the-ir continuing education is required. Contrary to the rights of victims is the defendant’s right to examine the victim as a witness in a fair hearing, and to challenge the testimony of the victim through a con-tradictory process. However, the European Court of Human Rights has created a substantial case law that defines the limits of possible restrictions on the rights of the accused in favor of protecting the victim. The practice of this Court must become an integral part of our jurisprudence – it must be directly applied, which also requires continuing education of judges.

Legal protection of children in Serbia and international standards

Prof. dr Nevena PetrušićLaw Faculty, University of NišDr Ivana StevanovićInstitute for Criminological and Sociological Research in Belgrade and the Child Rights Center

In the contemporary world, the policy towards children is perce-ived as a strategic issue of social development, while its creation and implementation involves pooling of all social actors - central and local governments, regulatory authorities, civil society organi-

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zations and the private sector. Accordingly, the modern system of social protection of children must be based on a multidisciplinary and inter-sector approach, with emphasis on the continuing educa-tion of all entities participating in the system.

Legal protection of children is a central part of the system of child protection, within which particular importance is given to the mechanisms of family and criminal law protection of children. The degree of effectiveness and efficiency of these mechanisms de-pends on many factors, where the key factor is their relationship with other institutional systems of care, such as systems of social protection, health and education. In addition, the action of certain non-institutional factors is of importance, among which the non-governmental organizations and professional associations have an important role. Each part of the complex system of child protec-tion, and each institution within it, has its own place and takes its share of responsibility for the successful functioning of the system of legal protection of children.

At the end of the 20th and the beginning of 21st century, par-ticular attention was paid to establishing effective protection for child victims. High standards for the protection of child victims have been developed at both international and European level, which are more or less successfully implemented by the states through the reforms of particular parts of the legal system. In this paper, the authors have critically perceived the results of the recent reforms in domestic criminal and family law, trying to answer the question of whether and to what extent the legal provisions on child protec-tion and the protection of child victims in particular, follow the in-ternational and European standards, modern concepts and general trends. Appropriate attention is given to objective and subjective reasons of extremely rare direct application of ratified internati-onal treaties in the field of child victims’ protection, although the Serbian Constitution allows this.

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Protection of victims’ rights in Serbia and the EU: an overview of the research results of the Victimology Society of Serbia

Dr Sanja ĆopićInstitute for Criminological and Sociological Research and Victimology Society of Serbia

The trend of the gradual improvement of legal status and protecti-on of crime victims has been noticed in Serbia since the social and legal changes in 2000. Legal reforms related to the status and pro-tection of victims moved in three main directions. The first line of changes is seen in the changes of the criminal material legislation, particularly those that occurred during 2002 and 2003, which pri-marily relate to the incrimination of domestic violence, marital rape and trafficking in persons. That made a better legal basis for the protection of vulnerable victims, especially considering the type of crime and victim-offender relationship. This trend continued with the adoption of the Criminal Code in 2005, which drew out the wi-der consideration of the victim’s interests (for example, in cases of community sanctions, sentencing, etc.). Another direction of chan-ge is reflected in the reform of the criminal proceedings’ legislation, which resulted in setting the basis for a more active role of a victim in the criminal procedure and providing for a series of measures aimed at protecting victims from secondary victimization. The third direction of legal reforms is seen in the adoption of special laws, which should ensure protection of certain categories of persons such as minors, victims of organized crime, war crimes and work place abuse. In addition, gradual introduction of elements of resto-rative justice in the existing criminal justice system is visible, having a positive impact on improving the overall legal status and protec-tion of victims. All this indicates that the existing legal framework important for victims of crime greatly improved. Nevertheless, from the perspective of practice, it is noticed that the position of victims is still marginalized, disadvantaged and difficult, so they are often exposed to secondary victimization. Starting from this, the

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aim of the paper is to present the results of research carried out in 2008 and 2009 by the expert group of the Victimology Society of Serbia. The research was focused on the analysis of existing legisla-tion for victims in Serbia and its application in practice. The analysis included victims’ status and protection in criminal law and crimi-nal procedure in general, the status and protection of victims of certain types of crime (domestic violence, sexual crimes, trafficking in persons, war crimes and work place abuse), and the status and protection of child victims. The goal of the analysis was to estimate the achieved level of legal protection for victims of crime and to identify the shortages of the existing legal framework, in order to develop recommendations for further legislative reforms and im-provement of the protection of the rights of victims in Serbia. The paper will present the results of the research in regard to the status and protection of victims in criminal proceedings, the possibilities of restorative justice and the protection of victims of human traffic-king, war crimes and work place abuse.

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Plenary session 3: Challenges of victim support

Victim support and the reform of the social welfare system in Serbia

Prof. dr Nevenka ŽegaracFaculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade

An effective system of protection of victims of violence is based on harmonized responsibilities at different levels of society. Timely and reliable assistance and support to victims requires clear delegated responsibilities between the institutions and social welfare servi-ces, police, judiciary, health and education system. The social pro-tection system has the potential to be a link between other subsy-stems that deal with victims of violence. It is necessary to establish a clear link between the policy of victim protection formulated by the government in a variety of strategic documents and programs, and the adoption of appropriate laws that implement the adopted policies in a coherent way.

Strategy of the development of the social protection system promoted a commitment to development of a network of commu-nity services, intersystem planning and connecting, service stan-dards and professional conduct, training and continuous professi-onal training of employees. For the first time the system took into consideration and through legislation and project activities intro-duced urgent interventions in social welfare centers and specialized agencies and services to protect victims of violence. The Draft of the new Law on social protection elaborates and operates existing concepts, and explicitly states the special groups of beneficiaries - victims of violence in different age groups and life situations that require specialized assistance and support. Special services and forms of support for children, adults and elderly victims of vario-

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us forms of abuse and neglect, partner violence, exploitation and trafficking are provided. In addition to governmental agencies and departments in the system of social protection, organizations and associations of civil society and private agencies are included as full service providers. The plan is to license service providers and pro-fessionals involved in direct work with users.

Full implementation of the Law is possible if we provide the means to support its implementing. Means are related to guideli-nes, which support the implementation of certain parts of the Law, agreed minimum service standards, developed protocols and pro-cedures, training of professionals and funds to implement standar-ds. It is necessary to develop specific documents with clear opera-tional definitions of certain forms of abuse, neglect and violence. It is now recognized that in practice a generic definition of these phe-nomena from the Family and Criminal Law and General Protocol for the protection of children from abuse and neglect do not provide clear recognition of the status and needs of victims. Unclear defini-tions open the space for the gaps in protection and not recognition of one’s own and the role of other actors in the system of protec-tion. In addition to supporting the introduction of novelties, at the level of direct practice in social care it is important to implement mechanisms for evaluating and monitoring the quality of assistance and support provided to victims.

Challenges of supporting victims in Serbia in the context of the European integration

Prof. dr Vesna Nikolić-RistanovićFaculty for special education and rehabilitation, University of Belgrade and Victimology Society of Serbia

In the 1990s victim support organizations began to establish. The development of these organizations was not linear and was signifi-cantly influenced by various social factors. This paper aims to highli-ght the most important trends in current development of services

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for victims and to review the situation regarding the provision of assistance to victims of crime in the modern legislative, institutio-nal and wider social context.

Special attention will be devoted to victim support in the con-text of the new Law on Social Protection and the European inte-gration process, as well as the problems faced by victim support services, as well as the victim. In addition, special emphasis will be put on providing assistance to victims of gender-based violence and victims of war and the problems faced by non-governmental orga-nizations providing victim support.

Analysis of the situation and problems in providing victim su-pport will be based on the results of previous research and other available data, as well as on research conducted for this study. This research aims to obtain information about the problems NGOs that provide victim support in Serbia are facing with. The data were co-llected by the mail questionnaires sent to different NGOs.

Victim support and the health care system in Serbia

Prof. dr Slobodan SavićSchool of Medicine, University of BelgradeDoc. dr Đorđe AlempijevićInstitute for forensic medicine, School of Medicine, University of Belgrade

In the health care system in Serbia providing assistance refers pri-marily to the victims of different types of crimes that resulted in bodily injuries, most notably those arising from various forms of vi-olence (crimes against life and body, freedom, human rights, sexual freedom, and marriage and families). The main form of victim sup-port is the provision of medical services at primary, secondary and tertiary health care levels in cases where there is a need for infir-mary or hospital care of bodily injuries and the protection of men-tal health, which is regulated in details by the Law on Health Protec-tion of the Republic of Serbia. Another form of providing assistance

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to victims who suffered bodily injuries is related to the provision of medical evidence of bodily injuries, which are often crucial for the appropriate criminal justice sanctions and a possible review of such criminal acts in the civil court procedures. Medical evidence can be provided only by a complete and properly performed physical exa-mination of the victim (so-called clinical forensic examination) and the proper management of medical records of the diagnosed inju-ries. In addition to the foregoing, victim support consists in repor-ting crimes to the authorities and institutions (police, social work centers, etc.) for which the health workers learn in the course of performing their professional duties. Previous practice has shown that in our system of health care the quality of medical care for the victims by far exceeds the quality of the collection of medical evidence of physical injuries. Specifically, medical examinations are often performed inappropriately and medical records led by the „healing“ doctors is by rule insufficient and therefore completely useless in the court procedure as a means of forensic evidence on the number, type and severity of injuries and their causes. There-fore, it often happens that because of the bad medical records, the offender is not properly sanctioned, and the victim remains unpro-tected. This is especially true for victims of rape and other crimes against sexual freedom. Poor quality of medical documentation in our health care system is caused by excessive demands from health workers for a large amount of work and a consequent lack of time for proper registration and documentation of physical injuries on the one hand, and inadequate training of health workers for this type of medical activity and the lack of appropriate protocols for the examination of these patients on the other. The above facts clearly indicate the possible ways of solving the problems detec-ted to date in the adequate protection of victims in the health care system. One way is certainly a better and continuing education of doctors and other health care professionals in the field of clinical forensic medicine, both during the studies and in the postgraduate teaching.

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Challenges and problems of supporting child victims in practice in Serbia

Jasmina IvanovićMinistry of Labor and Social Policy of Serbia

Violence, abuse and neglecting are some of the worst forms of vi-olations of fundamental human rights of children. Violence seriou-sly threatens development, welfare, and the very life of the child, and the consequences are often severe and long lasting. The right to protection from all forms of violence is a basic right for every child set forth in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and ot-her documents of the United Nations, Council of Europe and other international organizations, which has been ratified by our country as a member state to these organizations. In the Republic of Serbia a relatively complete system of protection of children from all forms of violence was recently established, which framework is defined by laws, a number of strategic documents and policies in the area of social and health care, education, judiciary, police and civil society. In addition to the General Protocol for the protection of children from abuse and neglect, all the associated special protocols of these systems have also been adopted, which further oblige all the partici-pants in the process of protection of child victims of violence.

Challenges for future work are reflected in operationalization of the adopted strategic documents and the application of esta-blished mechanisms for the protection of children from violence, consistent application of legal provisions, and providing timely assistance, care and support to child victims, but also to child per-petrators of violence. Reducing risk factors in society, family and environment of the child place the focus on strengthening the role of communities in prevention and protection of children from all forms of violence. Recognizing and reporting violence present the first step in protecting the child, so it is essential that the public, especially professionals are aware and trained to protect children from violence.

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The entire course of care for children includes the activities of various organizations, institutions and state agencies. At certain stages of this process, problems that have an influence on the exer-cise of their defined roles and responsibilities can be perceived. It is important that professionals use all the available options within their systems to ensure coherence and mutual cooperation in pre-vention, as well as in the process of protection from all forms of violence, and rehabilitation of child victims. Building of a multidisci-plinary model of protection involves the fulfillment of obligations of all the parties (agencies and individuals) that have complementary roles in the protection of child victims of violence, the implementa-tion of standards, protocols and procedures in each case.

Insufficiently developed multi-sector network for the protec-tion of children from violence, uncoordinated mutual cooperation between different systems responsible for their protection, and, on the other hand, the lack of community services aimed at children and their families, represent the primary field for further work. Also, the under-developed information system to collect data on violence against children, lack of protocols for documentation of violence and undeveloped reporting procedures, training of profe-ssionals in all relevant systems of society, and further development of preventive, protective, rehabilitative and punitive measures are some of the most important challenges in the future.

The new Law on Social Protection and the National Plan of Ac-tion for Children (2011-2015), which are expected to be adopted by the end of 2010, will ensure adequate protection of particular groups of children at risk, while the development and improvement of the quality of community services should provide a long-term fulfillment of the obligations of society towards child victims of vio-lence in the Republic of Serbia.

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Plenary session 4: Victims of human rights’ violation, international law and the EU

Imprisoned persons as victims

Miloš JankovićDeputy Ombudsman for the protection of the rights of imprisoned persons

The term ‘prisoners’ traditionally includes persons convicted and punished for criminal offences or misdemeanors that are impriso-ned and are serving their sentences, as well as the arrested and detained persons. However, the circle of these persons is expanded to all other persons who are, because of health, financial status or other circumstances, forced to stay, or by an act of the government detained in social, health or other residential institutions.

Despite being deprived of their liberty, such persons have a number of rights and freedoms that are not and can not be taken away. Regardless of their possible or proved guilt, disease, the de-gree of disability or other characteristic, the state is obliged to res-pect the integrity and dignity of such persons. Precisely because of the authority exercised upon them, the state is obliged to protect the full capacity of all their inalienable rights.

In order to prevent occurrence of torture, a number of inter-national treaties were brought, in which the persons deprived of liberty are identified as the primary victims of torture. The most important are the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, In-human or Degrading Treatment or Punishment brought by the Uni-ted Nations in 1984, with an Optional Protocol from 2002, the Con-vention on the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment brought by the Council of Europe in 1987, with two protocols from 1993. On the basis of their ratification, these conventions became a part of the national law in Serbia.

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However, inadequate conditions of police detention, lack of accommodation facilities, poor treatment, hygiene, nutrition, me-dical care of persons in prisons, and overcrowded, legally unregula-ted social and health facilities for treatment of mental disorders in Serbia, bring persons deprived of liberty to the position of victims.

The general situation of persons deprived of their liberty as vic-tims in Serbia can be described with words that a person referred to social or psychiatric residential institutions should buy a one-way ticket. It is not expected for one to return once he/she entered such an institution. On the other hand, one who, after many years of his sentence, leaves the prison needs to buy a return ticket. Accordin-gly to highly expressed recidivism, it is expected that these persons will soon return to prison. The fundamental problem is that the re-turn to prison usually implies the emergence of a new victim.

European Criminal Law: a new locus of victimological enterprise

Doc. dr Nina PeršakFaculty of Criminal Justice and Security, University of Maribor

The paper will look at some of the recent examples in the field of European Criminal Law, particularly those that deal with victims. According to the Council of the European Union Conclusions of the seminar, held in Madrid in the beginning of this year, victims are to be “the centre of the European justice.” The EU therefore intends to focus more on the needs of victims when developing its criminal law – a political view similar to the one already expressed in the Conclusions of the Council in October 2009 and in the Stockholm Programme. Although the EU legislature already contains some provisions, aimed at protecting the victims – in particular the Fra-mework Decision 2001/220/JAI on the standing of victims in crimi-nal proceedings and the Directive 2004/80/CE on compensation to victims of crime –, the paper will more closely address the recent victimological attempts such as the European Protection Order, ai-

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med at extending the protection of victims beyond the borders of the Member State that has adopted the protection measure. The content of this Initiative of 12 member states (also known as the Spanish project), submitted to the European Parliament and the Co-uncil, will be discussed, together with the European Commission’s responses thereto, which both pave the way for future develo-pments in this field.

The victims’ right to truth about past serious abuses of human rights in the European context: prospects of and

challenges to judicial recognition of the right

Jacek KowalewskiCivil Development Forum Foundation, Warsaw (Poland)

Owing its origins to the international humanitarian law (IHL), the right was used first within a regional human rights law (HRL) regime to deplore enforced disappearances in South America. Ultimately, in widest sense, the right shall entitle the public at large to know va-rious facts of past grave breaches to international HRL (see e.g. res. 2005/66 of the then UNCHR). This concept reflects the fact that vic-tims of violence often crave to discover roots, processes and agents of violence, and to comprehend those. Human rights litigation has proven several times to be helpful in this quest, while another am-bition is also to prevent repetition of crime.

Neither the ECtHR nor the ECJ pronounced themselves specifi-cally on the broad facet of the right. However, the former body has spoken on the narrower form of the right in the light of the prohi-bition against torture (Cyprus v. Turkey, application no. 25781/94), whereas the Human Rights Chamber for Bosnia and Herzegovina (in the “Srebrenica Cases” decided on 7 march 2003) considered also article 8 of the European Convention as applicable (moreover, wit-hout excluding relevance of Article 13 of the Convention). The ICTY, mandated half a century after WWII to adjudicate the recurrence to worst atrocities in Europe, has a long record of invoking search

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for truth as one of its pillar functions. The Tribunal has been un-dertaking to weigh the right when evaluating guilty pleas or impo-sing sentences. In turn, the recent case of Florence Hartmann, who allegedly committed contempt of court in disclosing confidential in-formation on the Srebrenica genocide, strikes by lack of discourse about the right (IT-02-54-R77.5, on appeal).

In my paper, I will inquire whether and how the outlook for the right before the two aforementioned regional courts should be im-proved for the benefit of victims. I will tentatively trace specific fe-atures that enabled or motivated the Inter-American system to dig out a fully-fledged right to know the truth, which will be followed by evaluation of grounds for a similar development in Europe. The right’s alleged customary nature shall be briefly looked upon. Pro-liferation of various dimensions of information rights under the European Convention and the EU Charter is especially relevant as well, e.g. in the view they are derogable in emergency situations, whereas the right to truth might be not. In this context, the pheno-mena of intermingling between IHL and IHRL regimes might need to be addressed.

Guidelines for the use of negotiation and mediation techniques in solving conflicts in the situation

of discrimination

Marija Mitić and Olivera VučićUN Development Program (UNDP)

This presentation focuses on one of the results of the project “Su-pport to the implementation of anti-discrimination legislation and mediation in Serbia”, implemented with financial support from the European Union and in cooperation of the United Nations Develo-pment Program and the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy of the Republic of Serbia. The project working group was formed to imple-ment alternative ways to dispute resolution (ADR), which has con-ducted research on the possibilities of the use of ADR techniques in

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cases of discrimination in Serbia. The research has tended to show how ADR mechanisms can support and supplement the implemen-tation of the Anti-Discrimination Law, which was adopted in March 2009. Through the research, ADR techniques that are most effecti-ve in preventing, managing and resolving conflicts arising under the act of discrimination have been identified.

The results of this study contributed to the creation of a five-day specialized training on the application of ADR in cases of discri-mination, which was conducted from 16th to 20th November 2009 in Vrnjačka Banja. Most training was done using the methodology of the Harvard University. The guidelines, which is the subject of this presentation, provides a more comprehensive theoretical training that follows and complements the theoretical five-day practical training. The guidelines also provide a comprehensive overview of the field of negotiation which is based on interest. This material is incorporated in the guidelines in order to enable practitioners to better understand the interests of the parties in the conflict and to develop creative solutions to conflicts, based on fair standards and objective criteria. The guidelines particularly elaborates steps used in the mediation, which includes advises for mediators on how to proceed during the mediation process and how to ethically conduct mediation between various sides due to conflicts that arise from racial, ethnic or other tensions. Internationally accepted “rules of conduct of mediators” and “standards of practice for mediators” will help mediators to successfully resolve conflicts of interest that may arise during the mediation.

The guidelines is important for practitioners because it adju-sts the facilitative model of mediation (which is usually applied in Serbia), to work with victims of discrimination, taking into account the power imbalances that often arise between the parties in the conflict and shows the techniques that a mediator can use to ensu-re the equal status of the parties in the process.

THEMATIC SESSIONS

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Thematic session 1: Victims of different forms of victimization

Treatment of victims by the members of the security services while discovering cases of trafficking in persons

Doc. dr Sаšа MijаlkovićDoc. dr Dаrko MаrinkovićDoc. dr Gorаn BoškovićAcademy of Criminalistic and Police Studies, Belgrade

Human trafficking is one of the most serious crimes against free-dom, life, body and health of a person. Therefore, the victims of human trafficking, whose physical and mental health is often se-riously impaired, desperately need protection, assistance and su-pport. At the same time, due to the gravity of the offense and of prescribed sanctions, traffickers try skillfully to avoid formal soci-al control. Even when they come into the contact with the police, they try to create the illusion that it is a legal business or, at worst, of prostitution or the involvement of illegal migrants. It is there-fore necessary to train criminal justice professionals to promptly and effectively recognize human trafficking, victim and perpetra-tor and to act properly guided by the principle of “best interest of the victim.” The situation is additionally aggravated by the fact that many illegal immigrants and other persons identify themselves as victims of human trafficking (so-called “false victims”) in order to be decriminalized for illegal residence status and to get some kind of assistance or other privileges.

In this regard, the paper suggests the following: an operatio-nal-tactical situations of contacts of the police and victims of hu-man trafficking, ways to detect crimes of trafficking, methods and procedures for the identification of victims and presumed establis-

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hing of their identity, the most common problems of identification and verification of the identity of victims, the necessity of emer-gent informing of victims on their status and rights, placing victims in shelters for victims and granting of residence in the country, as well as the right of victims of human trafficking on the asylum.

Mobbing – psychological violence at the working place

Dr Srđan ŽikićFaculty of Management Zaječar – Megatrend UniversityDoc. dr Vesna BaltezarevićFaculty of Culture and Media – Megatrend UniversityProf. dr Jane PaunkovićFaculty of Management Zaječar – Megatrend University

The modern way of doing business is characterized by high competi-tiveness and frequent organizational changes. These changes are nu-merous and different, while their common characteristic is that they always reflect on the employees and their mutual relations. Deterio-ration of the general climate and interpersonal relations contribute to a large extent to a conflict that eventually can turn into mobbing in the workplace. The process of privatization and enterprise restruc-turing in transition countries is followed with the release of surplus staff, so a growing use of mobbing to force the workers to leave their jobs is visible. Mobbing is a destructive conflict, which is related to personality, personal intolerance, envy and hatred and its consequ-ences can be very negative, often dramatic for the individual. It is a specific type of pathological behavior in the workplace, which inclu-des psychological abuse by one or more persons, for a long period of time, with intention to endanger human dignity and integrity of a victim. Due to the aggressive attacks, which are characteristic of mo-bbing, a selected victim is continuously under the high level of stress, which leads to accumulation of negative emotions and the presence of psychiatric and somatic diseases of victims of mobbing. Prof. dr Leymann gives 45 subtle activities that can be identified in the pro-

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cess of mobbing, which relate to the attacks on personality, social contacts, disruption of communication, spreading of lies and so on. Factors that can lead to mobbing include: the poor and unethical ori-ented organizational culture, the authoritative style of management, poorly planned organizational change, work environment with the culture of careerism and a strict hierarchy, repression and unresol-ved conflicts, etc. One of the reasons why the last few years people have been talking about mobbing is that there are large multinatio-nal companies which very well understood that mobbing is not only a victim problem but that mobbing inside the work organization is le-ading to huge economic losses due to frequent absences from work, changing of workplace, early retirement and so on. Starting from the results of previous research, the subject of the analysis is the scope and characteristics of mobbing in our work environment. The aim of the paper is to introduce employees with the mobbing, which should enable them to adequately recognize mobbing and prevent its furt-her escalation. The survey was conducted in 2009/2010 on a sample of 412 respondents who belonged to the industrial sector, health and administration, and state government. The results obtained confirm the hypothesis of the existence of mobbing in our work environment. It is found that the highest risk groups are females, with a low level of education, aged 20 to 35 years.

School violence – victims and school reaction

Prof. dr Oliver Bačanović and Nataša JovanovaFaculty of Security, Skopje (Macedonia) University „Sv. Kliment Ohridski“

The presence of violence in all spheres of everyday life has moti-vated us for a discussion on violence among children in schools as a destructive factor that has an impact on the future of our soci-ety. The absence of longitudinal research about the presence of any form of violence among children in schools is the basic weakness for finding out the phenomenological and etiological characteristics of this phenomenon and the ways of recognizing and responding to vi-

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olence by school staff. Despite some opinions in the public that such phenomena are just a normal part of childhood, the consequences of certain forms and intensity of violence can cause far-reaching ne-gative consequences for the victim but also for the further behavior of the violent child. For that reason it is important to introduce dif-ferent school prevention policies that have shown positive effects, adapted to the form and intensity of violence within each school.

In May 2010, the Faculty of Security-Skopje conducted a survey about school violence among school children on a sample of 1104 ei-ghth-grade students from 14 schools in Skopje. The survey also inclu-ded part of the school staff and school principals. The sample includes respondents from different ethnic backgrounds (52.6% of the respon-dents are Macedonians, 25.7% are Albanians, 5.6% are Turks, 12.7% are Roma, 1.6% Serbs, 1.2% Bosnians and 0.6% others). According to their gender 50.9% of the respondents are boys while girls participa-ted with 49.1%. According to age structure, 74% of the respondents are aged 14, 20.7% are aged 15, and 2.3% of them are over 15.

From the analysis of the research results several conclusions can be drawn. It is particularly important to emphasize that a greater number of students have been witnesses of violence in school com-pared to those who were victims. According to the students there is low interest among school staff to take appropriate measures to deal with violence. School staff does not consider violence a serious problem in their schools and think that there is a very poor list of me-asures at their disposal that can be taken in cases of violence among children, which have no effects on the further behavior of children.

Victim – witness, prosecutor ... judge?

Mr Danica Vasiljević-ProdanovićFaculty of Special Education and Rehabilitation, University of Belgrade

The traditional role of a victim in the criminal proceedings is seen in reporting a crime, cooperating with the police and prosecutors, testifying in the court, and claiming for indemnification. In addition, the victim can take the role of prosecutor in the case that the public

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prosecutor terminates from the prosecution. Modern legislation in-crease the scope of protection of the rights and interests of victim by providing her the opportunity to participate in restorative justice practices, negotiate with the perpetrator before or after the imposi-tion of penalty, accept an apology or some kind of reparation for da-mages. Can this list be broadened by adding the tasks traditionally entrusted to the criminal law judge in an unrivaled authority?

Antony Duff, a prominent British scholar of philosophy of cri-minal law, proposes a new model of criminal procedure and sets the stage on which the victim do not play episode role only. The author believes that victims (as well as offenders) should be given the opportunity to actively participate in the process of deciding upon the penalties as well. According to his concept, the verdict should be followed by a discussion on which the sanction will be measured (sentencing discussion). Along with the law enforcement (e.g. probation officer), both the offender and the victim (if he/she is willing and wants to participate) actively participate in the dis-cussion. Before the hearing, the judge provides guidelines to help the parties to measure the appropriate sanction and verify it in a final decision, taking into account that such sanction should be an adequate response to the violation of social values which are pro-tected by criminal law. The concept is based on the principles of communication theory with the visible elements of restorative ju-stice (mediation between victim and offender). Duff shows the ad-vantages of this model of criminal procedure and tries to respond to criticism skillfully threading his concept through the warp theory of communication, but also opens up the issues that still await an answer. In this paper, we tried to highlight this idea that seems far ahead of its time, but it certainly provides a very attractive challen-ge for the theory and practice of criminal law.

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Thematic session 2: Assistance and support to victims and witnesses

Specificities of victim and witness service in the Republic of Croatia

Nikica Hamer-VidmarMinistry of Justice, Directorate for probation and support to victims and witnesses, Sector for victim and witness support, Croatia

In addition to the developed network of NGOs that provide victim assistance in different forms, from legal, psycho-social or material support, since 2006 the system for victims and witnesses has been developing on the institutional level as well. The aim of this paper is to describe the specificities of the system of victim and witness su-pport in the Republic of Croatia, which has been successfully deve-loped on the initiative of the Ministry of Justice, in accordance with the recommendations of the Council of Europe and the Framework Decision of the Council of the European Union of 15 March 2001. The main goal of victim support services is to provide the neces-sary information and support to victims and witnesses of serious crimes including war crimes and crimes within the jurisdiction of the USKOK in order to minimize discomfort and fear that are often present in victims and witnesses. Within the Department for pro-bation and support of victims and witnesses, which operates wit-hin the Ministry of justice, in the sector for support of victims and witnesses there are two departments: Department for organizing support for victims and witnesses and the Department for the de-velopment and coordination of support to victims and witnesses.

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Department for development and coordination of support to victims and witnesses is responsible for coordination and super-vision of the Department for organizing and providing support to witnesses and victims in the courts, organization and implemen-tation of trainings and supervision of department employees and volunteers, and, through participation in the work of the Gover-nment Commission for monitoring and improving support system for victims and witnesses, participate in the further development of support system.

Department for organizing support for victims and witnesses is responsible for organizing psychosocial support, providing psycho-logical help and general legal information to victims and witnesses by telephone. This department is also entitled to mediate in provi-ding physical protection when necessary and to organize access to the courts for witnesses who were summoned for questioning in criminal proceedings before the courts in the Republic of Croatia, as well as outside of the Republic of Croatia.

Department for organizing support for victims and witnesses has been established in four county courts: Zagreb, Zadar, Vuko-var and Osijek as a result of the project “Assistance to developing system of support to witnesses and victims in Croatia”, which was carried out by the Ministry of justice and the United Nations De-velopment Program (UNDP). By continuation of the project in the next period it is planned to establish the Department in the county courts in Sisak, Split and Rijeka.

Department staff (who are employees of the court) with the help of volunteers are providing victims and witnesses emotional support and practical information during the investigation and trial for all serious crimes. Departments have expanded the jurisdiction of municipal and misdemeanor courts for crimes and misdemea-nors of domestic violence.

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Victims and witnesses in the proceedings of war crimes

Slavica PekovićService for assistance and support for victims and witnesses in the Belgrade district court, Department for war crimes

The role of witnesses in the criminal proceedings is a thankless one. Witness statements are by far the most important source of evi-dence in war crime cases, because the other kinds of evidence are relatively rare. In order for the court proceedings to be conducted smoothly, it is essential to create conditions in which the witnesses could freely, smoothly and without problems testify.

For most people the testimony before the court is not a com-mon experience. For most witnesses in war crime cases a number of elements make their situation particularly difficult. Psychologi-cal sense of vulnerability is reflected in witness’s feeling of such a discomfort that goes beyond the usual anxiety that witnesses have when involved in the court proceedings. The presence of the public, especially relatives, friends of the accused and journalists lead to a feeling of being completely alone in the courtroom and having everyone against them. Witness’s feeling that one part of the public disapproves his/her participation in the proceedings as a witness, the social pressure of the immediate surroundings not to testify or to adjust their testimony to a group interests seems very disturbing to them. They feel fear for themselves and their beloved ones, so they attempt to avoid the testimony. Direct encounters with the accused are particularly difficult for witnesses. Physical proximity of the accused and the fact that the defendant is behind them while testifying are experienced as psychological threat. Not being prepared and the lack of knowledge of different phases of the proceedings seem very disturbing to them. Giving evidence in the investigation stage and again on the trial is often perceived as a kind of harassment. Most witnesses did not understand the insi-sting on many details in the examination. I can not understand how someone can be expected to remember details 18 years after the event.

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Belief of others that the incident actually occurred is extremely important for victims. Actions taken by the president of the cham-ber are crucial for witness’s perception of the courts’ objectiveness. Witnesses recognize the correctness of the judge when judges stop or prevent the provocative and humiliating questions (when their traumatic experience is prejudiced as implausible by the defense) or when they warn process participants to stop talking to each other. Many witnesses travel long to arrive to court on time, while long wa-iting for being invited to the courtroom and not being able to leave the court building can de-motivate them to testify. Additional costs for the care of sick family members during the day when they were absent because of the testimony also burdens them.

Of the utmost importance for victims and witnesses of war cri-mes is to be treated fairly by everyone in the court proceedings re-gardless of their ethnicity, to have their suffering taken into account, to be empowered and to have their rights protected, to be provided by support in order to be healed, and to see that the perpetrator is hold accountable for the inflicted harms. We should not forget that the status of the victim does not stop with the very end of the war or the recovery from physical consequences and that is a life-long seal because as Plato said: “Only the dead have seen the end of the war.” This presentation will discuss the circumstances that make the testimony of witnesses of war crimes even more difficult.

Cooperation of institutions in providing assistance and support to victims of sexual crimes

Svetlana NikoloskaFaculty of Security, Skopje (Macedonia) University „Sv. Kliment Ohridski“

Assisting and supporting victims of sexual crime is seen as a system of measures and activities of various relevant institutions. Each of these institutions has its authorities and the agenda of work and activities. This form of crime, when it comes to the victim, requi-

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res team work of several institutions in order to somehow assist in the process of victims’ re-socialization, because victims are trau-matized, morally, physically and mentally injured. System of mea-sures and activities of team work of more experts from institutions such as the prosecution, police and social services is an essential prerequisite to the success in providing assistance and support to victims. Implementation of the measures in a dignified and profe-ssional manner contribute to victim’s cooperation in the process of clarifying and providing evidence of a crime, which are associated with the perpetrator of that offense. Victim and perpetrator of a sexual assault are usually known to each other, having a close rela-tionship that contributes to victim’s exposure to violence (potential victims), but, in certain situations, it also prevents a victim from admitting to herself that she is a victim of a crime, and that it is not a relationship that she has to adjust to, to accept it, and to suffer physical and psychological pain. The aim of the cooperation of rele-vant institutions is to assist in uncovering and proving the evidence about a criminal offense, offender’s motive, means and elements of violence, and to assist the victim in overcoming the fear and accepting that she is a victim of a crime. Due to that, the society should somehow ensure the protection of victim’s personal, mo-ral and physical integrity. Besides, institutional care of a victim and the work of the socio-psychological services seem necessary in this field. There is a need for continues work on further professionaliza-tion in the prosecutor’s office, court and the police, because these are the agencies that prosecute and punish offenders. Besides, ba-sed on a good cooperation with a victim, these agencies could also provide high-quality evidence against the suspect and in favor of a victim in terms that “the victim is actually a victim.”

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How can a war victim become an offender?

Janko RadmanovićAssociation of exiled and accused Region 91

This presentation will have the character of personal confession. I will tell you how, as a commander of the barrack, I defended my garrison in Croatia (Slavonski Brod) in 1991 in accordance with na-tional and international regulations. After one day, upon the agree-ment with the attackers, I surrendered together with my soldiers. However, negotiators from the Croatian side did not respect their part of the deal and they took the captured soldiers to the prison, where they were subjected to torture for three months. After being released, I was charged and, like many other officers of the JNA, sentenced in absence. The sentence was 15 years of imprisonment (one year and a half for each hour of barracks’ defense). Thus, from the victim of torture I became a war criminal. As far as I was not available to the Croatian authorities, because I was living in free-dom in Serbia, I was also on the Interpol wanted list (due to that my freedom of movement was limited). In the course of 2010 I have learnt that I am not longer on the list of convicted persons. My fight (and the fight of the Association of exiled and accused Region 91) today aims at obtaining compensation, and informing other amne-stied JNA officers that their verdicts had been abolished (since that information is a state secret). Six persons have been informed abo-ut that so far by our organization. In the end of the presentation I will present the proposal of measures that should be undertaken in order to reach the acceptable truth about the atrocities from the beginning of 1990s on the territory of the former Yugoslavia.

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Thematic session 3: Violence against women and domestic violence

Response to the violence against women: creating healthcare policy based on the research results

Mr. sci. dr Bosiljka Đikanović Institute of Social Medicine, School of Medicine, University of BelgradeDr Stanislava Otašević, Center for Promotion of Women’s Health, BelgradeDr Henrica A.F.M. Jansen Senior Consultant for violence against women, public health and epidemiology, Geneva (Switzerland), Prof. dr Snežana SimićInstitute of Social Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Belgrade,

Dr Sylvie Lo Fo Wong and prof. dr Toine Lagro-Janssen, Department of Primary Care/Women’s Studies in the Medical Sciences, Radboud University, Medical Centre Nijmegen (The Netherlands)

Response to violence against women in Serbia in the form of cre-ating health policy is built on the research results and activities of women’s organizations (Center for promotion of women’s health - CPWH), and is accompanied by a strict academic approach in this field. Health policy was formulated during the development of the special protocol for health workers and serves for the protection and treatment of women exposed to violence. This protocol pro-vides guidelines to health workers on how to respond to violence against women in practice. Although there is extensive world lite-rature and guidelines for health workers, they should be carefully

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adapted to the local environment, taking due account about evi-dence derived from local research.

There are several groups of evidence of importance in the pro-cess of creating health policy at the national level. The aim of this paper is to present the four main sources of evidence in Serbia that was available in the process of drafting the protocol.

The first source of evidence are the results of research on the scope of the problem of violence against women in general popu-lation, conducted in 2003 (WHO study on the health of women and violence against women), which showed that 23.8% of women in Belgrade experienced physical and/or sexual violence by a current or former intimate partner. These basic researches that are con-ducted on the basis of the strict and scientifically validated met-hodologies are also important for a long-term assessment of the impact of various measures in recent years adopted at all levels.

The second source of evidence relates to the results of the re-search on patterns of care seeking by abused women. These data are used to assess the “culture of silence” of women in regard to the violence by intimate partners, as well as the recognition of insti-tutions and services women usually turn to for help, and whom they trust mostly. Analysis of the use of health care services showed that 9.6% of abused women addressed them for help, while three-quar-ters of these women were satisfied with the provided assistance.

The third source of evidence is the data on the needs of wo-men victims of violence and their expectations from health wor-kers. Most interviewed women (82%) said that they expected help from health professionals in regard to the violence they suffered, mostly through providing support and obtaining useful information on where and how to go further.

The fourth source of evidence relates to the results of the rese-arch on attitudes of health workers and their perception of violence against women, as well as identified obstacles that need to be over-come in order to improve the response of health service. Research results showed that the lack of protocols and officially distributed information present the biggest obstacle to health care professio-nals to respond to this problem in daily practice.

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Victims of violence in the social welfare system and the possibilities for providing further support

Marija VasićCenter for Social Work, Pirot

Pirot is an apparently calm town in Southeastern Serbia, where most people know each other. The famous financial crisis – the cau-se and the consequence of all our problems, and, of course, difficult economic situation and unemployment, have brought aggression, violence, family pathology in our surrounding as well. All of these phenomena existed before, but were not solved in this organized way and there were no integrative or systematic approaches to dangerous social phenomenon called domestic violence.

The center for social work as a guardianship authority has a statutory obligation to provide support and assistance to victims of violence. Municipality of Pirot, as socially responsible municipality, embraced the democratic concept of respect for basic human rights and would also like to solve this problem in the best possible way. In the centre for social work there are professionals who have received insufficient training in order to successfully deal with this problem – they do not have a wide range of assistance options, except for a single financial support, psychosocial support, which at times of severe physical and psychological violence does not mean much, as well as a possibility of sending a victim to a shelter in Niš. Criminal charges are pending for a long time before the procedure starts. While awaiting the procedure to start, it often happens that the vic-tim goes back to live with the perpetrator and the violence becomes even worse. The victims then lose confidence in the institutions of the system and then we all ask ourselves what we should do?

The obligation of the state is to prevent domestic violence, and if that fails, then there is a requirement that victims are adequately pro-tected. There is a law, it is good, but it should be applied consistently and the deadlines should be respected. The existence of binding pro-cedures for dealing with cases of violence would significantly link the institutions of the system and enable more efficient problem-solving.

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Regionalization in the social welfare system, free SOS hot lines, regionally distributed shelters, projects to help the perpetrators of violence and a special budget line are just a part of support and re-habilitation of victims and perpetrators, all aimed at preventing the recurrence of violence and are accordance with accepted Beijing’s Charter.

Strengthening capacities of institutions dealing with victims of violence, changes in the sphere of public information on violence, raising awareness and sensitization of population from children to elderly are all important preconditions for better solving of the problem of violence. The experience of the municipal team for su-pport and assistance to victims of violence in Pirot indicates that the detection is better, citizens are more informed, and that case conferences give results in terms of connection of institutions and a more efficient decision making process. Project SOS hot line has been supported by the Pirot municipality for four years with the possibility of moving this project into a permanent service.

If we take into account that there are different programs in this area in Europe, best practices adapted to our conditions and also integrative and preventive programs can yield positive results in preventing and reducing domestic violence. Opportunities and paths for implementation of projects exist, but more commitment and willingness of all relevant actors to make the most responsible approach to this problem is needed.

Gender sensitive budgeting as a method for providing assistance for women victims of domestic violence

Nada GolubovićMinja DamjanovićNGO Associated Women, Banja Luka

Violence against women presents a roughest internationally reco-gnized form of violation of women’s human rights. Since the end of the war and the actualization of this problem until now (September 2010), the problem of violence against women has not been syste-

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matically addressed in Bosnia and Herzegovina. During this entire period the services that are provided to victims of violence are, to a lesser or greater extent, “obligations” of non-governmental orga-nizations and are funded by international donors. This was due to poor systemic response to domestic violence, lack of training, non-senzibisation and insufficient staff in the centers for social work and law enforcement, laws that are incomplete (due to lack of applica-ble bylaws and the planned budget for their implementation) and distrust in the work of these institutions. As expected, in the second half of the 2000s, international donors started to withdraw from Bosnia, leaving the system, which is totally unprepared and unin-terested to accept and continue to maintain services developed in the NGO sector. In a bulk of problems that need to be pointed out and for which an adequate solution has to be offered, a group of female researchers from the non-governmental sector decided to change the approach in advocating for the solution of the problem of shelters. The aim of the initiative launched in 2007 (only in the Republic of Srpska, because of complicated administrative and le-gislative divisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina) was to publicly advo-cate for the systematic solution for the shelters. For this purpose a useful concept of gender responsible budgeting was used. In the first phase of the initiative, the female researchers have calculated exactly how much funds are needed to finance the optimal number of shelters in the Republic of Srpska. The second phase included the analysis of current allocations for women victims of domestic violence in Republic of Srpska, and the funds used to meet the spe-cific needs of women compared to the specific needs of men. The-se data were complemented with the data on victims of domestic violence, which demonstrate the need for the existence and main-tenance of these services, international commitments undertaken by Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the NGO capacities to continue to provide these services. As a result of the initiative amendments on the Law on Protection from Domestic Violence of the Republic of Srpska1 were adopted in 2007, obliging the public budget to fund

1 They entered into force in February 2008, Official Gazzette of the Republic of Srpsla no. 17/08.

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the shelters. In 2007 the National Assembly of the Republic of Srp-ska decided upon the number of shelters that will be financed from the budget, and the budget of the entities for 2008 had a separate item regarding the funding of the shelters. Although improved, the situation is far from ideal. However, by creating a functional and systemic model of funding shelters for victims of domestic violen-ce, a first step in creating an adequate response to gender-based violence against women was made.

Domestic violence – criminal policy of the courts

Marina MijatovićNGO Dialogue, Valjevo

The analysis of the legal practice through the criminal politics in the field of domestic violence suggests that the trend of imposing minimum sanctions for perpetrators is continued. Statistical data we received from the verdicts that came into effect in the crimi-nal proceedings of 20 basic courts in Serbia, confirm the frequency of imposition of suspended sentences. As the primary method of research we used the right to send requests for access to public information.2 In order to get a more objective picture of the work of courts in the Republic of Serbia, requests were sent to 20 basic courts (geographic criteria – Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Eastern, Western, Southern and Central Serbia).

The main objective of the research was to find out the method of determining an appropriate sanction, the types of sanctions im-posed and the reasoning of mitigating and aggravating circumstan-ces in order to change the penal policy of the courts and to take into account the facts that affect the determination of mitigating and aggravating circumstances more objectively. Through the anal-ysis of the verdicts that came into force, we concluded that there are several key issues in the fight against domestic violence that should be discussed.2 Law on Free Access to Information art. 15 par. 1 (Official Gazette of Republic

of Serbia no. 120/04)

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The first noticed problem refers to the responses to a request for the access to the information of public interest. In the request we clearly stated that we need information on criminal and civil procee-dings and copies of final verdicts in the field of domestic violence3 for a scientific research, but we have not received any information about the civil suits and the verdicts brought in civil procedures.

The second common problem occurs in determining mitigating circumstances. We concluded that, regardless of the way the crime was committed and the consequences it produced, the fact that the person was under the influence of alcohol is taken as a mitigating cir-cumstance.4 Then, it is unclear why it is considered that age, regardle-ss of whether the person is younger or older (people born in 1953), is relevant as an argument for pronouncing lenient sentence. In additi-on, the term “relatively young person” is used very often referring to people born between 1970–1982, while in some verdicts people born in the same period were treated as “young persons.” In all the ver-dicts we have received, it is stated that the perpetrators were aware of their actions and that they wanted to commit a crime, while in some verdicts their remorse was considered a mitigating factor.5

In regard to the aggravating circumstances, it was noticed that only previous convictions are mentioned, although in the majority of verdicts it is stated that there were no aggravating circumstances.

Out of the 15 verdicts in which it was determined that violence was committed under the influence of alcohol, in only two cases the security measures of treatment of alcoholics were pronounced. Data from the verdicts shows that in 95% of cases violence is com-mitted under the influence of alcohol.

In only one case a fine of 80,000 dinars was pronounced. However, it remains unclear why the offender who has been con-victed for a crime of domestic violence before and who had to pay a fine of 50,000 dinars received the same kind of penalty again? A question of the purpose of such punishments and protection of victims remains open.3 In the application we relied on the Criminal Code and the Family Law.4 There is only one verdict where an intoxicated condition is listed as an ag-

gravating circumstance.5 In most cases violence lasted for years.

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Thematic session 4: Challenges and dilemmas in providing victim support

Involving volunteers in the work of the Department for organizing and providing support to witnesses and victims

Nikica Hamer-VidmarMinistry of Justice, Directorate for probation and support to victims and witnesses, Sector for victim and witness support, Croatia

In the departments for organizing and providing support to wit-nesses and victims volunteers are also engaged (beside the em-ployees) with the task to provide practical information and emotio-nal support to victims and witnesses of serious crimes. The practice of engaging volunteers in victim and witness support is common in departments engaged in assisting victims in other countries.

The fact is that giving a testimony can be a stressful and trau-matic experience, and that victims and witnesses because of what they had survived before, during and after testifying, experience different emotional and physical reactions. The most frequent fee-lings of victims and witnesses are fear, discomfort, agitation and anxiety, but a rapid deterioration of health is also possible. Because of this in several occasions a question of engaging volunteers in the work of the Sector for victim support was raised, primarily from the aspect of their training and qualifications for work, the seriousness with which they approach their work, and because of the delicacy of the work in which they participate. This paper is a result of the research conducted by the Ministry of Justice for the purpose of determining the feasibility of engaging volunteers in the Sector for victim support, and also in order to determine their motivations, expectations and satisfaction related to volunteering, to assess their capability for dealing with problematic and stressful situati-

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ons, as well as the impact of their professional education on the ability and the quality of the victim support they provide. Besides, it was important to determine how much do volunteers feel accepted by the staff of the court.

Two questionnaires were made for the purpose of the resear-ch, one for volunteers and one for employees of the Sector for vic-tim support. Questionnaire for volunteers consisted of 29 open and multiple choice questions. Questionnaire for employees of the Sector for victim and witness support consisted of 20 questions that were also open or with multiple choices. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS. From a total of 195 volunteers who have volunteered up to this point in the Sector for victim and witness support, there were 97 volunteers who are currently active, out of which 69 participated in the study, as well as six employees of the Sector for victim and witness support. Since the processing of the results is in progress, the preliminary results show that it is justified to engage volunteers in the departments for organizing and providing support to witnesses and victims. Volunteers generally feel accepted in the court, and it is necessary to continue with the practice of organizing regular supervi-sions and trainings for volunteers, given the importance, seriousness and possible stressfulness of the work they are involved with.

Voluntarism or professionalization – an example of different practices in providing counseling services in the

Psychological counseling of the War Trauma Center

Tamara BoškićAssociation for the protection of mental health of war veterans and victims of wars 1991-1999 – Center for war trauma, Novi Sad

The work of the Center for war trauma with persons with war expe-rience began in 1999 by an initiative of a group of psychologists and psychiatrists, who have been providing voluntarily psychological counseling services and responding to citizens’ needs for psycho-logical assistance after the catastrophic events in the 1990’s. After

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2002, the provision of psychological counseling on a voluntary basis became a part-time paid work, and after 2005 the volunteer tra-inees in different psychotherapeutic directions/schools and licen-sed psychotherapists took over the work.

This paper deals with the following: the elements of compe-tency for providing psychological counseling to people with experi-ences of war (the diversity of criteria and dilemmas; competencies of volunteers in the service; victims’ needs); the definition of volun-teering and the context for volunteering in Serbia (the needs and opportunities to launch long-term volunteer programs in the field of providing psychological counseling services to victims in all social sectors which are engaged in this field); description of the model of psychological counseling of the Center for war trauma (managing the work of volunteers – volunteer management and organizational procedures; professional procedures).

Coping with the consequences of mobbing

Doc. dr Vesna BaltezarevićMr Radoslav BaltezarevićFaculty for Culture and Media Beograd, Megatrend UniversityDr Srđan ŽikićProf. dr Jane PaunkovićFaculty of Management Zaječar, Megatrend University

Mobbing is one of the most negative forms of work stress. Victims of mobbing are exposed to different social and psychological con-sequences. Post-traumatic stress leads to the disability of the vic-tims to orient themselves in new situations and to cope with their emotions, which is why they often retreat to self-isolation. Con-sequences of mobbing may be of such intensity that they could lead to mental and physical destruction of the victim, and that is why timely provide assistance to victims is of a great importance. The NGO sector can initiate a program of psychosocial victim support to

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mobbing victims by connecting the victims and establishing self-su-pport groups. This form of victim support should include education about mobbing and ways of combating this phenomenon, as well as communication trainings. Group friendship would help victims to be in constant contact with other people who have experienced similar or identical mobbing situations, to mutually restore confi-dence and to develop the ability to respect themselves again and believe in their abilities.

Protection of victims of crimes against the environment

Dragan ObradovićLegal Center for Children and Juveniles, Valjevo

Crimes against the environment as an independent group of crimi-nal offenses first appeared in the Criminal Code of the Republic of Serbia, which came into force on 1st January 2006. Only in this law for the first time in one place criminal offenses were grouped from the former federal law, republic criminal laws and from particular so-called “subordinate“ criminal legislation, which are focused on the protection of the environment.

In addition to numerous issues and problems faced by police officers, public prosecutors and judges, one of the important qu-estions in proving these criminal offenses is who are the victims? When dealing with these crimes it is necessary to determine if any in this group of criminal acts caused a direct victim, what is the extent of the damage the victim suffered, what are the consequ-ences of the criminal acts by their nature, will the environmental pollution create victims in the future, what is the damage and how big it is, and who are the injured parties and what kind of damage have they sustained – material and non-material?

In this paper we will point out some characteristic acts from this group of offenses and the victims of these crimes.

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NGO in supporting victims of computer crime

Marjan JovanovićAssociation Digital Forensic, Sremska Mitrovica

Computer crime as a most modern manifestation of crime, is slowly taking more and more primacy over conventional crime. The forms of computer crime are more disparate every day, and therefore the number of potential victims is growing.

The subject of this article is: what is essentially a high-tech (computer) crime in the world today, and how it gets the feature of a world renowned crime. All this is seen through the basics of crimi-nology and phenomenology as a senior scientific discipline related and recognizable in the world of criminology. Understanding of the concept and scope of criminology and criminal activity as a basic unit of any type of crime will help us to present all the elements of criminal acts (anticipation in the law, the perpetrator, and the victim) in the area of computer crime. This enables us to bring out and prove a risk of a new manifestation of crime from the older scientific discipline.

As it is essential that all parts of the society are involved in preventing and combating all forms of crime, it is essential that NGOs as inseparable parts of our society, take on the burden of preventing and combating computer (cyber) crime. Victim support to victims and potential victims, both preventive and repressive, should help us to better resist this type of crime. As of the above-mentioned, the goal of this study was to examine the necessity of involvement of NGOs in the active victim support for victims of a computer crime.

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Thematic session 5: Children and the elderly as victims

Child victims of domestic violence – implementation of the Law on juveniles in the legal practice of the courts

and prosecutors’ offices in Vojvodina

Vanja MacanovićAutonomous women’s center, Belgrade

This paper presents the results of the research aimed to examine the application of specific provisions on protection of juveniles as victims in the criminal proceedings (Part Three, articles 150 to 157 of the Law on juvenile offenders and the criminal-justice protection of juveniles) in cases which were initiated because of the criminal offense under the article 194 of the Criminal Code (domestic violen-ce). The research involved access into the court files of 300 judicial and 300 prosecution cases, selected randomly, which were formed from 1st January 2008 to 1st June 2010. The research was conduc-ted in eight courts and prosecutors’ offices in Vojvodina. The rese-arch questionnaire also included questions related to the coopera-tion of courts, prosecutors’ offices and the centers for social work, in accordance to the Special protocol on the procedures for action of judicial authorities to protect minors from abuse and neglect. The research results should provide insight into the legal aspects of the criminal-justice mechanism of protection against domestic violence when children are direct or indirect victims of this crime, with special emphasis on the urgency of the proceedings, how and where juvenile victims are interrogated and the psychological and psychiatric expertise of the juveniles.

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Are (only) old people victims?

Olivera KuljićBasic (Municipal) Court Zrenjanin

In the process of transition it is usually stated that the old people are the main victims because they are weak, often ill and require young people’s help. We are warned that they do not sufficiently receive back what they have given to the society and the family.

Others argue that the younger generations are the main vic-tims. We talk about the tremendous growth of the youth populati-on in the Third World countries and the rapid aging of the industrial world. Both trends undermine generational justice, equal rights for all generations in the economy and politics. In Europe today the-re are more people over 60 than those under 15 years of age; the UN estimates that Asia will reach the same proportion in 2040 and the American continent a few years later. It is also believed that by mid-21st century there will bee more people over 50 than those under 15 in the world. So, with the aging of the society the inter-generational ratio of giving and taking is also changing. The costs of treatment and care of old people are rising, which increases the pressure on the younger working population because they have to allocate more for the elderly. Generational solidarity is changing and new conflicts between generations are created.

The third trend warns that the biggest victim of the transition is the so-called “sandwich generation,” members of the middle-aged, who must simultaneously care for their helpless parents and their children, who become independent with more and more difficulty.

Who is right? Is there any sense in arguing about which ge-neration is more in danger? Or is it better to ask a question: does generational justice exist now more than before? What prevails: generational solidarity or competition between the generations? One can not give a universal answer. Generational solidarity and the extent of generational conflicts differ in various countries. Part of the answer will be given here by analyzing the generational as-pect of cases from my own judicial experience.

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Victimization of the elderly in the institution and family surrounding

Ljiljana StevkovićInstitute for Criminological and Sociological Research and Victimology Society of SerbiaJelena DimitrijevićFaculty of Special Education and Rehabilitation, University of Belgrade and Victimology Society of Serbia

Victimization of the elderly is a serious and insufficiently scienti-fically explained social problem. Financial, physical and emotional dependence on members of their immediate families or persons who take care of them brings old persons at risk from victimization through different forms of violence. Our paper aims to present the results of the research on violence against the elderly in families and the institutions for social protection of old people. The resear-ch was conducted on a sample of 200 men and women aged 60-84, residing in one state and two private gerontology centers in Belgra-de and Pančevo. The segment of the research related to the victi-mization of the elderly through family violence was carried out on a sample of 100 male and female respondents who were randomly selected and interviewed in their family home. In determining the concept of age and age limit, we had in mind all the disagreements and confusion of many authors and decided to take the age of 60 years as the lower limit.

In the introduction of the paper we will briefly outline the met-hodological framework of the research. This will be followed by presenting the results concerning the scope, types, characteristics and consequences of violence which old men and women are expo-sed to in the institutions of social protection and in their families.

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Victimization and delinquency: analysis of the results of self-reported delinquency study in Belgrade

Jelena DimitrijevićFaculty of Special Education and Rehabilitation, University of Belgrade and Victimology Society of SerbiaNikola PetrovićHigh Medical School of Vocational Studies “Milutin Milanković” and Victimology Society of Serbia

The aim of the paper is to present the results of a pilot study of ju-venile delinquency in Belgrade, based on the use of the self-report juvenile delinquency study. More specifically, the focus is on the analysis of victimization-delinquency relationship among Belgrade high school children. The study was conducted by the Faculty for special education and rehabilitation, University of Belgrade, within the course of Juvenile delinquency. It was carried out in three se-condary schools in Belgrade: the First Belgrade Gymnasium, Electro-technical School “Stari Grad” and the Technical School “Drvo Art,” on a sample of 257 students. The study involved students from one class in each of the four years of the high school, while in the voca-tional schools the sample consisted of students from one class of the years I and III within the three-year-study courses or years II and IV of the four-year-study courses. The study was carried out during the last two weeks of April 2010, in agreement with the represen-tatives of the psycho-pedagogical staff of selected schools. Altho-ugh the subject teachers had been informed about the survey, the students had not; they have been asked by the interviewer to com-plete the questionnaire just before the survey. Since the self-report delinquency study as a technique for finding out the dark figure of crime had never before been applied in criminological researches in our country, for gathering the data we used a questionnaire which was based on a questionnaire which had been applied in 2005 wit-hin the International Studies on self-report of juvenile delinquents (ISRD 2 Working Group (Ed.) (2005). Questionnaire ISRD2: Standard Student Questionnaire. Boston, Hamburg, Utrecht, Warsaw and

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Zurich: European Society of Criminology: http://webapp5.rrz.uni-hamburg.de/ISRD/Questionnaires/).

The results obtained through the application of the adjusted and slightly shortened version of the original questionnaire were analyzed by descriptive statistics methods, chi-square test and Pe-arson correlation with the help of the SPSS 17.0 software package. As this is the first study of this type of juvenile delinquency in our country, in addition to the presentation of the key results, the aut-hors will also point out the importance of the self-report studies, its advantages and some disadvantages.

WORKSHOPS

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Workshop 1: Victim and witness support services

Prevention of secondary victimization when working with victims of violence and the staff burnout syndrome –

institutionalized approach

Jasmina IlićOSCE Mission in SerbiaMr. sci. dr Sanja NikolićInstitute for mental health, Belgrade

In Serbia there is currently no institutionalized support system for victims and witnesses in criminal proceedings. Except the Service for victim support and assistance in the Department for War Cri-mes of the Higher Court in Belgrade, various NGOs have the most important role in providing support. OSCE Mission to Serbia has come up with a systemic project of establishing services for victim and witness support and assistance at higher (district) and appella-te courts in Serbia. Implementation of this project will contribute to a systemic solution of this issue through the institutionalization of the system of services into the judicial system of Serbia.

Victim and witness support is one of the main elements of re-storative justice and the exceptional importance of senzibilisation of the participants for a more affirmative and detailed insight and understanding of this area, and openness to new and important perspectives has been recognized. Cooperation among the state institutions in achieving this objective, along with the cooperation with the NGO sector, presents the milestone of the future functio-ning of support networks.

Violence is a terrifying, destructive phenomenon. A professio-nal is in temptation to distance himself, to separate from the issue and not to deal adequately with exploration and/or treatment of

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violence. The adjectives “violent” and “physically abused” are sti-gmatizing the social identity of both the victim and the perpetra-tor of violence. Two basic models of violence – linear and circular, determine the framework for the consideration of context, risks, responsibilities, and cooperation. When working with violence a continuous process of risk assessment and relational aspects of po-ssible future violent behavior is needed. The patterns of behavior with a purpose to humiliate, ashamed and degrade another person are more stresses in cases of psychoactive substances abuse, lack of empathy and lack of internal motivation for change. In dealing with violence, a professional is open, directive and introduces rules. Collaboration and cooperation are at the heart of a good risk asse-ssment and of good risk management strategies.

The aim of the workshop is to highlight specific psychological aspects of working with victims, as well as with adolescent and child victims of violence. Interactive approach creates a more functional context for understanding the methodology of examination: open questions, multiple choice questions, questions concerning the power of the child, questions about feelings, hypothetical questi-ons, ranging questions.

Group work will focus on a more functional understanding of individual capabilities in dealing with violence, adoption of basic knowledge about the position of witnesses, victims and suppor-ters as part of transitional justice, development of insight into the knowledge of oneself and own roles for the successful prevention of burnout syndrome. This will be done through short informative lec-tures, interactive work in working sessions and a group feedback.

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Workshop 2: How do we teach victimology?

Teaching victimology in Serbia

Prof. dr Vesna Nikolić-RistanovićFaculty for special education and rehabilitation, University of Belgrade and Victimology Society of Serbia

Since its foundation in 1997, Victimology Society of Serbia have been advocating for victimology to be taught within university. Also, since the beginning we published the journal on victimization, human rights and gender Temida, carried out a number of victimo-logy surveys, published many books and developed significant vic-timology library.

Nowadays, victimology is taught as separate course in four fa-culties in Serbia: Law Faculty (University of Nis), Faculty for Special Education and Rehabilitation (University of Belgrade), Academy of Criminalistic and Police Studies, and Faculty of Security (University of Belgrade). I myself have been teaching victimology at Faculty for Special Education and Rehabilitation since 2004 – first within crimi-nology, and since 2008/2009 academic year as a separate course.

In this paper I will address both the contribution of Victimology Society of Serbia for inclusion of victimology in university curricula, and my own experiences of teaching victimology at Belgrade Uni-versity.

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Teaching victimology in Slovenia: the course and its (subject-related and legislation-related) challenges

Doc. dr Nina PeršakFaculty of Criminal Justice and Security, University of Maribor

The paper will share some experiences of a university lecturer of victimology (on the undergraduate as well as on the postgraduate level) at the Faculty of Criminal Justice and Security in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The first part of the paper will explain how the victimolo-gy course at the mentioned faculty is structured, while the second part will address some challenges posed thereto. Due to the na-ture of the subject taught, a lecturer of victimology is often torn between two approaches; one based on the need to convey the existing victimological knowledge, its theoretical insights as well as results of empirical research, and the other being more practice-oriented, offering students the tools with which they can work in the victimological field, developing their skills to work with victims etc. The latter approach includes various techniques aimed at sen-sitizing the students to the victimological experience, particularly to the more invisible or hidden victimizations. Despite including both of these approaches and topics into the victimological curri-culum, the question remains, however, as to how much, if at all, should a student be eventually examined on these latter skills. Sho-uld sensitivity and skills, appropriate for working with victims, play a part – and if the answer is positive, how big a part should they play – in the final mark. If none at all, the lecturer, it will be argued, should be careful of the possible bias he/she may experience du-ring the examination. Another topic, which the paper will address, concerns the legislation-related challenges that influence universi-ty curricula, particularly the Bologna reform, whose result, among others, was to give students of different educational backgrounds the “crossover opportunity,” i.e. the opportunity to expand their studies into other branches than the ones originally chosen. Altho-ugh undoubtedly a welcome move as far as the educational flexibi-lity is concerned, it nonetheless has certain shortcomings (e.g. the

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influence it exerts over the complexity of the course), which will be further discussed.

Victimology as an elective course at the Law Faculty in Niš

Prof. dr Slobodanka Konstantinović-VilićLaw Faculty, University of Niš

Victimology, as an optional course at the Law Faculty in Niš, was introduced into the curriculum in the school year 2003/2004. In this curriculum, victimology, as an optional course within a theoretical-methodological group of subjects, is taught in the third or the four-th year of undergraduate studies.

The aim of the course is presented as obtaining scientifically relevant theoretical and practical knowledge on the issues related to crime victims and victims of all forms of human suffering, charac-teristics of certain categories of victims, forms of victimization, the-oretical explanations of the causes of victimization, forms of protec-tion of victims through the criminal justice system and the work of the victim support services, as well as prevention of victimization.

Forms and methods of teaching include: lectures, practical exercises, field work and individual consultations. Experts and prac-titioners dealing with the victims in their work are invited to classes. Interactive work is done at the practices through discussions and debates. Seminar papers, essays, research projects are analyzed. Field instruction is done through visits to certain institutions which assist victims. The biggest disadvantage for now is the lack of a sy-stematic and coherent casebook for victimology.

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The introduction of victimology at various cycles of teaching and methods applied in lectures and practice on

victimology at the Faculty of Security in Skopje

Prof. dr Oliver BačanovićFaculty of Security, Skopje (Macedonia), University “St. Kliment Ohridski”

Victimology was introduced as a separate course at the Faculty of Security in Skopje in 1992 within at that time the renewed curri-culum, built on the basis of the study of the eminent professor dr Vladimir Vodinelić. In this way, our faculty, as a unique higher edu-cation institution in the field of security at the time of the Socia-list Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, became the first faculty in the former YU region which has introduced victimology as a separate course in the curriculum. So, for almost two decades (with some in-terruption in the period when the faculty was not allowed to work) victimology has been taught as a compulsory course at our faculty. At the beginning it was taught as a discipline and as a part of crimi-nology, and later on as a scientific discipline with the tendency of becoming independent.

By applying the Bologna process, a second cycle, i.e. master studies at our faculty have been introduced. The victimological to-pics have found their place in the master studies as a significant dimension of the study of contemporary forms of crime in general and specific forms of crime (such as trafficking in persons, smuggling of migrants, crimes against children and minors, etc.). This year we made a study for the third cycle of studies, i.e. doctoral studies (cu-rrently in the process of accreditation), which are designed in the form of modules (five modules), with victimology to be taught as a separate course at one or two of them.

The application of new teaching methods suits victimology, especially if we take into account that, like other criminological dis-ciplines, it is a primarily practical, not only or primarily theoretical discipline. In addition to interactivity as one of the methodological principles, we shall also pay attention to the gradual implementati-

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on of some other rarely used methods and techniques such as role play, and the so called clinical methods (although only in the initial stages). The necessity of teaching content to be directed not only at accumulating knowledge but also at mastering skills and gaining practical knowledge is firstly taken into account. Such an example is getting to know the content and skills related to interviewing vic-tims of crime, especially specific categories of victims (children, wo-men, etc.), or regarding certain types of crimes (e.g. sexual crimes). Particular attention is therefore paid to the specifics of the inter-views that the police conduct, given the profile of the personnel which our faculty educates.

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Alempijević Đorđee-mail: djolea@fon.rs

Bačanović Olivere-mail: oliverb@fb.uklo.edu.mk

Baltezarević Radoslave-mail: trilliongarden@yahoo.com

Baltezarević Vesnae-mail: vesnabal@gmail.com

Boškić Tamarae-mail: tasshaster@gmail.com

Bošković Gorаne-mail: goranbg@ravangrad.net

Ćopić Sanjae-mail: scopic@eunet.rs

Đikanović Bosiljkae-mail: bosiljka_djikaovic@yahoo.

com

Damjanović Minjaemail: minja.damjanovic@gmail.com

Dimitrijević Jelenae-mail: jexi1210@gmail.com

Dokmanović Mirjanaemail: mirad@eunet.rs

Dragičević-Dičić Radmilae-mail: dicic@bg.ap.sud.rs

Golubović Nadaemail: nada_golubovic@yahoo.co.nz

Hamer-Vidmar Nikicae-mail: nvidmar@pravosudje.hr

Ilić Jasminae-mail: jasmina.ilic@osce.org

Ivanović Jasminae-mail: jasmina.ivanovic@minrzs.

gov.rs

Janković Miloše-mail: milos.jankovic@ombud-sman.rs

Jansen Henrica A.F.M.e-mail: henriette.jansen@gmail.com

Jovanova Natašae-mail: natasa.akademija@yahoo.

com

Jovanović Marjane-mail: adigifor@gmail.com

Konstantinović-Vilić Slobodankae- mail: vidav@bankerinter.net

Kowalewski Jacekemail: j.kowalewski@gmail.com

Kuljić Oliveraemail: todorunbg@ptt.rs

Lagro-Janssen Toinee-mail: A.Lagro-Janssen@hag.umcn.

nl

Lindgren Magnusemail: magnus.lindgren@tryggare-

sverige.se

Lo Fo Wong Sylviee-mail: S.LoFoWong@elg.umcn.nl

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

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Macanović Vanjae-mail: vanja@azc.org.rs

Mаrinković Dаrkoe-mail: darkoart2003@yahoo.com

Mijаlković Sаšаe-mail: mijalkovics@yahoo.com

Mijatović Marinae-mail: marina.mijatovic@yahoo.com

Mitić Marijae-mail: marija.mitic@undp.org

Mršević Zoricae-mail: zorica.mrsevic@ombud-

sman.rs

Nikolić Sanjae-mail: sms.nikolic@ptt.rs

Nikolić-Ristanović Vesnae-mail: vnikolic@eunet.rs

Nikoloska Svetlanae-mail: svetlananikoloska@hotma-

il.com

Obradović Dragane-mail: dr.gaga.obrad@gmail.com

Otašević Stanislavae-mail: stanislavao@yahoo.com

Paunković Janee-mail: jane.paunkovic@fmz.edu.rs

Peković Slavicae-mail: spp@bg.vi.sud.rs

Pemberton Antonye-mail: a.pemberton@uvt.nl

Peršak Ninae-mail: N.Persak.99@cantab.net

Petrović Nikolae-mail: nicholas.petrovic@gmail.com

Petrušić Nevenae-mail: nevena.petrusic@gmail.com

Radmanović Jankoe-mail: radmanovicj@sezampro.rs

Savić Slobodane-mail: savkenzi@gmail.com

Simić Snežanae-mail: snezanas@EUnet.rs

Stevanović Ivanae-mail: ivana@cpd.org.rs

Stevković Ljiljanae-mail: stevkoviclj@gmail.com

Vasić Marijae-mail: csrop@eunet.rs

Vasiljević-Prodanović Danicae-mail: danica.v@sezampro.rs

Vučić Oliverae-mail: olivera.vucic@undp.org

Žegarac Nevenkae-mail: nzegarac@eunet.rs

Žikić Srđane-mail: srdjan.zikic@fmz.edu.rs