In the twenty-first century, one of the crucial roles of the Criminal Code is to protect the rights and interests of crime victims. Criminal law is a complex field that must balance established principles with evolving societal dynamics. This involves various stakeholders, including the state, perpetrators, victims and civil society, each with differing views and implications on criminal law. The modern era, marked by post-truth narratives and a reputational society, further complicates matters. Casuistry now prevails over systematic approaches, leading to a disconnect between criminal law’s foundational principles and intended societal outcomes. Contemporary criminal law operates on multiple dimensions, addressing individual, societal and institutional levels while aiming to balance the interests of these entities. The transition from the “age of information” to the “age of reputation” underscores the importance of information subjected to external evaluation. In the context of a state of victimization and the need to harmonize Ukrainian criminal legislation with European Union and Council of Europe standards, it is vital to protect human rights. This aligns with the recommendation of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers that crime should be recognized as a wrong against society and a violation of individual rights, emphasizing the importance of safeguarding victim rights. Approaching criminal law from a victimological perspective offers unique insights into victim participation in criminal liability, crime qualification and offender culpability. This perspective encourages assessing the efficacy of Ukrainian criminal law prohibitions and promoting victim engagement in crime control on national and international levels.

At first glance, Part 3–1 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) seems to overlap with long-established anti-discrimination laws, offering protection against adverse, attribute-based conduct in employment. On close analysis, however, it turns out to be a new and quite different regime. Although the Fair Work Act offers a simple alternative to dated and complicated anti-discrimination laws, its provisions are at times overly-simple, raising uncertainty about how they will operate. Our analysis leads us to conclude that the approach to discrimination protection in the Fair Work Act, while an important addition to the remedies available to Australian workers, is compromised by failing to take account of lessons learned in the long history of anti-discrimination law.

The present study examined the association between adolescents’ extracurricular activities and bullying perpetration and victimisation. The sample was drawn from the 2016 National Survey of Children’s Health dataset. Analyses included descriptive statistics and logistic regression for the early adolescent and middle adolescent groups. Among early adolescents, sports were negatively associated with victimisation. Participation in clubs/organisations, organised activities or lessons, and community services were negatively associated, while employment was positively related to bullying perpetration. Among middle adolescents, all extracurricular activities were negatively related to victimisation. As for bullying perpetration, organised activities or lessons and community services were negatively associated with bullying. The study highlights the potential for sport and extracurricular involvement as ways to possibly deter bullying perpetration and victimisation. Future research should consider these associations longitudinally.

Children with asthma face serious mental health risk, but the pathways remain unclear. This study aimed to examine bullying victimisation and perpetration in children with asthma and a comparison sample without a chronic health condition, and the role of bullying in moderating psychosocial adjustment outcomes for those with asthma. A sample of children with (n = 24) and without asthma (n = 39), and their parents, were recruited from hospital clinics. Parents rated children’s psychosocial adjustment; children provided self-report of bullying victimisation and perpetration; from which co-occurring bully/victim status was derived. No differences in mean perpetration or victimisation were found, but children with asthma were more likely to be bully/victims (involved both as target and perpetrator), compared to those without asthma. Children with asthma who were victims of bullying had greater peer problems and overall adjustment problems; bully/victims did not show this pattern. Children with asthma may be more likely to be bully/victims, and those who are victims of bullying may be at elevated risk for psychosocial adjustment problems and require particular support in this area from school counsellors and psychologists.

A correct understanding of the dynamics and mechanisms that make it possible for a woman to become a victim of intra-family violence allows the necessary measures to be taken so that she can escape from the situation of victimization. Emilio C. Viano, President of the International Society of Criminology, defines the victim of an abuse as “any subject injured or that has suffered wrongdoing on the part of others, who perceives herself to be a victim, who shares the experience with others looking for help, assistance and compensation, who is recognized as a victim and who presumably is being helped by public, private or collective agencies/structures”. Before the birth of Anti-Violence Centers it was believed that the awareness of being a victim was the necessary condition for a woman to ask for help. Experience has shown that, in reality, it is the request for help that allows her to begin a process of awareness together with the operators in the Anti-Violence Centers. This reflection has led to the creation of a theoretical model called “The Circular Model of Victimization”. The aim of the research, and which is presented here, was to verify whether the Italian Anti-Violence Centers recognize the Circular Model in the daily operational reality, and thus to ascertain whether this model can be considered a real empirical model, as well as a theoretical explanatory model. In conclusion, the revisited Circular Model of Victimization will be presented, in which it is assumed that the way out of the circuit of violence passes from a first moment of perception of victimization to arrive at a real awareness of the same.

Gender inequality and discrimination, as well as violence and victimisation towards women, have recently hit the headlines creating a media furore. We provide a timely discussion surrounding the impact of these issues on women's mental health and a discussion of the role of psychiatry in this context.

This study examined the role of resilience in the lives of cyberbullying perpetrators and their victims. Turkish adolescents (n = 444; 245 girls, 55.2%, and 199 boys, 44.8%) 15–19 years of age (mean age of 16.58 years, SD = 0.789) were recruited from different high schools. The participants completed the Cyberbullying Scale (Arıcak, Kınay, & Tanrıkulu, 2012), the Cybervictimisation Scale (Arıcak, Tanrıkulu, & Kınay, 2012), and the Child and Youth Resilience Measure (Arslan, 2015). The data were analysed using Pearson's correlation coefficient and simple regression. The Pearson correlations revealed that there were negative and significant correlations between cyberbullying perpetration and resilience (r = −.146, p < .01). There were negative and significant correlations between cybervictimisation and resilience (r = −0.203, p < 0.01). Simple regression also revealed that resilience was a significant individual predictor for both cyberbullying perpetration (β = −0.146, t = −3.094, p < .001) and cyber victimisation (β = −0.203, t = −4.357, p < .001).

Children with learning disabilities (LDs) are often targets of peer bullying. Studies have confirmed the distress associated with victimisation impairs academic performance. Research has also shown that boys experience victimisation differently than girls. This study examined whether students with LDs were more likely to be victimised, whether there was a gender difference in victimisation, and how students were victimised. Hong Kong children participated (162 with and 162 without LDs). Results indicated that students with LDs experienced increased levels of victimisation, and boys compared to girls with LDs sustained more physical victimisation. Academic performance did not significantly mediate the relationship between LDs and victimisation. Prevention and intervention strategies are discussed for this population.

Due to their age and lifestyle, female students in general are at an increased risk of various forms of sexual violence. Particular sociocultural contexts also form the background of gender-based violence in professional and academic structures. Yet despite institutional and legal efforts to protect (potential) survivors of sexual violence from primary (and secondary) victimization, persistent assaults demonstrate the reluctance of organizations and individuals to fully accept women’s experiences as being physically and psychologically harmful. Based on quantitative and qualitative data obtained in the context of the European research project “Gender-Based Violence, Stalking and Fear of Crime”,1 this article presents a comparative analysis of the prevalence of sexual violence, feelings of safety (or a lack thereof) and the reasons for (non-)disclosure for five European countries. A dataset of about 21,000 responses from German, British, Italian, Spanish and Polish students indicates that sexualized violence is a major problem at universities and that it has yet to be recognized as such. This – added to the fact that it is generally suppressed or concealed by universities – makes it society’s problem as well. The article discusses widespread social myths about victims and perpetrators, the role of the new media in victimization, and the issues of universities’ responsibility for their students (through institutional policy and specific responses to incidents of gender-based violence). The results presented here demonstrate the contradictory perceptions that students have in regard to their experiences and the nature of sexualized violence in an academic environment.

This study examines how different roles in school bullying (e.g., bullies, victims, defenders) vary in cognitive and affective empathy and moral disengagement. Findings from this study revealed that levels of empathy and moral disengagement differed significantly among bullying groups for 702 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students in the United States. An analysis of variance showed differential patterns between bullying groups and outcome variables (i.e., cognitive and affective empathy and moral disengagement). In addition, the correlation between moral disengagement and empathy was statistically significant and negative. Affective empathy and cognitive empathy both significantly predicted moral disengagement; with every one unit increase in moral disengagement, affective empathy decreased by .38 and cognitive empathy decreased by .39. Students who scored higher in moral disengagement tended to score lower in empathy. The current findings confirm and extend the literature on the relation between moral disengagement, empathy, prosociality, and victimising behaviour. This information can inform school-wide and targeted intervention efforts.

Victimisation among students has been identified as a serious problem in Australian schools. This study investigated approaches taken by South Australian middle school students for dealing with victimisation. Over 170 students (aged 11–16) described how they coped with bullying and situations where they needed to take action against bullying. A content analysis of their responses found that students used coping strategies, including: (a) seeking social support, (b) standing up for peers/friends, (c) externalising, (d) nonchalance, (e) sticking up for oneself, (f) problem-solving, (g) submission, (h) reducing tense emotions/assertiveness, and (i) escape. One of the significant findings was that students did not identify school counsellors as a source of coping support, which has implications for their role in addressing incidents of victimisation.

Bullying is a common problem in school. Engagement in bullying has been known to have many adverse effects, even including suicide. Examining which factor will moderate or mediate the pathway from victimisation to suicidal ideation is needed to develop effective intervention initiatives. This study aimed to examine the mediator and moderator roles of perceived social support in the relationship between victimisation and suicidal ideation. The participants in the study were 946 Chinese adolescents (402 girls, 544 boys) who ranged in age from 11 to 16 years old. The results showed that 48.1% of these adolescents reported being bullied in school. Victimisation was positively correlated with suicidal ideation. There was evidence that perceived social support buffered, as well as partially mediated, the relationship between victimisation and suicidal ideation. Results suggest that helping students to seek more support from their parents and peers may be an effective bullying intervention program.

The current study used developmental trajectories to examine the relationship between internalising and externalising behaviours and victimisation over the transition period from primary to secondary school. Data were collected using a self-completion questionnaire four times over 3 years from 3,459 students aged 11–14 years. Students were tracked longitudinally to assess their knowledge, attitudes, mental health and bullying experiences during the transition period. Multilevel modelling was used to examine the relationship between developmental victimisation trajectories and behavioural and emotional difficulties over time of students’ transitioning from primary to secondary school. Males who experienced low, but increasing, levels of victimisation over secondary school had greater emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactivity, peer problems and lower pro-social behaviour than those who had not been victimised. Whereas females who experienced low, but increasing, levels of victimisation over secondary school had greater emotional symptoms and peer problems than those who had not been victimised. The current results highlight the need to prevent the continuation or escalation of chronic victimisation from primary to secondary school and to improve the emotional wellbeing of adolescents. It is recommended that whole-school bullying prevention and intervention programs and social wellbeing programs are implemented during primary school and the transition to secondary school.