Informing victims about the release of perpetrators from serving their prison sentence

Abstract

This paper deals with the practice of informing victims about the release of offenders who serve their prison sentences for crimes against sexual freedom, against life and limb or criminal acts with elements of violence in the Republic of Croatia. Tasks of informing victims about the offender‘s release on the basis of the Law on Amendments to the Law on Enforcement of Prison Sentence perform the Ministry of Justice, the Independent Service for Victims and Witnesses Support. The Independent Service for Victims and Witnesses Support developed the system of informing victims based on the practice of other countries and improves it continuously. The aim of this paper is to present the procedure of informing victims about the release of offenders, as well as the survey findings about the extent to which victims take advantage of some form of psychosocial support that is available, reactions of victims upon receiving information of the offender’s release as well as about victims’ needs for additional psychosocial support.

Keywords

• victims
• support
• informing
• prisoner release
• Croatia.