Personal safety. Protection of the victims of crime

• Author: Sorina-Alexandra Covalciuc
• Position: Faculty of Law and Administrative Sciences, European Law Department
• Pages: 25-32

AGORA International Journal of Juridical Sciences, http://univagora.ro/jour/index.php/aijjs

ISSN 1843-570X, E-ISSN 2067-7677

No. 2 (2019), pp. 25 - 32

25

PERSONAL SAFETY. PROTECTION OF THE VICTIMS OF CRIME

S-A. COVALCIUC

Sorina-Alexandra COVALCIUC

Faculty of Law and Administrative Sciences, European Law Department

“Ștefan cel Mare” University of Suceava, România

E-mail: covalciucalexandra@gmail.com

ABSTRACT:

The impact of the crime phenomenon on the persons affected by it can be a profound

one transposed into physical, mental, emotional and financial injuries, of which some victims

can never recover. The actions that make up the criminal act can be harmed on the victims,

witnesses or their families, and the most serious of the threats are those against the person's

life. The paper focuses, first and foremost, on the measures to be taken to protect the victims

of crime, as well as on the means of support offered to the victims so that they can enjoy the

right of access to justice in order to cover their harm.

KEY WORDS: victims of crime, protection of victims of crime, access to justice,

compensation for victims of crime

INTRODUCTION

Every year, about 15% of the European population or 75,000 people in the European

Union are charged as victims of crime

1

. This fact shows us that some protection measures are

necessary to adopt in favour of victims or possible victims of crimes (and a relative of the

main protected person), in criminal matters, taking into appropriate consideration to the needs

of victims, including particularly vulnerable persons (e.g. minors, person with disablities).

However, it should not apply to measures adopted with a view to witness protection.

The United Nations Declaration on the Basic Principles for Victims of Crime and

Abuse of Power (1985) defines the term victim as those people who, individually or

collectively, suffered any harm, physical or mental, emotional experiences, economic losses

or the material injury of their fundamental rights, by action or inaction that violates the

criminal law in force, within the Member States, including those laws that stipulate the illicit

abuse of power. The person is considered a victim whether the perpetrator is identified,

arrested, investigated or convicted and, regardless of the relationship between the perpetrator

and the victim.

By the term injured person in Romanian law we understand the person who suffered

an injury of his interests or rights by an anti-social deed committed against her. That person

has this quality as long as the prosecution has not begun. In the criminal trial the victim can

be constituted:

 The injured party, as a person who suffered through the criminal act a physical, moral

or material injury and participates in the criminal process;

1

See Victim’s righ ts, Suport and protection of victims, https://ec.europa.eu/info/policies/justice-and-

fundamental-rights/criminal-justice/victims-rights_en, accesed on 8.11.2019.