NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 2022

Dear Reader,

As a representative of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU and the EUCPN Chair, I am delighted and honoured to present to you the latest EUCPN Newsletter.

Working with victims of crime is a particularly sensitive issue. Every criminal act and every person affected by it are different and have specific needs. The situation is all the more complicated when the victims are in a particularly disadvantaged position, which makes them vulnerable. In the spring of 2022, the European Commission presented two important proposals addressing the status and protection of particularly vulnerable victims of crime (victims of sexual violence against women and domestic violence, victims of child sexual abuse). Development of assistance to victims is a part of the mandatory Common Horizontal Strategic Goal of EMPACT 2022+. In the Czech Republic, we have extensive legislation for victims of crime with special rights for particularly vulnerable victims. We focus a lot on the treatment of particularly vulnerable victims (especially by the police and other public agencies), for whom we have a unique project of Special Interrogation Rooms and newly created methodologies.

For these reasons, the Czech Presidency of the EUCPN chose to focus on working with particularly vulnerable crime victims in the second half of 2022. We also have the honour of organising this years’ European Crime Prevention Award (ECPA) and Best Practice Conference (BPC), both addressing this topic. The events will be taking place on 8 and 9 December in Prague. As the organiser, we plan to invite not only the representatives of the Member States and the EUCPN secretariat, but also a large number of experts and practitioners.

The aim of the Presidency is to exchange experiences and good practices, most importantly in the areas of early identification of victims of crime (especially those particularly vulnerable), prevention of their secondary victimization and re-victimization and how to increase motivation to report crimes and thus to reduce the latency of crime.

During our Presidency, we will also deal with other topics, such as 1) the benefits of the concepts Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design and Crime Prevention Through Urban Design & Planning and of technical standards of crime prevention for security in cities (the international conference will take place on October 6, 2022 in Prague) or 2) involvement of volunteers in crime prevention.

I hope you enjoy reading this newsletter, and I would like to thank the EUCPN Secretariat for putting it together and the Member States for their contributions.

We look forward to all the knowledge and best practice sharing,

Michal Barbořík
EUCPN Chair

Using behavioural insights to raise awareness on domestic burglary prevention

Behavioural insights and evidence-informed behavioural interventions can enrich and enhance the traditional toolbox to raise citizens’ awareness of domestic burglary prevention and to encourage citizens to take sound burglary prevention measures. These behavioural instruments should not be implemented in isolation but as part of a larger package including various types of instruments. The researchers recommend the simultaneous use of behavioural and traditional prevention measures, targeting both the intuitive and the reflective, the conscious and the unconscious, and the rational and emotional underpinnings of people’s decision making processes. Read the report

Czech Republic: Special Interrogation Rooms

The main purpose of the Special Interrogation Rooms is to avoid secondary victimization as they allow to conduct the interrogation in a more sensitive environment and with trained professionals. The setting allows the victim to better connect with the interrogator and available demonstration aids (eg. anatomic puppets) help victims to communicate what happened to them. Watch a video

Greece: BeSecure-FeelSecure

The establishment of the Victim Support Unit in the city of Piraeus is one the most important milestones of the BSFS project. A multi-disciplinary working team provides holistic tailored support services to victims of any type of crime and to their family members who can also suffer the consequences of victimisation. More info

Portugal: Specialized police office for victims of domestic violence

Each security force and service has its own network of assistance offices, endowed with adequate conditions, to attend to victims. These offices are called victim support rooms and consist of a police rooms where especially vulnerable victims should be attended. These rooms guarantees a differentiated, quality service, ensuring the victim's privacy and comfort. More info

What you need to know about - The European Parliament and Council’s proposal addressing child sexual abuse

On May 11^th 2022 the European Commission submitted a proposal for the Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down rules to prevent and combat child sexual abuse. The proposal aims to prevent child sexual abuse and grooming by supporting the introduction of safety measures and detection of possible cases of abuse on online platforms, and by establishing an EU Center to serve as a hub of knowledge on prevention and the treatment of victims. The rules that it lays down would oblige all relevant providers to conduct a risk assessment of their services and if necessary detect, report and remove child sexual abuse material. There is a number of safeguards introduced to protect the privacy of digital communication.
Learn more in an article written by the Presidency of the EUCPN.

German Prevention Congress: Children at the heart of prevention

A special new congress format has been developed for this year's 27th German Prevention Congress. Under the main theme “Children at the heart of prevention” this year's hybrid congress runs throughout nearly the whole year.

DPT-TV: weekly online broadcast – every Wednesday! Each broadcast starts with 10 minutes of “DPT-News”, in which current prevention topics are discussed. Afterwards three parallel lecture sessions on different topics are presented.
DPT-On site on 4th & 5th October 2022 at the Hannover Congress Centrum. Various actors and stakeholders in the field of prevention will be presented in a large congress exhibition.
More info

EUCPN webinar: the evaluation of crime prevention

EUCPN webinar: preventing repeat hate crime victimisation

Ghent University has been commissioned by the EUCPN to develop a teaching package on evaluation. The webinar takes place on Tuesday 25 October 2022.

The webinar will highlight the importance of a victim-centred approach to preventing repeat hate crime victimisation of LGBTI people. The webinar takes place on Thursday 10 November 2022.