Experiences of violence

• Author: European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (EU body or agency)
• Pages: 33-48

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EXPERIENCES OF VIOLENCE

KEY FINDINGS

Ë















Ë





Ë











Ë









Ë







Ë













34

Violence is aclear violation of avictim’s rights, in particular human dignity

and the integrity of the person (Articles1 and 3 of the Charter). Avictim can

legitimately expect the law to come to the defence of their rights. In the light

of the right to an effective remedy (Article13 of the European Convention

on Human Rights and Article47 of the Charter), criminal proceedings assert

the victim’s rights in that they preserve the identity of acommunity of law

based on human dignity and human rights.34

In line with Directive 2012/29/EU (the Victims’ Rights Directive), Article1

and recital9 in particular, avictim of violent crime should be recognised as

the person wronged by the offender, protected against repeat victimisation,

granted access to justice and enabled to participate in criminal proceedings.

This chapter presents the survey results concerning the extent (prevalence)

of violence, disaggregated by selected socio-demographic and group

characteristics of the victim, to examine differences in people’s risk of

experiencing violent incidents. Furthermore, the survey asked respondents

to describe in more detail the most recent incident of violence they had

experienced in the f‌ive years before the survey. These details will be examined

to form apicture of the context in which violence takes place, and the impact

these factors have on issues such as reporting the incident to the police.

As apart of the UN 2030 Agenda and SDG16 to ‘Promote peaceful and

inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice

for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels’,

the UN Member States have adopted target16.1, ‘Signif‌icantly reduce all

forms of violence and related death rates everywhere’. One of the indicators

used to monitor progress towards this target is indicator16.1.3 ‘Proportion

of population subjected to (a) physical violence, (b) psychological violence

and (c) sexual violence in the previous 12 months’. The survey results in this

chapter can act as aproxy indicator, offering data on the situation in the EU

Member States, North Macedonia and the United Kingdom.

34 FRA (2019), Victims’ Rights as Standards of Criminal Justice– Justice for victims

of violent crime, PartI.

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