General information in English

The Crime Victim Compensation and Support Authority, situated in Umeå, in northern Sweden, has a staff of approximately 50 people. The authority is responsible for assessing state compensation, administering the Fund for Victims of Crime and acting as an expert centre. 

 

 

In assessing compensation, the staff at the Crime Victim Compensation and Support Authority is not bound by a court decision on damages. The authority has an important role in setting a good example, since there are relatively few cases concerning damages for crime victims adjudicated in the Supreme Court. Decisions on criminal injuries compensation by the Crime Victim Compensation and Support Authority cannot be appealed, but they may be reviewed, either by the civil servant, who was first in charge of the matter, by another civil servant, by the director-general, or by the Board. The authority is supervised by the Parliamentary Ombudsman, who ensures that all government officials observe proper application of the law.

Precedent cases are presented to the Crime Victim Compensation Board, an independent board appointed by the government and connected to the authority. The members of the Board must be well versed in law, and should represent different areas of society. Today’s members are experts on tort law and insurance law. The civil servants in charge of the cases have a wide right of delegation, and only a limited number of the cases are decided by the Board. The Board meets approximately once a month to decide matters of principle significance and other matters of major importance.

 

Cases from the Board are published in a newsletter disseminated to courts and lawyers. The Crime Victim Compensation and Support Authority is a government agency of the type classified in the Instrument of government as an ”administrative authority responsible for public administration.” It is subordinate to the Ministry of Justice, and must follow the rules for administrative authorities which stipulate, among other things, that an administrative authority should be led by a director-general and have a board at its disposal. One of the obligations of a government agency is to provide the Chancellor of Justice with an annual list of the cases which arrived at the agency before a certain time the previous year, and which were not completed by that time. Although formally an authority, the Crime Victim Compensation and Support Authority resembles a court in many respects. Its compensation assessment procedures primarily resemble those of the courts. The civil servants who deal with criminal injuries compensation are divided into departments in the same way as the courts of law. The procedures and its decision making, which are all conducted in writing, closely resemble the procedure followed by the administrative courts. The management of cases is governed by the Administrative Procedure Act, which normally applies to administrative courts.

 

 

The Fund constitutes the second part of the activities of the Crime Victim Compensation and Support Authority. It is funded primarily by money paid by offenders. Long before a fund for victims of crime was established in Sweden, the idea of financing crime victims services with money paid by offenders in the form of a surcharge or fine had been proposed in various contexts. Using the offender’s money to improve the circumstances of crime victims was implemented, due to its pedagogical advantages.

 

The government Bill of 1993/94, Crime Victims in Focus, proposed the establishment of a fund for crime victims. This fund was not intended to replace the criminal injuries compensation, but to provide an additional source of funding for crime victim support activities. The idea was further elaborated in a memorandum by the Ministry of Justice, which granted money to start up the fund. A fund was set up in connection with the establishment of the Crime Victim Compensation and Support Authority, with the aim of providing economic support to research, education and information concerning crime victims, development work and programmes aimed at improving the circumstances of crime victims, private and government initiatives. The fund has allocated money to projects promoting new methods of therapy for victims of sexual offences, research projects and seminars targeted on crime victims, and other projects. However, it will not grant money to projects with preventive purposes, work currently in progress, or to individual victims.

 

The Decree on the Fund for Victims of Crime prescribes that all offenders convicted for an offence punishable by a prison sentence are liable to pay a lump sum of 500 SEK(54 EUR). This constitutes a specific legal remedy which is applied over and above sanctions. The fund is also open for donations. In additional money has been channelled from prisoners under electronic supervision. The fund generates approximately 25 million SEK (2.7 million EUR) per year. The money is channelled through the National Police Board to the Crime Victims Compensation and Support Authority, where it is processed and distributed twice a year. A council that is connected to the authority decides who should receive money from the fund. Its members are persons with research experience and a sound knowledge of crime victims and crime victim activities. The Fund for Victims of Crime has been a major sponsor of many different projects concerning crime victims and has played a part in establishing victimology as an academic research field in Sweden.

 

 

The dissemination of information to crime victims on criminal injuries compensation is a statutory duty for the Crime Victim Compensation and Support Authority, included among the other obligations in the area of information to crime victims. Victims must be informed not only of their opportunity to claim compensation, but also of the application procedures. Application forms are available on request from the Crime Victim Compensation and Support Authority and from the authority’s website, but the authority ensures that they are also available at police stations, courts, insurance companies and lawyers’ offices. Many local victim support offices provide applications forms as well as help in completing them. The Crime Victim Compensation and Support Authority has tried to become more accessible by operating a daily telephone service where anyone may ask questions and seek advice on compensation and damages. The helpline is used extensively by the public, as well as by lawyers representing victims as counsel for the injured party. The authority has produced a number of different leaflets with information pertaining to crime victims, including information on state compensation.

 

The authority also plays a role as an expert centre since the Swedish government has realised that the Crime Victim Compensation and Support Authority possesses a vast fund of knowledge in the field of crime victims. The Swedish government has therefore charged the authority with a number of tasks. One task was to develop a research programme in victimology. The research programme introduced by the authority is in three parts: a description of how research into victimology has come about, a survey of the existing research, and proposals as to which areas the authority considers important for allocating research funding over the next five years. There were three areas in particular that were identified as important areas of research: crime victims in the judicial system, crime victims and ethnicity, and children as crime victims. The programme was completed and presented to the government in 2002 and will be in effect until 2007. One of the effects of the programme was that a research group on victimology was established at the law faculty at Umeå University.

 

Another important task given to the Crime Victim Compensation and Support Authority and the National Courts Administration in 2001 was to ensure that witness support be made available at every district court and court of appeal in Sweden. It was clear from this task that support should be provided on a voluntary basis, and therefore witness support provision should be put in place in consultation with the Swedish Association of Victim Support and other interested voluntary organisations. This task has been completed and presented to the government, and today witness support is by and large available in all general courts of law in Sweden. In the final report submitted at the end of April this year, the Crime Victim Compensation and Support Authority’s recommended a higher level of professionalism in the area of witness support, a duty on the part of the courts to keep informed those persons involved in witness support, and a nationwide responsibility of the authority for recruitment and training as well as guaranteeing the quality of witness support work.

 

Yet another project, which the Crime Victim Compensation and Support Authority itself has initiated, is a training course for crime victims who are summoned to court to describe their experiences. The training course, or information course which is in fact what it is, is called the Court Proceedings Introduction. This project is a pilot project and the authority has established several test locations where it has tried out the concept. The Court Proceedings Introduction starts off with the participants being shown around the district court premises. They are shown for instance where the toilets are, where you leave your coat, where the witness support room is and which entrances and exits there are. Then follows two lectures, one on the trial process and one on the reactions commonly felt after being subjected to a crime. After the lectures there is a short break, when there is the opportunity to ask questions of those who have just given the lectures. The Court Proceedings Introduction rounds off with a court case film. Before going home the participants are given a book on court proceedings. The book is written in such a way to be understood by all. There follows another opportunity to ask questions. The purpose of the Court Proceedings Introduction is to give crime victims a better understanding of how and why a trial takes place in the way it does and also to prepare them for the trial proceedings. The training opportunities the authority has carried out have all been very well received. All those who have taken part have said that afterwards they felt more secure and better equipped to face the trial.

 

 

The Crime Victim Compensation and Support Authority with its three areas of activity gathered under one roof is in its entirety a unique concept. The three branches of activity together generate a fund of knowledge on crime victims. In many of the applications for compensation for criminal damages, the crime victim provides an explanation of their situation before the crime, during the period the crime was dealt with by the judicial system, and also since the crime. By combining these insights with the knowledge gained through administering the Fund for Victims of Crime, not only does the authority have a good understanding of the crime victim situation in Sweden but also it knows which development projects are in progress and which new treatment projects are being planned.

 

 

 

 

 

The English version of "Till dig som utsatts för brott". This booklet contains detailed information to victims of crime. For example the criminal justice process is described as well as the possibilities of claiming criminal injuries compensation and what support and assistance that can be found.

 

To citizens of other member states of the EU who have been subjected to crime in Sweden.

 

To victims of crime who have been violated due to ethnic origin, colour, nationality or religious faith.

 

To victims of gross violation against woman's integrity.