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European Day for Victims of Crime is an opportunity to remember those who have suffered through the affects of crime and criminal behaviours.
To mark this event, Amanda Stewart, our Chief Executive, and Geraldine Hanna, Victim Support NI Chief Executive, took part in a couple of videos to highlight the work being carried out to help and support victims of crime as well as the work being done to reduce the likelihood of someone being a victim of crime.
These videos have been published on social media to highlight Probation’s work to a wider audience.
Hello everyone.
Today Probation is marking European Day for Victims of Crime by highlighting the work that we do to support victims. Everything Probation does is about preventing victims of crime. Our work challenges offending behaviour including, often for the first time, confronting the impact the crime has had on the victim.
Probation has a Victim Information Scheme which seeks to ensure that when victims register, they receive information about what it means when someone is supervised by Probation. While it may be upsetting for victims to have to think about the crime again, victims often report that they do not receive timely information throughout their involvement with the Criminal Justice System and this statutory scheme seeks to address this.
There are also two other Schemes that can provide information to registered victims: the Prisoner Release Victim Information Scheme, and the Mentally Disordered Victim Information Scheme. The three schemes have been co-located since 2012 and Probation manages the unit which combines the skills and experience of staff from Probation, Prisons and the Department of Justice.
It is absolutely essential that victims’ voices are heard and Probation has also developed a Service User Involvement Forum that enables victims to have a say in how services are being delivered.
Probation also work closely with community restorative partners CRJI and NI Alternatives through projects such as the Enhanced Combination Orders, which has a strong victims focus and restorative element. We also work closely with Victim Support Northern Ireland Enhanced Combination Orders.
For more information on how to register for the Victims Information Schemes visit our website at www.pbni.gov.uk
Hello everyone.
Victim Support NI is an independent charity which helps people affected by crime.
We also work closely with a range of partners including the Probation Board for Northern Ireland.
If we want to collectively reduce the number of victims we need to work across the entire justice sector and probation has an important role to play in working with people who have committed crime to help change their behaviour and rehabilitate them. Successful rehabilitation means fewer people will become victims in the future.
On this European Day of Victims we want to mark our partnership work that rescues victims of crime and makes communities safer.
You can find out more about Victim Support NI on their website.