Empowering victims : the rights of victims of crime from an EU law perspective

Abstract

In the past few years, the European Union (EU) has been shifting its paradigm to a victim-oriented approach. Through the laws it is enacting, the rights of victims of crime are ameliorating with the aim of empowering and protecting the victims. However, due to this area of law being relatively new, research whether these rights empower the victims of crime is bleak. Thus, this study mainly explores the law which provides victims with rights, whilst specifically analysing the rights in Directive 2012/29/EU and whether these are enough to empower them. The rights provided in this directive could be portrayed as those rights provided to victims during the pre-trial stage, those rights provided during criminal proceedings and those rights which provide protection from the moment the victim contacts the appropriate authority with a continuation to the aftermath of the proceedings. The role of the victim in various Member States across the EU and how the role impactsthe enjoyment of these rights is also explored. Through desk-based research, both EU and domestic laws which provide victims’ rights and comparative analysis of how various provisions of Directive 2012/29/EU where implemented in various states was explored. Furthermore, through semi-structured interviews, results portrayed the applicability of these rights in Malta. Several problems regarding these rights were detected through these methods, such as that these rights are not fully enforced in practice and that non-legislative measures are to be put in place in addition to the law so that victims can truly be empowered. This research portrays that although EU law strives to achieve equal protection for victims throughout the EU, disparities in protection and support are still present especially in cases of cross-border crimes. Collective effort must be made both at EU level and domestically for victim empowerment to be reached.