HRLC Contribution to EU Report: Victims of Crime in the EU

On 9 January 2015 the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) published a new report entitled Victims of crime in the EU: the extent and nature of support for victims.

The report provides a comprehensive assessment of victim support services throughout the EU. The creation of the report saw the collection of data from all 28 Member States. In its role as the FRA’S UK Contractor, HRLC provided the UK data for this comparative report.

The findings documented in the report show that despite improvements and a growing number of best practices, challenges remain in many Member States to establish wide-ranging, targeted and well-resourced victim support services. Suggestions to improve the situation include:

•  EU Member States need to ensure the provision of targeted support services, including trauma support and counselling, for victims with specific needs, for example victims with a disability, victims of sexual violence, or irregular migrants who become victims of crime.

•  Bureaucratic hurdles should be removed so that legal aid is made available to victims who are party to criminal proceedings in the same way as it currently is to defendants.

• To encourage more victims to come forward and report crimes, EU Member States should ensure that information about victim support is made immediately available by all authorities and public services with which victims come into contact, including the health service.

This timely report comes just 10 months before the deadline (November 2015) for EU Member States to transpose the Directive establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime, commonly known as the Victims’ Directive, into national law.