By Sue Jago, with Lorena Arocha, Isabelle Brodie, Margaret Melrose, Jenny Pearce and Camille Warrington

This research project has explored the extent and nature of the response of LSCBs to the 2009 government guidance on safeguarding children and young people from sexual exploitation. Where the guidance is followed, there are examples of developing and innovative practice to protect and support young people and their families and to investigate and prosecute their abusers. However, the research has found that the delivery of that dual approach to child sexual exploitation is far from the norm. There are three areas that cause particular concern: • only a quarter of LSCBs in England are implementing the guidance • young people, their families and carers receive awareness raising in less than half of the country • the prosecution of abusers is rare and, where criminal proceedings take place, young people’s experience of court is intolerable These and related findings are set out below together with recommendations on how to ensure that action is taken, locally and nationally, to address this form of child abuse.

Bedfordshire, UK: University of Bedfordshire, 2011.140p.

By Office of the Children’s Commissioner

This report, coming at the end of the first year of this Inquiry into the sexual exploitation of children in gangs and groups, has uncovered for the first time the extent to which children in England are being sexually exploited. We publish the number of known victims over a set period of time but can say with certainty that our figures are an undercounting of the true scale of this form of abuse. We know that because, although many agencies and organisations responded to our request for information and data, there were some notable gaps, with a few local authorities failing to do so. Furthermore, we know that children are sexually exploited in contexts other than in gangs and groups, including by lone perpetrators. Evidence about those children is not included in this report. During the course of this Inquiry we have heard from young people who have been raped in the most unbearable ways. These have included children who have been abducted, trafficked, beaten and threatened after being drawn into a web of sexual violence by promises of love and others who have suffered in silence for years as they are casually and routinely raped by the boys in their neighbourhoods – as they come out of school, as they walk to the shops, as they play in their local park. The vast majority of the perpetrators of this terrible crime are male. They range in age from as young as fourteen to old men. They come from all ethnic groups and so do their victims – contrary to what some may wish to believe. The failure of agencies to recognise this means that too many child victims are not getting the protection and support they so desperately need.

London: The Office, 2012. 138p.

By Diana Lopez-Avila

This paper aims at shedding light on the relationship between women's empowerment and domestic violence. For this, we explore different ways to measure women's empowerment and domestic violence, and analyze whether the relation depends on the definitions used. We take advantage of a rich data set collected in rural Colombia, including several measures of self-esteem, disagreement towards domestic violence, participation in household decisions and social capital; and analyze the relationship with both aggressive and controlling ways of domestic violence. The results indicate that the different measures of women's empowerment help explain much better the aggressive ways of domestic violence than the controlling ones. Our results show a positive correlation between women's empowerment and domestic violence. This goes in line with the theories that argue that men use violence as a way to leverage their power within the household. Among the different latent measures of women's empowerment we used, we found that social capital and self-esteem are significantly correlated with aggressive domestic violence. We do not find that more common proxies, such as women's participation in household decisions, are significantly correlated to domestic violence.

Paris: Paris School of Economics, 2015. 42p.

By Aurélien Dasre , Angela Greulich, Inan Ceren

This paper identifies motors and barriers for combatting domestic violence against women in Turkey – a country where modernism and conservatism are in constant interplay. We combine information from the Demographic Health Surveys and the Turkish Domestic Violence Survey and distinguish between controlling behavior, physical and sexual violence. Our empirical analysis tests how far a woman's intra-household decision making power (as measured by her education, her activity status, her income etc.) bears the potential to reduce her risk of experiencing domestic violence in Turkey. The analysis takes into account contextual factors as well as partner and household characteristics. We find that women's participation in the labor market does not, on its' own, reduce women's risk of experiencing intimate partner violence, but an egalitarian share of economic resources between spouses in likely to protect women against domestic violence. This finding has two important implications: First, higher education enabling women to access formal wage employment allows women not only to gain economic independence, but also to freely choose their partner. Second, unstable economic conditions that harm earning opportunities for men are an important risk factor for couples to experience conflits that can result in domestic violence against women. Against the background of the recent economic crisis that comes hand in hand with a backlash of gender and family norms in Turkey, our results highlight the need of policy action in this field.

Paris: University of Paris, Maison des Sciences Économiques, 2017. 37p.

By Chandre Gould

In this monograph, readers will meet some of the men who are responsible for violent crime in South Africa. The narratives presented here are based on interviews with men who have been incarcerated for murder, robbery and rape. These accounts show that the foundation for their criminal careers was laid early in their lives and compounded by their experiences of loss, abuse and alienation. Readers are taken on a journey through their lives to understand why crime in South Africa is so violent, and what needs to be done to prevent it.

Pretoria, South Africa: Institute for Security Studies, 2017. 144p.

By Human Rights Watch

This report—based largely on research and interviews conducted with 22 North Koreans detained in detention and interrogation facilities after 2011 (when Kim Jong Un came to power) and eight former North Korean officials who fled the country—provides new information on North Korea’s opaque pretrial detention and investigation system. It describes the criminal investigation process; North Korea’s weak legal and institutional framework; the dependence of law enforcement and the judiciary on the ruling WPK; the apparent presumption of guilt; bribery and corruption; and inhumane conditions and mistreatment of those in detention and interrogation facilities (kuryujang) that often amounts to torture. Because North Korea is a “closed” country, not much is known about the legal processes in its pretrial detention system, but the experiences of those interviewed and the other evidence detailed below, show that torture, humiliation, coerced confessions, hunger, unhygienic conditions, and the necessity of connections and bribes to avoid the worst treatment appear to be fundamental characteristics.

New York: HRW, 2021. 100p.

By Human Rights Watch

On April 7, 2016, soon after the end of evening prayers, Sadia, 27, heard her husband calling her to come down to the street. As she got to the door, however, he stood flanked by two men, blocking the exit. On her husband’s order, his companions doused her with nitric acid. “My husband stood watching as my dress fell straight off and my necklace and earrings melted into my skin,” Sadia said. After four surgeries and almost four months at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Sadia lost both her left ear and left eye. “He was trying to kill me,” she said when Human Rights Watch met her a year later. Acid attacks are one particularly extreme form of violence in a pattern of widespread gender-based violence targeting women and girls in Bangladesh. In fact, many of the women interviewed for this report endured domestic violence, including beatings and other physical attacks, verbal and emotional abuse, and economic control, for months or even years leading up to an attack with acid. For instance, during the 12 years that Sadia was married before the acid attack, her husband beat her regularly and poured chemicals in her eyes three times, each time temporarily blinding her.

New York: HRW, 2020. 73p.

By Human Rights Watch

In 2017, a US Border Patrol agent kneed a woman in the lower pelvis, leaving bruises and pain days later, according to her statement to a government official screening her asylum claim. In a separate incident that year, a Border Patrol agent or Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer forced a girl to undress and then inappropriately touched her. In 2018, a CBP officer hit another asylum applicant so hard he was knocked unconscious and suffered brain swelling. That same year, an officer wearing a green uniform, consistent with those of the Border Patrol, asked an asylum applicant to give him oral sex in exchange for being released from custody. Another asylum applicant was bitten in the testicle by a Border Patrol service dog and denied medical treatment for about one month and ultimately had to have his testicle surgically removed. In 2019, CBP officials appeared to withhold food from a man in a freezing cold holding facility until he agreed to sign a paper that he did not understand. These are just some of the allegations of abuse catalogued in internal US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reports received by Human Rights Watch on September 24, 2021 via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

New York: HRW, 2021. 103p.

By Human Rights Watch

The Cameroon report, “‘Everyone Wants Me Dead’: Killings, Abductions, Torture, and Sexual Violence Against LGBT People by Armed Groups in Iraq,” documents cases of attempted murder of LGBT people by armed groups primarily within the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), which are nominally under the prime minister’s authority.

New York: HRW, 2022. 115p.

By Human Rights Watch

In June 2021, Eşref Akoda shot dead his 38-year-old wife Yemen outside her home in the central Anatolian town of Aksaray. Prior to this lethal assault, courts had on four separate occasions issued preventive orders aimed at keeping Eşref away from Yemen after he harassed her when she filed for divorce. A lawyer for the family said that Eşref Akoda had approached and threatened his wife at least twice, violating the third and fourth preventive orders, but that on those occasions the court had not imposed any of the available disciplinary sanctions on him, such as a short period in detention, due to a “lack of evidence”. The prosecutor also declined to bring criminal charges against him, even though Yemen’s lawyer had filed complaints with the prosecutor’s office.

New York: HRW, 2022. 92p.

By Yuliya Mysyuk

This thesis explores perceptions and views of different groups involved in elder abuse. First chapter provides a general introduction to the topic and current study. In the second chapter of this thesis, definitions of elder abuse and their developments are reviewed. Chapter three explores different perspectives on the etiology of violence in later life. Chapter four discusses older persons’ definitions of and explanations for elder abuse. Chapter five explores older victims’ ideas about the causes and effects of abuse, the ways of coping with abuse and how they currently feel about it. In the sixth chapter, the framing of elder abuse as a social and a health problem is addressed, with attention to the factors that influence societal context and the health care system. Chapter seven raises the debate about the distinction of system abuse as a separate form of elder abuse. Finally, key findings of this thesis on perspectives on elder abuse are summarized in chapter eight of this thesis.

Leiden, Netherlands: Leiden University, 2015. 169p.

Edited by Carol Hagemann-White, Liz Kelly, Thomas Meysen

This book offers insights and perspectives from a study of “Cultural Encounters in Intervention Against Violence” (CEINAV) in four EU-countries. Seeking a deeper understanding of the underpinnings of intervention practices in Germany, Portugal, Slovenia and the United Kingdom, the team explored variations in institutional structures and traditions of law, policing, and social welfare. Theories of structural inequality and ethics are discussed and translated into practice

Leverkusen-Opladen: Verlag Barbara Budrich, 2019. 282p.

By European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights

Crime harms individual victims, their loved ones, as well as society as a whole. Its effects are multi-faceted, causing physical, psychological and material injury. Fear of crime can be almost equally damaging, often changing how people live their daily lives. Crime undermines the individual rights of victims, including their core fundamental rights, such as the right to life and human dignity. The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights obliges states to protect these rights. The Charter and the Victims’ Rights Directive also give victims a right to redress and to be treated without discrimination. In addition, victims’ property and consumer protection rights can be affected. This report presents results from FRA’s Fundamental Rights Survey – the first EU-wide survey to collect comparable data on people’s experiences with, concern about, and responses to select types of crime. It focuses on violence and harassment, as well as on certain property crimes. The survey reached out to 35,000 people in the EU, the United Kingdom and North Macedonia.

Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2021 117p.

By Cheryl Overs.

This case study describes and examines the impact of the changes brought about by the new legislation in Cambodia against sex work.

Brighton, UK: Institute of Development Studies, 2013. 42p.

By Inka Lilja, Elina Kervinen, Anni Lietonen, Natalia Ollus, Minna Viuhko, Anniina Jokinen.

The HEUNI report "Unseen Victims" presents the manifestations and consequences of gender-based violence and the challenges in assisting victims of violence in the migration context. With this report we aim to increase the understanding of policymakers on the structural challenges asylum-seeking and refugee women who have experienced gender-based violence face.

Helsinki: European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control (HEUNI), 2020. 100p.

Edited by J.A. Wemmers.

In the last fifteen to twenty years, criminal justice policy-makers and government in the Netherlands have begun to realize that victims of crime are often seriously affected by their experience and that reactions by criminal justice authorities are not always supportive. This realization was in part stimulated by the women's movement which drew attention to violence against women and the position of these victims in the criminal justice system. Other developments which have contributed to the increased attention for victims of crime include the rise in the registered crime rate which was at its peak during the seventies and early eighties. Also in the early seventies, the victim survey was introduced. It revealed that the registered crime statistics are incomplete and that only a fraction of crimes are brought to the attention of authorities. At the same time, police were finding it increasingly difficult to solve the crimes which were brought to their attention and the clearance rate began to drop. Authorities realized that they can only do their work if victims are prepared to report crime to them and that their willingness to report crimes is in part dependent on the quality of the relationship between citizens and the justice system.

The Hague: WODC, Ministry of Justice ; Amsterdam : Kugler Publications. 1996. 252p.

By N Elbers; A Akkermans; H Soleto Muñoz; Fiodorova; A Grané; J Maria Tamarit; L Arantegui; P Patrizi; GL Lepri; E Lodi; D Chirico; I Lāce; L Vaivode; J Dilba; A Brekasi; N Zoidou Saripapa; N Spetsidis.

The second eBook of the FAIRCOM Project, available as download on this page, presents the results of an investigative study on State Compensation and Offender Compensation in the current five partner countries: Greece, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands and Spain. It identifies good practices and offers recommendations.

The last 20 years, victims of crime have received increased attention in the criminal trial process. Various EU legislation, in specific the Victims’ Rights Directive 2012/29/EU,1 has established important victims’ rights, such as the right to receive information, respectful treatment, legal support, victim support and compensation. Most EU member states have implemented the legislation and the position of victims has clearly been strengthened. Now that victims of crime are in the spotlight, it is a good opportunity to also focus on specific vulnerable groups of victims in criminal law: victims of sexual crimes. Victims of sexual crimes require special attention for several reasons. Firstly, the scale in which sexual violence occurs is significant: according to a report of the European Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), it is estimated that 3.7 million women in the EU are subjected to sexual violence every year. 2 In total 11% of women have experienced some form of sexual violence since they were 15 years old. 5% of women have been raped since the age of 15. 3 The FRA did not include sexual violence to men. What is known about men is that 10% of victims of violent sexual crimes are men, the majority (90%) of the victims are women. 4 Of the perpetrators, 99% are men, 1% are women. 5 Secondly, victims of sexual crimes need support in their search for justice. Only 14% of victims of sexual violence report their offense to the police.6 Sexual crimes are often associated with shame and stigma and often mentioned in relation to secondary victimisation. About 25% of victims of sexual crimes do not dare to report the crime because of shame and 12% does not report because they think they will not be believed. Victims of physical violence also do not report because of shame or not being believed but the percentages are much lower, respectively 8% and 2%.7 Of the victims of sexual crimes who report to the police, about 46% are not satisfied with the treatment received by the police.

Amsterdam: Free University of Amsterdam, 2020. 94p.

Edited by The Centre for Child Law.

Child victims and witnesses of crime are amongst the most vulnerable people in the justice system. The United Nations issued guidelines for their protection in 2005. This publication sets out the guidelines in the South African context. Does South African law reflect these guidelines? What are the challenges to be faced in order to bring South African law and practice in line with these international standards? Answers to these questions are provided in this up-to-date analysis of the current state of the law. This publication is a useful guide for students of law, as well as for practitioners who work with children in the courts. Launched during the internationally recognised “16 days of activism to end violence against women and children”, the publication is designed to be of assistance in the everyday working life of presiding officers, prosecutors, defence lawyers, social workers, intermediaries and other professionals.

Pretoria: Pretoria University Law Press (PULP), 2008. 59p.

By S.K. Witting.

With access to and usage of it increasing dramatically over the past 20 years, the Internet has become an emerging realm for human interaction. With children constituting one-third of Internet users worldwide, this realm offers endless opportunities to learn, connect, and interact. At the same time, the Internet facilitates child sexual abuse on a large scale – through the production, dissemination, and accessing of child sexual abuse material.This study aims to critically analyse emerging aspects of the international and national regulation, investigation and prosecution of online child sexual abuse material from a child-rights and rule-of-law-based approach. It investigates emerging aspects of substantive and procedural law which have been little explored in the past, zooming in on complex constitutional aspects by applying a comparative legal analysis approach with a strong focus on the Global South as well as interdisciplinary legal research.In order to solve these complex legal issues, the answer lies in the identification and subsequent navigation of a variety of dichotomies that govern the discourse on online child sexual abuse material. The international and national regulation, investigation and prosecution of emerging aspects of online child sexual abuse material hence require constant identification, reflection and calibration of competing discourses, with a view to developing a cyber-specific yet victim-sensitive response that upholds the rule of law and takes a child-centred approach.

Leiden: Leiden University, 2020. 158p.

By J.J. Rokven.

Why do offenders often become victims of crime themselves? And are victims of crime also more likely to become criminal offenders? While criminological research often treats victims and offenders as distinct groups, Von Hentig already in 1948 noted that these groups may overlap. In his textbook, The Criminal and His Victim, Von Hentig criticized the traditional offender=oriented nature of criminology and drew attention to the fact that victims and offenders both play important roles in criminal events and people may alternate between the role of victim and offender. Subsequently, numerous studies have examined the relationship between victimization and offending and virtually all documented a strong connection between the two: those who engage in criminal offending are often also the ones who suffer from it (Fagan, Piper, & Cheng, 1987; Jennings, Piquero, & Reingle, 2011; Jensen & Brownfield, 1986; Lauritsen & Laub, 2007; Lauritsen, Sampson, & Laub, 1991; Ousey, Wilcox, & Fisher, 2011; Sampson & Lauritsen, 1990; Singer, 1981; Smith & Ecob, 2007). Despite the strong empirical evidence for the victimization-offending relationship, the etiology of this relationship is still not well understood. The aim of this study is therefore to provide more insight in the underlying processes that explain this victim-offender overlap.

Nijmegen, Netherlands:Radboud University, 2016. 186p.