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Summary PART A: CHAPTER 6
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Challenges of the Criminal Justice System in Addressing the needs of victims and witnesses.
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Criminology 220Part (A): Victimology
Chapter 6: Challenges of the Criminal Justice System in Addressing the Needs
of Victims and Witnesses
Please note:
2 types of questions can be asked:
1> Long question for (15) marks
2> Short questions for (5) marks
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, VICTIM SUPPORT, VICTIM EMPOWERMENT AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Victim safety – protection against violence and intimidation
Broad function of criminal justice system is in many ways to ensure that victims, and society
broadly, are protected from crime.
Earliest types of victim support measures obtained towards victims of domestic violence
were shelters or refuges intended to provide a temporary dwelling for women who were
exposed to repeated violence in their homes.
The Domestic Violence Act (116 of 1998) provides for victims to be granted protection
orders which, in addition to prohibiting domestic violence, may forbid other actions by the
alleged perpetrator, such as entering the victim’s residence or place of work.
The primary objective of these measures which resemble other measures intended to assist
victims in avoiding repeat victimisation, is therefore protect victims of repeated violence or
abuse.
A second type of measure included the establishment of witness protection programmes
and other systems intended to provide protection against efforts by the perpetrator or
his/her associates to prevent or discourage the victim from participating in criminal justice
process through violence, the threat of violence or other coercive measures.
Witness protection programmes are state funded and usually form part of the criminal
justice system.
Those who are housed in the programme include not only witnesses themselves but also
their family members or other related persons who also are believed to be in danger.
Medical assistance and advice, emotional support and trauma counselling:
Most immediate need that victims have might be for medical treatment, which in cases of
rape might also include assess to antiretroviral drugs primarily to prevent HIV infection.
Responsibility of the police to ensure that medical assistance is called for when necessary,
and to assist rape victims in accessing the necessary medical attention and help.
Victimisation represents a moment of crisis for the victim, and victim support measures aim
to assist victims by providing them with advice, emotional support or trauma counselling.
In relation to the criminal justice system, is the need for the police to refer victims to such
services.
Another innovation has been the establishment of Thuthuzela (comfort) centres which are
multidisciplinary rape care centres intended as one-stop facilities and often based at
hospitals, with 27 of these having been established by 2011.
Secondary victimisation
Process of laying a charge and pursuing a case through criminal justice system is likely to be
a taxing one for the survivor.
Insensitive or other disrespectful or harsh treatment by criminal justice officials may serve
as a source of additional distress for survivors of crime.
Negative treatment of this kind, whether from police, prosecutors, magistrates, district
surgeons or other officials associated with criminal justice system, is referred as secondary
victimisation.
SAPS has had a focus on the issue of secondary victimisation and victim empowerment for
many years.
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