Press Conference | Judicial Reform in Action: Crime Victims Protection 2.0 Evolves Further

The newly amended Crime Victim Rights Protection Act officially entered into force on July 1 of this year, expanding protection and support services to victims and their families in cases involving death, serious injury, sexual assault, domestic violence, and human trafficking. At the same time, the scope of protection services has been expanded and the review process for compensation has been expedited, with the hope of providing more comprehensive care that closely aligns with the actual needs of victims. For example, when a victim dies in a traffic accident caused by another party, the surviving family members are not only eligible for claims under compulsory automobile liability insurance, but can now also apply for service assistance including emergency living support or funeral expenses under the new law. This is one of the reforms that provides substantive assistance to the public.

The "Alliance for Civil Supervision of Crime Victims Rights Protection" affirms the spirit of the new law and puts forward three expectations and appeals for its future implementation:

1. We urge the Ministry of Justice and police agencies to establish and improve "first-time" reporting mechanisms to provide timely protection resources.
2. We urge the Ministry of Justice to swiftly recruit diverse talent and initiate election procedures in accordance with the new law.
3. We urge the Association for Victims Support to reconstruct service processes and education and training to lead an upgrade in service quality.

 

1. Police agencies must report at the "first instance" to provide timely protection resources

   Under the old law, local prosecutors offices sent cases of death and serious injury meeting the service eligibility criteria of the Crime Victim Protection Act to the "Association for Victims Support" every month to ensure that victims received assistance and that protection services did not "fall through the cracks." The Association for Victims Support would also proactively provide services at the earliest opportunity upon learning of a case.

   However, a time gap inevitably exists between "reporting a case to the police" and "investigation by prosecutors offices," and there is a limit to the cases the Association for Victims Support can independently discover. To assist victims and their families at the earliest possible moment, this amendment advances the timing of reporting, stipulating that police agencies must provide emergency care and necessary assistance upon learning of the occurrence of a case, and report to the Association for Victims Support or relevant agencies within 24 hours.

   Judging from statistical figures under the old law in 2022, the Association for Victims Support received 3,208 cases from prosecuting authorities, but only 177 cases referred by police agencies. This shows that the system for police agencies to refer crime victims support services was not mature in the past. Currently, although police precincts have "crime victims protection officers," the frontline personnel handling criminal cases may be traffic police brigades or investigative officers. For example, when a fatal traffic accident occurs, police officers going to the accident scene can provide preliminary emergency assistance or inform victims of protection service resources upon contacting the victim's family members at the first instance. To comply with the new law, it is necessary to re-establish clear lines of responsibility for handling principles and reporting mechanisms.

2. The Ministry of Justice should swiftly recruit diverse talent and initiate election procedures in accordance with the new law

   In the past, the "Association for Victims Support" suffered from extreme personnel shortages, which severely limited its provision of services such as victim needs assessment, family visits, and care and assistance. Currently, the Ministry of Justice has added budget to actively address personnel gaps. Once personnel are in place, the public expects the Association for Victims Support to be more "proactive," and more importantly, to maintain and shape an open, active, and caring organizational culture. For example, due to a lack of full-time personnel in the past, some branch offices relied heavily on volunteers to assist with visits; with the supplementation of personnel, this most core task should return to being actively completed by full-time staff.

   Regarding the composition of the "Association for Victims Support," the new law also makes substantial amendments and plans to implement these provisions on January 1 of next year. The Alliance expects that the Ministry of Justice can simultaneously plan the election procedures for directors, executive officers, and branch chairpersons, so that talents with professionalism and passion can inject new vitality into the Association for Victims Support and foster an enthusiastic and proactive organizational culture. As the new law diversely incorporates representatives and experts from various fields (such as attorneys, clinical psychologists, counseling psychologists, and social workers), the board of directors can further assist the headquarters in various planning and program formulations, and coordinate resource integration among relevant agencies and groups.

   With only three months left until January 1 of next year, we urge the Ministry of Justice to initiate personnel selection and appointment operations as soon as possible, and publicly solicit and broadly recruit suitable talents from all walks of life.

3. Reconstructing service processes and education and training, the headquarters should lead an upgrade in service quality

   After the new law takes effect, the service targets of the Association for Victims Support will also extend to the "family members" of victims; in addition to victim compensation, protection services and subsidy items for physical, psychological, medical, economic, litigation, and living reconstruction have been added. For the Association for Victims Support, the expansion of work items and scope is also a major challenge. In this regard, the headquarters should actively establish effective methods and supervise branch offices in implementation so that victims nationwide can receive high-quality services and care.

   From the past to the present, the Association for Victims Support headquarters has had certain guidelines for individual case service processes, but whether they can be concretely implemented in frontline services has been difficult given the shortage of personnel. As budgets and personnel arrive successively, the headquarters can play a more proactive and effective function in integrating and elevating the service quality of crime victims support nationwide.

   In conjunction with the implementation of the new law, we expect the headquarters to review the case intake processes and service models of all branch offices, establish new service processes and training, and comprehensively review norms such as the capacity-building of staff in work assessments, appropriate treatments, accompanying transfers, follow-up re-visits, and case-closing standards, so as to solidly implement the goal centered on the "needs of victims and their family members."

   To enable both new and old staff members to become familiar with the new law and construct good service models, the Alliance expects the headquarters to conduct education and training according to the service needs of frontline staff members, so as to refine staff work quality and build a professional work culture.

Attendees

Lin Yung-sung / Convenor, Alliance for Civil Supervision of Crime Victims Rights Protection; Standing Board Director, Judicial Reform Foundation
Huang Lan-ying / Associate Professor, Graduate Institute of Criminology, National Taipei University
Hung Wen-ling / Assistant Professor, Department of Crime Prevention and Corrections, Ming Chuan University
Tu Ying-chiu / Executive Director, Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation
Wang Chiu-lan / Researcher, Warm Life Association for Women
Chu Chun-lin / Board Director, Taiwan Clinical Psychology Association; Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling, National Tsing Hua University
Wu Yu-chin / Legislator

Press Contacts

Lü Cheng-yen, Attorney-at-Law, Director of the Legal Policy Department, Judicial Reform Foundation
Telephone: 02-2523-1178#37
Email: elvin@jrf.org.tw