engleski

Victimology, Victimisation (Typology) & Victim Protection in Croatia

The contribution offers a comprehensive insight into the current status and future prospects of victimology in Croatia. When discussing ‘victimology’ in the framework of this paper the term relates to the scientific study of the how and why of criminal victimisation, including individual and societal reactions to victimisation and crime. And in this regard victimology in Croatia is almost non-existent, or at least not recognisable as a specialised and developed area of research (within or closely related to Croatian criminology). Overall, in Croatia, crime rates are generally low and below the European average, as are murder rates, whereas there is a rather stable trend detectable when it comes to the total of adults convicted for criminal offenses. And just as in the rest of the SEE region, the challenge in Croatia is not crime in general, but rather specific types of non-conventional crime (e.g. corruption and trade in influence, organised crime etc.) and the conditions acting as their facilitators (e.g. the crime-conflict and the crime-politics nexus). Being a post- conflict and war-affected country, as well as still heavily affected by social, economic and political transition, Croatia faces an ongoing struggle with rule of law and good governance, which is naturally also reflected in its criminal justice system. During the past decade the Croatian criminal justice system had to face several huge reforms, covering both big areas of society’s basic repressive mechanisms for dealing with crime, criminals and their victims – the criminal procedure as well as the penal reaction. When one looks at the Croatian criminal justice system, one of the lines of its development in the last two decades has been dedicated to the improvement of the position of victims of crime. A lot of changes in the national legislation have been enacted in order to recognise specific rights and legitimate interests of victims of crime and to give those rights and legitimate interest a clear and strong legislative basis. Thus, completely new rights for victims of crime have been introduced, some of which are connected with the participation of victims in criminal proceedings, but others having an independent, extra-procedural character. This process has been followed and supported by the process of establishment of a victim support system in Croatia. Although victimology started developing in Croatia at the same time when its development started at the international level, this development did not lead to the establishment of victimology as an independent scientific discipline. This contribution therefore tries to fill the void detected in Croatian victimology and presents a first (preliminary) typology of victims of crime in Croatia.

victimology ; victim protection

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