Victims of Crime

ABSTRACT The study provides an overview of the worldwide best practices for rape prevention and for assisting women victims of rape. It reviews the international literature and offers selected examples of promising practices. It addresses the comprehensive range of policies in the fields of gender equality; law and justice; economy, development and social inclusion; culture, education and media; and health. It presents a wide-ranging set of examples of best practice. It concludes with a series of recommendations, based on the social scientific evidence presented in the study. The report is available online at http://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/femm/studies.html

In the current study, we propose an integrative approach, which will incorporate elements from the social learning and self-control theories of delinquency and crime to examine violence in an understudied, marginalized, and often discriminated subpopulation group—American Indian youth. The analysis is based on survey data collected between 2009 and 2013 from a sample of American Indian adolescents ( N = 3,380) enrolled in 27 school districts located in five regions of the United States (Northern Plains, Southwest, Upper Great Lakes, Southeast/Texas, and the Northeast). The main objective of the analysis is to identify the factors more likely to predict violent offending among American Indian adolescents, a vulnerable group that has an elevated risk of violent victimization. Results of the Tobit regression analysis indicate that in both gender groups a low level of self-control, association with delinquent friends, poor school performance, and underage alcohol consumption significant...

O artigo analisa o lugar comumente ocupado pela vítima nos debates científicos sobre segurança pública, conjugando estudos das ciências criminais e da teoria social. Problematiza-se como a vítima e os movimentos de vítimas são instrumentalizados pelo discurso político de “lei e ordem”, ensejando a dessubjetivação das pessoas concretamente afetadas pelo delito. Na sequência, o trabalho busca apontar alternativas de interpretação acerca do papel que estes atores sociais poderiam desempenhar no campo da segurança pública, se considerados como sujeitos empíricos e moralmente relevantes. Recorrendo à revisão sistemática de literatura como principal estratégia de análise, espera-se que o artigo contribua com novas perspectivas para a inclusão da vítima em temas de segurança pública na condição de sujeito reconhecido.

A recent controversy in the USA centres on classroom use of Yoko Kawashima Watkins’s semi-autobiographical So Far from the Bamboo Grove (1986), a novel focused on the flight of Japanese settler families to Japan after the liberation of Korea at the end of World War II. Taught in a literary and historical vacuum under the thematic umbrella of ‘‘courage and survival,’’ the novel has been criticised as an example of ‘‘perpetrator as victim’’ representation. Because of its assumed high ‘‘truth value,’’ life-writing positions itself very specifically as a narrative of a ‘‘witness’’ recounting her story. The resultant authentication of suffering may thereby render issues of historicity effectively irrelevant. Diverse interpretative communities may thus read the novel in incompatible ways.

This paper offers a critique of the dominant role that victim centered discourse has come to occupy in debates about crime and criminal justice in Ireland. It argues that such a discourse works with an unacceptably simplistic and reductive notion of the term ‘victim’, it can lead to reforms that result in revictimisation rather than victim empowerment and it distorts the experiences of many crime victims for whom victimisation is inconvenient rather than traumatic.

[AMAZON LINK BELOW TO BOOK ITSELF
-- TOC and book summary in downloadable .pdf] 
According to the poet Elias Canetti, "All the things one has forgotten / scream for help in dreams." To the ancient Egyptians they were prophecies, and in world folklore they have often marked visitations from the dead. For Freud they were expressions of "wish fulfillment," and for Jung, symbolic representations of mythical archetypes. Although there is still much disagreement about the significance and function of dreams, they seem to serve as a barometer of current mind and body states.

In this volume, Deirdre Barrett brings together the study of dreams and the psychology of trauma. She has called on a distinguished group of psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers--among them Rosalind Cartwright, Robert J. Lifton, and Oliver Sacks--to consider how trauma shapes dreaming and what the dreaming mind might reveal about trauma. The book focuses on catastrophic events, such as combat, political torture, natural disasters, and rape. The lasting effects of childhood trauma, such as sexual abuse or severe burns, on personality formation, the nature of memories of early trauma, and the development of defenses related to amnesia and dissociation are all considered. The book also takes up trauma and adult dreams, including Vietnam veterans and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Holocaust survivors and perpetrators, rape victims, and firestorm survivors. Finally, this volume concludes with a look at the potential "traumas of normal life," such as divorce, bereavement, and life-threatening illness, and the role of dreams in working through normal grief and loss.

Taken together, these diverse perspectives illuminate the universal and the particular effects of traumatic experience. For physicians and clinicians, determining the etiology of nightmares offers valuable diagnostic and therapeutic insights for individual treatment. This book provides a way of juxtaposing the research in the separate fields of trauma and dreams, and learning from their discoveries.

Este texto pretende contribuir a la recuperación del trabajo que realizan los colectivos de familiares de los desaparecidos en Nuevo León (AMORES y FUNDENL) para encontrar la verdad sobre lo que ocurrió con sus seres queridos y preservar la memoria para que esta tragedia no vuelva a repetirse. Para recuperar la información se revisaron fuentes hemerográficas por internet; blogs, perfiles de facebook y sitios oficiales de estos grupos; documentos e informes de organismos de derechos humanos. Las y los desaparecidos y el quehacer que realizan sus familiares en el espacio púbico son parte de la realidad del México de comienzos del siglo XXI. Sirva este texto como un aporte desde la reflexión ciudadana a la elaboración de eso que Mate (2003) llama el duelo político: “la conciencia de la responsabilidad de los presentes respecto a los ausentes”, y así impedir el olvido y el silencio.

The last twenty years have seen an explosion in the development of information technology, to the point that people spend a major portion of waking life in online spaces. While there are enormous benefits associated with this technology, there are also risks that can affect the most vulnerable in our society but also the most confident. Cybercrime and its victims explores the social construction of violence and victimisation in online spaces and brings together scholars from many areas of inquiry, including criminology, sociology, and cultural, media, and gender studies.

The book is organised thematically into five parts. Part one addresses some broad conceptual and theoretical issues. Part two is concerned with issues relating to sexual violence, abuse, and exploitation, as well as to sexual expression online. Part three addresses issues related to race and culture. Part four addresses concerns around cyberbullying and online suicide, grouped together as ‘social violence’. The final part argues that victims of cybercrime are, in general, neglected and not receiving the recognition and support they need and deserve. It concludes that in the volatile and complex world of cyberspace continued awareness-raising is essential for bringing attention to the plight of victims. It also argues that there needs to be more support of all kinds for victims, as well as an increase in the exposure and punishment of perpetrators.

Drawing on a range of pressing contemporary issues such as online grooming, sexting, cyber-hate, cyber-bulling and online radicalization, this book examines how cyberspace makes us more vulnerable to crime and violence, how it gives rise to new forms of surveillance and social control and how cybercrime can be prevented.

Le occasioni di intrusione nella privacy sessuale delle persone si sono, negli ultimi anni, decisamente moltiplicate. Essa risulta invasa e manipolata secondo sempre nuove ed inquietanti declinazioni, tra le quali, la più grave, non
foss’altro per la sua maggiore diffusione, è la divulgazione di immagini intime, che, nel linguaggio comune, è spesso indicata con la controversa espressione “revenge porn”.
Il grave danno subito dalle vittime di “revenge porn” e le dimensioni che il fenomeno sta assumendo hanno già indotto i legislatori dei principali ordinamenti angloamericani ad introdurre una specifica fattispecie incriminatrice, ed impongono di interrogarsi sulla possibilità di disciplinare in via diretta anche nel nostro ordinamento gli effetti penali della divulgazione non consensuale di immagini pornografiche.
Il presente lavoro, quindi, prendendo le mosse da una messa a fuoco del fenomeno sotto diversi punti di vista (“in action”, terminologico, statistico), nonché da un’analisi del quadro di tutela attualmente predisposto dal sistema penale italiano, si propone di maturare alcune prime riflessioni sull’eventuale incriminazione specifica in ossequio ai canoni dell’offensività e della sussidiarietà.

Intrusions in the privacy of people’s sex life have become very common in recent years. Among the various forms of intrusion the most serious one, at least in terms of diffusiveness, is the dissemination of private sexual images, often referred to as “revenge porn”. The harmfulness for the victims of “revenge porn” and the dimensions of such a phenomenon have already induced lawmakers in the main AngloAmerican legal systems to introduce a specific criminal offence, so that it is crucial to assess if in our legal system the criminalisation of disseminating private sexy images would be a viable option. This essay, starting from an analysis of the phenomenon at issue from several standpoints (“in action”, linguistic, statistic) as well as the criminal law legal framework in Italy, aims to present some preliminary reflections on a proper criminal provision in light of the harm principle and the principle of minimal criminalisation.

Özet: Ceza hukukunda suçun pasif süjesi olarak da adlandırılan mağdur; doktrinde, suçu meydana getiren fiiller vasıtasıyla varlık ya da menfaatleri doğrudan saldırıya uğrayan kişi veya kişiler olarak tanımlanmaktadır. Ceza hukukunda mağdur kavramı, suçun işlenmesi aşamasında özellikle ilgilinin rızası halinde veya haksız tahrik kurumunun varlığında ya da suç oluşturan fillerin cezalandırılması aşamasında karşımıza çıkmaktadır. Suçun oluşumda mağdurun etkisi önemli olduğu kadar, mağdurun şahsi konumundan kaynaklı olarak cezalarda da değişik sonuçlarla karşılaşılabilmek mümkündür. Viktimoloji kavramı, dilimizde mağdur bilimi olarak karşılık bulmuştur. Viktimolojinin amacı; mağduru psikolojik, sosyal ve hukuki açıdan inceleyerek suç mağdurunun söz konusu mağduriyetinin giderilmesi için gerekli durumların oluşturulabilmesine olanak sağlamaktır. Viktimoloji açısından ceza hukuku müesseselerinde mağdurun ne gibi bir katkısı olduğu konusu her iki disiplin açısından önemlidir. Özellikle mağdurun suçun ortaya çıkışında nasıl bir konumda bulunduğu ve bunun ceza hukuku açısından ne gibi sonuçlara yol açtığının tespiti teorik açıdan olduğu kadar uygulamada da önem arz etmektedir.
Anahtar Sözcükler: viktimoloji, mağdur bilimi, ceza hukuku, suç, kriminoloji

This paper discusses issues surrounding the place of the victim in the (international) criminal justice system. It reviews how victims’ rights evolved and suggests that the criminal justice system, besides the role of crime control and punishment, should be therapeutic, promoting victims’ participation during criminal proceedings, providing for accountability and contributing to victims’ healing. Studies however demonstrate that despite the efforts of the victims’ movement, victim’s participation is not a practice, particularly in the criminal proceedings of the international courts. Although victims are entitled to certain rights of participation, due to the complexity of the cases, the number of victims involved, the distance between the courts and the victims’ residence and lack of representatives, victims are often not allowed to attend to oral proceedings, to express their views or to follow the progress of the case. Lack of participation or knowledge regarding the case may contribute to maintaining, and sometimes, to increasing victims’ distress, which has a negative impact in the peace-building process of post-conflict societies. Finally, we will suggest alternatives to enhance victims’ participation and therefore healing, such as the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, bearing in mind that these would improve the levels of societal peace of post-conflict societies.

A significant line of authority currently prohibits the consideration of family victim impact statements in NSW homicide cases. R v Previtera (1997) 94 A Crim R 76 makes this prohibition on the basis that family statements jeopardise a court's objectivity by according greater value to the life of the deceased than would otherwise be conferred where no statement is tendered. In such cases, an impact statement must be received by a sentencing court but must not be considered, as part of an offender's sentence. However, the relevance of Previtera has been questioned on the basis that the views of family members may be relevant to s 3A(g) of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW), concerning the broader circumstances of the offence, such as the harm done to the community. This article examines the relevance of family victims to the constitution of harm in homicide cases, and as a result, whether the rule for which Previtera is now authority, is in need of revision.

Mizogino i seksistički motivisano nasilje prema ženama, koje neretko ima smrtni ishod, predstavlja problem globalnih razmera. Mnogi međunarodni i nacionalni pravni izvori posvećeni su prevenciji i sankcionisanju nasilja prema ženama. Ipak, realnost zahteva preispitivanje postojećih mehanizama kaznenopravne reakcije na njegov najekstremniji i najbrutalniji oblik: femicid. Imajući u vidu učestalost i dalekosežne posledice ovog krivičnog dela i diskriminatorski karakter poruke koju država šalje njegovim tolerisanjem i neadekvatnim kažnjavanjem, autorka nastoji da definiše pojam femicida, predstavi osnovne oblike državne reakcije na femicid u uporednom pravu i analizira odlike femicida kao samostalnog krivičnog dela. Zalažući se za inkriminisanje femicida kao samostalnog krivičnog dela u krivičnom pravu Republike Srbije, autorka ističe da takvo rešenje može doprineti preciznijem praćenju ovog oblika kriminaliteta, boljoj proceni kvaliteta državne reakcije na njega i njegovom efikasnijem suzbijanju.
Ključne reči: femicid, rodno motivisano nasilje, ubistvo, krivično zakonodavstvo, zločin iz mržnje.

Defined extensively as committing ecological criminal offences with the intention to achieve political goals, environmental terrorism is a global threat to environment, human life, safety and health, as well as to the survival of flora and fauna. Environmental terrorism contains the elements of environmental crime and the elements of terrorism, which makes the position of its victims particularly complex. The subject of this paper includes defining environmental terrorism, analysing its phenomenology. Since this form of crime simultaneously harms and endangers environment, material goods, human life, safety and health, flora and fauna, the subject also comprises the study of the specific position of its victims. It is emphasized that long lasting and extensive consequences of ecological criminal offences make it difficult to determine promptly the victims of this form of crime, as well as that its victims are victimized twice: due to terrorist attack and due to negative consequences of ecological criminal offences (such as severe health damage) often emerging after several years. The subject covers the analysis of current international legal mechanisms for the prevention and protection of environmental terrorism victims’  rights, including those dealing with terrorism in general as well as those relevant to the protection of environment from negative anthropogenic factors. Finally, the subject contains a critical analysis of legislative framework of the Republic of Serbia pertinent to the prevention and sanctioning of environmental terrorism, with focus on the provisions of current Criminal Code prescribing ecological criminal offences and terrorism. In order to achieve more precise tracking of the scope and dynamics of environmental terrorism and more adequate sanctioning compatible with its social hazard, the authors propose its incrimination as an independent criminal offence against humanity and other values protected by the international law. The purpose of this paper is to define environmental terrorism, analyse its forms and to examine current mechanisms for the prevention of victimization from environmental terrorism and the protection of its victims’ rights on international and national level. Moreover, the authors seek to contribute to the improvement of the quality of tracking and to the efficiency of prevention of victimization from environmental terrorism in Serbia by suggesting its incrimination as an independent criminal offence.
Key words: environmental terrorism, terrorism, victims, environment, ecological criminal offences, Serbia.

1.  Viktimë apo i dëmtuar nga vepra penale?

VIKTIMË f. sh.
1. Ai që plagoset a vritet në një aksident, që dëmtohet a vdes nga tërmeti, përmbytjet etj.; ai
që vritet a plagoset nga dikush. Viktimat e  tërmetit.
2. Ai që pëson pa të drejtë një të keqe të madhe  nga dikush. Viktimat e agresionit imperialist. Ra
viktimë e një komploti (e një kurthi).

DËMTUAR mb.
1. Që ka pësuar dëme; që është prishur  pjesërisht. Arë e dëmtuar. Bimë të dëmtuara.
Makineri të dëmtuara. Shtëpi e dëmtuar. Pjesa e  dëmtuar.
2. si em. ~, ~I (i) m. sh. ~, ~IT (të). Ai që ka  pësuar dëmin, ai që është dëmtuar; i plagosuri.
Të dëmtuarit nga lufta (nga tërmeti). Me  kërkesën e të dëmtuarit.

Criminal law and justice has long been identified as a prerogative of the state. However, as we emerge into the twenty-first century, many common law jurisdictions have challenged the state monopoly on crime and justice by affording victims’ rights that may be enforced against the state or defendant in the criminal prosecution process. Certain common law jurisdictions now allow for the representation of the victim in the pre-trial and sentencing phases of the criminal trial, in addition to other rights, such as access to an enforceable charter of rights and an evolving law of evidence that is increasingly seeking to protect vulnerable and intimidated witnesses. Drawing from the rise of private
counsel for victims, this article considers the rise of enforceable rights for victims as a trend that directly challenges the conceptualisation of criminal law and justice as singularly ‘public’. The recognition that criminal law and procedure now accommodates the interests of the victim provides for a reassessment of the characterisation of criminal law as state control by another name.

The topic of sexual offending is a deeply complex and challenging one. In the past number of years, there has been a growing interest in sexual crime with a proliferation of cases provoking controversy surrounding sentencing and continuing questions about the adequacy of the current law.

Sexual Offending in Ireland: Laws, Procedures and Punishment offers an accessible and comprehensive account of the relevant law in relation to sexual offending in Ireland. It incorporates an examination of developments in domestic legislation and case law, detailing the substantive and evidentiary rules, as well as sentencing practice and supervision of sexual offenders. Part 1 of the book provides a comprehensive account of the substantive law on sexual offences, covering the primary sexual offences against adult victims, as well as those relating to victims who are under the age of consent or who have limited decision-making capacity. Part 2 looks at procedural issues surrounding trial and evidence. It incorporates a critical analysis of recent developments in evidence-related issues that have arisen in recent years. This part covers the special rules of evidence which apply in sexual offence trials, as well as describing the special procedures which may apply in sexual offence trials to protect victims from secondary victimisation. Part 3 provides a comprehensive examination of how those convicted of sexual offending are sentenced in the Irish courts, and explains the post-release orders and requirements a convicted sex offender may be subject to in the aftermath of imprisonment.

Sexual Offending in Ireland: Laws, Procedures and Punishment also discusses the recent reforms introduced under the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 and the Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Bill 2016, examining the implications these reforms will have upon the trial and punishment of sexual offences. It is a timely addition to commentary on the law in this unique area.

Sumario: I. Introducción. II. El contenido del apartado C del artículo 20 constitucional, reformado por virtud de la reforma de 18 de junio de 2008. III. Para un recuento de la internacionalización del derecho victimal. IV. Los derechos reconocidos en el artículo 20 C constitucional. V. Hacia un derecho victimal integral en México.
Palabras Clave: Derechos de las víctimas; Reparación integral; Constitución Política de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos; Convención Americana sobre Derechos Humanos; Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos; Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación.

This paper provides a critical assessment of the legislation establishing criminal injuries compensation and victim assistance schemes across the states and territories of Australia. These programs are assessed in terms of the extent to which they limit a victim’s participation in the criminal jurisdiction for an alternative administrative milieu that actually removes the victim from the criminal law. The extent to which this restoration occurs in an administrative framework as an adjunct to
the criminal jurisdiction is assessed with the view to provide the victim of crime greater access to the criminal law as the site of the resolution of the criminal offence. Issues regarding the integration of victim interests, such as the need to preserve defendant rights, is discussed.

In R v Christopher Killick [2011] EWCA Crim 1608, the Criminal Division of the Court of Appeal for England and Wales gave a decision setting out the rights of a crime victim to seek review of a Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decision not to prosecute and concluded that victims
have the right to seek review in such circumstances. This included a recommendation that the right to review should be made the subject of clearer procedures and guidance. This paper discusses article 10 of the Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council, (2011) 2011/0129 (COD), 18 May 2011 establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime (see article 11 Final Directive) as applied in the Killick case. The paper further discusses the implementation of Killick in prosecution policy,
namely in the CPS guideline on the victims’ right to review (Director of Public Prosecutions for England and Wales 2014). Opportunities for victim participation will be canvassed in light of tensions between discourses of victim rights and the duty of the Crown to prosecute in the
public interest.

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence.

The need to stop rape is pressing and, since it is the outcome of a wide range of practices and institutions in society, so too must the policies be to stop it This important book offers a comprehensive guide to the international policies developed to stop rape , together with case study examples on how they work. The book engages with the law and criminal justice system, health services, specialised services for victim-survivors, educational and cultural interventions, as well as how they can best be coordinated. It is informed by theory and evidence drawn from scholarship and practice from around the world.

The book will be of interest to a global readership of students, practitioners and policy makers as well as anyone who wants to know how rape can be stopped.

Armed robbery exposes workers to serious harm in an environment where day-to-day safety is not normally a concern, and can have a wide range of negative consequences for employees. Victims may find it difficult to return to or cope at work.

This research examined a sample of 93 victims of armed robbery in the workplace from the AIC’s Database of Victimisation Experiences to determine what helped or hindered their return to work. The results are discussed in the context of enhancing how small businesses respond to and support victims of armed robbery in the workplace.

The response to calls for the better integration of victims into systems of criminal justice has resulted in a range of innovative programs and pilots seeking to reposi-tion the victim. However, crime victims have tended to be managed away from the criminal trial into alternative pathways to justice in order to meet this policy directive. While innovation can be found at the periphery of criminal law and justice, through restorative justice, problem-solving and intervention programs that complement or work alongside normative trial processes, the twenty-first century is witness to the emergence of victim rights and powers that affect trial process in more direct ways. This paper explores the emergence of enforceable rights for victims of crime that impact on normative trial processes in an adversarial context. It does this by considering new powers for victims that impact on decisions made in the pre-trial, trial and sentencing phases of the criminal trial, in addition to extra-crucial powers that lie beyond any one phase of the trial.

The prevention of assault has been a high-profile, long-term concern for government and police agencies. However, while the nature and impacts of certain types of physical violence, such as domestic or sexual assault, have been extensively studied, this is not the case for more traditional forms of physical assault. Understanding the needs of victims of physical assault, particularly in an Australian context, is important in order to ensure that services are adequately able to address these victims’ needs.

This paper represents the first research to be published using the Australian Institute of Criminology’s Database of Victimisation Experiences; a qualitative database that can be used to better explore the nature and impact of violent victimisation. In this paper, the findings of an analysis of cases of non-domestic, non-sexual physical assault are described. While victims experienced a variety of psychological and physical difficulties as a consequence of assault, this study demonstrates how the impacts often extended into wider aspects of victim/survivors’ lives.

Recensione de "Il libro dell'incontro. Vittime e responsabili della lotta armata a confronto" di A. Ceretti , G. Bertagna , C. Mazzucato, Il Saggiatore, 2015. In forma di intervista a cura di Luca Guglielminetti, pubblicata sulla Rivista di Criminologia, Vittimologia e Sicurezza (RCVS) Anno 12, Numero 2, Maggio-Agosto 2018, pp 87-91.

במאמר זה נטען כי הרטוריקה הרווחת במשפט הישראלי יוצרת את האשליה שהמשפט הישראלי מציע הגנה מקיפה וממשית מפני כל פגיעה בשלום הילד, ושטובת הילד היא שיקול מכריע בענייניו. לאמיתו של דבר לא מוצעת לילד אלא הגנה חלקית בלבד, בעיקר מפני אנשים בסביבתו האינטימית, אך לא כאדם שלם בעל זהות ובעל זיקות למשפחה ולקהילה, כפי שמתחייב מאמנת האו"ם בדבר זכויות הילד. עוד נטען כי אף לטעמם של אלה המבקשים להגן על הילד במבודד ממשפחתו, בהתבסס על אתוס ליברלי-אינדיווידואליסטי של זכויות הילד, אין הדין הנוהג מגן על הילד כראוי –לא בתוך משפחתו ולא מחוץ לה. הסדר הגנת הילד במתכונת הקיימת בישראל עשוי טלאים-טלאים ואינו ראוי כמכלול. כדי להדגים את טענותינו, נצביע בפרקי המאמר על הכשלים הקיימים במשפט הנוהג בישראל בכל אחד מן השטחים העוסקים ברווחת הילד. כן נעמוד במאמר על הגישה האידיאולוגית-ההיסטורית באשר להגנת הילד בישראל ועל השפעתה בהווה, ובסיומו נביע עמדה בנוגע לשינוי היסודי הנדרש בדין הנוהג כדי להגן על שלום הילד באופן המיטבי

Notre recherche nous amène à nous intéresser à la détermination de la peine et à la manière dont les juges mobilisent, à ce stade des procédures, les inputs des victimes qui y sont fréquemment observées. À la fin des années 1980, le rôle de la victime dans les procédures judiciaires s’est étendu de la victime-témoin de l’acte (témoin traditionnel) à celui de la victime-témoin de l’impact.
Le contexte théorique de cette recherche est celui d’une combinaison de la théorie des systèmes autoréférentiels de Niklas Luhmann et de la théorie de la rationalité pénale moderne d’Alvaro P. Pires. Le système judiciaire, désignant ici les tribunaux ayant compétence en matière criminelle et pénale, est compris comme un système opérationnellement clos sur lui-même, mais cognitivement ouvert sur son environnement
(Luhmann, 1992).
À l’intérieur de ce cadre théorique, l’ouverture cognitive du système judiciaire, au moment de déterminer la peine, est structurellement déterminée par les théories de la peine formant le système d’idée de la rationalité pénale moderne (RPM) (Pires, 2008). La relation que le système judiciaire développe avec les victimes d’actes criminels serait alors soumise hypothétiquement à l’influence de cette rationalité juridique. Ainsi, plutôt que de voir les victimes comme étant hostiles en elles-mêmes, nous voulons explorer l’influence du système dans la sélection et la mise en forme d’un discours victimaire répressif.
L’hypothèse générale que nous avons testée dans notre recherche suggère que cette récente considération judiciaire pour les victimes est cognitivement encadrée par la RPM et potentiellement par une nouvelle théorie de la peine, différente de celles présentement stabilisées dans l’univers cognitif de la RPM. Encore mal cernée conceptuellement, cette
nouvelle théorie s’observerait néanmoins empiriquement à partir d’effets qui ne peuvent être attribuables aux théories de la peine classiques.
Sous l’effet de cette nouvelle théorie de la peine, la considération judiciaire entraînerait le risque d’une aggravation du problème que Pires (2002a) a formulé dans les termes de la « non-évolution » du droit criminel moderne. La thèse de la non-évolution suggère une tendance historiquement observable dans laquelle le droit criminel associe son
identité systémique et sa différenciation identitaire à l’institutionnalisation de sentences afflictives et/ou génératrices d’exclusion sociale, complexe cognitif dans lequel la peine de
prison continue d’agir comme la peine de référence (Foucault, 1975).
Sur le plan méthodologique, la présente thèse privilégie une analyse discursive à partir de la jurisprudence canadienne. Ce matériau de recherche a été privilégié étant donné que nous nous intéressons à l’état du droit criminel du point de vue de sa relation avec les victimes. Comme le système judiciaire en est un qui fait un certain usage de l’écriture pour stabiliser ses opérations, la jurisprudence représente un accès privilégié à notre objet d’étude.
Nos résultats de recherche montrent qu’une sémantique de la victime est en train de complexifier l’ordre interne de la RPM. Lors de l’évaluation de la gravité de l’infraction, les inputs des victimes multiplient les facteurs aggravants influençant directement la sévérité de la sanction.
Par ailleurs, malgré le fait que les victimes d’actes criminels n’aient pas le statut officiel de partie lésée, la recherche tend à démontrer une pratique judiciaire qui consiste à traduire certaines attentes victimaires en « information audible » (Bateson, 1977) lors de la détermination de la peine. Les sanctions criminelles seraient modulées pour répondre – à
l’intérieure de certaines limites que la présente recherche tente de débusquer – aux attentes ou aux besoins des victimes. En ce sens, la peine ne s’adresse plus seulement aux condamnés, mais aussi aux victimes ou du moins à la manière dont le système judiciaire se la représente.
Cependant, toutes les attentes victimaires ne sont pas traiter de la même manière. Certaines sont inadmissibles – c’est le cas des demandes de (trop) peines sévères et des attentes de closure psychologique – alors que d’autres le sont – c’est le cas des demandes
de clémences et de certaines demandes de peines sévères, des attentes de dédommagement, des attentes de quiétude/protection et des attentes de closure procédural. Cette réception différentielle des attentes victimaires tend à « objectiver », au sens de rendre visible, un
effet de filtrage des inputs victimaires par le système judiciaire.
Au terme de cette recherche, l’observation de la relation entre le système judiciaire et les victimes d’actes criminels suggèrent que les tribunaux canadiens déploient des efforts pour valoriser ou reconnaître les victimes d’actes criminels comme des individus lésés ayant des attentes légitimes en matière de justice criminelle. Toutefois, cette reconnaissance judiciaire ne remet pas en question la logique punitive du droit criminel, même lorsque la victime demande explicitement la clémence.

The case of the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo has been
extensively discussed, but most commentators focus on two aspects:
its “uniqueness,” and its “meaningful participation” in the
transitional justice process. This paper challenges the traditional
commentary by concentrating on the complexity of the
Grandmother’s experience and its potential to be replicated by other
victims’ organizations in other parts of the globe. The paper also
proposes replacing the traditional goal of “meaningful participation”
– focused on a victim-centered or victim-oriented perspective – by
means of a victim-driven approach. To do this, the article analyzes
the success of the Grandmothers by showing their independent work
during a variety of political circumstances at the national level.


To cite this work/Para citar este trabajo: Vegh Weis, Valeria  The Relevance of Victims’ Organizations in Transitional Justice Processes. The Case of Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo in Argentina, Intercultural Human Rights Law Review, vol. 60, 2017, pp. 1-70.