Victimology - Rights of Victims

Rights of Victims

In 1985, the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power . Also, the International Victimology Institute Tilburg and the World Society of Victimology developed a UN Convention for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power.

The term victimology, in fact, denotes to the subject, which studies about the harms caused to victim in commission of crime and the relative scope for compensation to the victim, as a means of redressal, because, in criminal jurisprudence, mere punishing of offender is not sufficient, to redress the grievance of victim, rather there is need to compensate the loss or harms suffered by the victim. In Criminal Procedure Code, though provisions have been made in Section 357 to provide compensation to victims, who have suffered loss or harms in consequence to commission of offence. But, what has been provided in Indian Law, as a compensatory measure to victims of crimes, is not enough and this aspect needs to be reviewed by the legislature to frame or enact necessary law, so as to sufficiently compensate to victims of crimes and to provide safeguards to victims of crimes, besides compensating him in monetary terms. .