Evaluation of the results of criminal interventions in sexual violence cases: Redefining Justice from the Perspective of Psychological Needs of Sexual Violence Victims

Proceedings of ‏The 2nd World Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities

Year: 2020

DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.33422/2nd.shconf.2020.09.235

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Evaluation of the results of criminal interventions in sexual violence cases: Redefining Justice from the Perspective of Psychological Needs of Sexual Violence Victims

Sepideh Mirmajidi

ABSTRACT: 

lack of awareness of psychological consequences of sexual violence on victims in the traditional justice system including anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, gender and sexual discrimination feeling , disbelief, blame, excessive responses by victims or others to the consequences of crime (exaggeration/trivialization), leading to a feeling of re-victimization and re-traumatization. In such situation, the defined criminal justice goals and the gendered structure of the legal system by suppressing the victim’s voice in criminal process, makes the victimization experience to be misjudged based on stereotypical, degrading and calumnious views about female sexuality. In such circumstances, the victim’s chance of express and recognizing her injuries are diminished. This situation which is due to the limited capacity of the criminal justice system, for the justice needs and interests of this victims resulted in a reversal respond to sex crimes corresponding to the components of restorative justice and redefine justice for victims of this crime in Iranian judicial discourse. The results of this paper which is qualitative and descriptive-analytical, by interview with 20 judges (Criminal Court of Tehran province) and 15 sexual crimes victims along with a multi-year experiences in the Criminal Court and literature review, indicate that Justice from the perspective of victims of sexual violence corresponding to the components of Restorative Justice as another mechanism of justice and although Judges in the current state of the criminal justice system of Iran, apply existing criminal policies on sex crimes with an attitude and restorative lens, but this procedure, stemming from their educational and cultural structures, requires more specific and operative enforcement mechanisms to be more effective in Iranian judicial discourse.

Keywords: Victims, Sexual violence, Psychological disorders, Restorative justice, Offender, Criminal intervention.