NCJ Number
101198
Journal
Victimology Volume: 10 Issue: 1-4 Dated: (1985) Pages: 662-671
Date Published
1985
Length
10 pages
Annotation
In November 1983 the member states of the Council of Europe agreed a Convention on the Compensation of Victims of Violent Crimes.
Abstract
This Convention is the realization of the 1977 Resolution of the Council of Ministers which 'for reasons of equity and social solidarity' recommended that, in the absence of arrangements in member states providing compensation for victims of crime (however funded), each state should assume the responsibility of making such arrangements. The Convention requires that 'when compensation is not fully available from other sources, the state shall contribute to compensate' those who sustain 'serious bodily injury or impairment of health directly attributable to an intentional crime of violence' or their dependents if the crime results in death. The Convention then proceeds to identify some principles upon which compensation will be assessed, reduced, denied or reclaimed by the contributing state. This article analyzes some problems associated with conception and implementation of these principles. It identifies three principal difficulties that are associated with all arrangements which have been made both in common law and in Continental jurisdictions to compensate victims of violent crime: these concern the objectives of compensation, the structure of compensatory arrangements and the delivery of compensation to eligible victims. (Author abstract)