Seminari internacional sobre la implementació de la Directiva de víctimes. Plataforma de Justícia Penal Centre d'Estudis Jurídics i Formació Especialitzada, 11 i 12 de març de 2015

1. Towards victim awareness in
probation
in the Netherlands
Platform seminar
Barcelona
March 11th 2015

2. 2
European Victims Directive
forms the base for
the Dutch implementation paper:
“To do justice to victims”
Project:
“To do justice to victims in the stage of execution”

3. 3
Our challenge
• to realize structural attention for the interest and
rights of victims of crime in our probation
processes and procedures:
– Advisory Reports for the Court
– Supervision
– Community sentences

4. 4
How to realize victim orientated
probation?
• To stimulate change of culture in an ‘offender
focused’ organization
• To enlarge victim awareness in the execution
process
• To improve knowledge of victim rights (what) and
methodology (how)
• To build up a network with new partners
(Victim Support Netherlands/Victim in Focus)
• To adjust our procedures where necessary

5. 5
How did we start?
2012: Conference to launch Victims Directive
2013:
3 countrywide workshops with probation workers
in which we discussed the recommendations for
victim policy of Dutch government (based on VD)
–Key question: what can Probation contribute to
realize this?

6. 6
Result of the workshops
• Commitment to the most important issues to
realize
• Value statement of the Dutch probation
Organizations

7. 7
Our value statement
• Restoring the situation and preventing recidivism
by paying particular attention to the position and
rights of the victim.
• Therefore the probation worker motivates and
addresses the offender’s responsibility for his
own behavior. The probation worker supports the
offender to compensate for the (non-) material
harm he/she has caused to the victim in order to
normalize the situation for both parties.

8. 8
How did we continue? (1)
2013:
•3 conferences with probation workers
•coregroup with representatives out of the field of
probation
•Workshop on the Dutch annual convention for
probation workers
•3 Masterclasses Restorative Justice for managers
•Research and developing methodology by the
University of Applied Sciences in Utrecht

9. 9
How did we continue? (2)
2014:
– 10 conferences with probation workers
– Pilots:
• Adolescents
• Domestic violence and electronic monitoring
• Prison and Probation about victims interests and
offender’s rights to take leave
• Victim Support/Victim in Focus and Probation on
sexual offences and offences with heavy violance
• Communitiy sentences
– December: we appointed 15 “ambassadors”

10. 10
Our targets for 2015

11. 11
Our targets for 2015