Information Systems for Victims of Crime: Results of Comparative Research

In 1994 Tilburg University in the Netherlands and the Dutch Ministry of Justice launched a four-year research project on the implementation of Recommendation R (85) 11 of the Council of Europe on the Position of the Victim in the Framework of Criminal Law and Procedure. Many of the guidelines encompassed by the Recommendation deal with information. In this article, which is based on intermediary results of the Dutch research, the focus is on the formal and actual implementation in several different countries of the guidelines concerning information that the system should provide to the victim. Different information systems are compared and some of the problems encountered in practice are identified. Where possible, causes and solutions are suggested.