Victims and contemporary tendencies in crime control
Snežana Soković
Victimological dimension of new criminality forms is a specific challenge for
contemporary criminal law systems; new time brings new forms of criminality, new
victims, but also new ways and opportunities for more efficient protection of victims. At
the same time with review and improvement of existing standards of victims` protection,
contemporary criminality control systems show strong tendency toward compromising
the general position of the victim. Victim’s interests are being instrumentalized because
of the justification of changes in criminality control in the direction of significant
strengthening of criminal law repression. The crime which is emotionalized with the
affective media presentation of the victim justifies stricter penal policy and provides the
populist support for repressive criminality control strategies and criminal law
expansionism. The aim of the paper is the analysis of the mechanisms of victim “use“ in
contemporary criminality control and the examination of its consequences, with special
review on domestic circumstances through analysis of the Code on special measures for
prevention of crimes against sexual freedom towards juveniles (Marija`s Code).
Key words: the victim of criminal offence, globalization, penal populism,
Marija`s Code;