Meaning of victim
It is said that a victim is a living being (animal or person) that is exposed to a serious risk in favor of another; that is, it is destined to be sacrificed. From a legal point of view, the victim has the right through criminal proceedings to the truth, to justice and to economic compensation for damages. Also, situations occur in which the person is a victim because of someone or by chance, such as wars, terrorist attacks, serious illnesses, air accidents, car accidents, etc.
The definition of victim expresses that it is a person or animal that has suffered harm (whether physical, psychological, emotional and/or moral) due to some action or event, for example: assaults, robberies, rape, fraud, among others. When the damage is caused by another person, it is called the victimizer.
The origin of the word victim is believed to come from "victus" which means food or from "vieo" which means to tie with reeds (part of a ritual) thus meaning tied or immobilized. These two terms would be related to sacrifice,
Victim Rights
According to the UN Virtual Center to End Violence, and in the declaration called: "Rights of Victims of Trafficking", among the main rights that must exist to end violence and crimes against people are:
- Right to privacy.
- Right to security .
- Right to information.
- Right to legal assistance.
- Right to have their cases heard before the courts.
- Right to compensation for damages.
- Right to medical assistance .
- Right to social assistance.
- Right to apply for residency.
- Right to return.
Ley General de Víctimas
En México esta Ley obliga a todas autoridades competentes y en todos los ámbitos del gobierno, llámense oficinas gubernamentales, dependencias de los organismos públicos y también a los privados, a velar por la
protección de las víctimas
, prestarle ayuda, asistencia y reparación a su integridad.
Dicha ley garantiza y
reconoce los derechos de las víctimas
de delitos o violación de sus derechos humanos. Así como su asistencia, diligencias y todos los derechos consagrados en los Tratados Internacionales, la Constitución del Estado de México y demás instrumentos referidos a este tema.
How the victim should file a complaint
In the case of Mexico, there is the Attorney General's Office , which is the body of the Federal Executive Power, in charge of investigating and prosecuting crimes, it is directed by the Attorney General of the Republic in conjunction with bodies such as the investigative police and the experts .
Complaints can be filed orally or in writing about the facts that are considered a crime, for this it is advisable to have as much information as necessary for investigation and clarification.
These procedures are totally free and can be carried out in several ways:
- Online:
- Center for Complaint and Citizen Attention of the PGR.
- He denounces electoral crimes in the FEPADE .
- In person: by going to the Deputy Attorney General's Office for Human Rights and Attention to Victims and Community Services, located in Mexico City.
- By email: cedac@pgr.gob.mx
- Via telephone by: 01 800 008 5400
How the victim can obtain free justice
In Mexico there is the Institute of the Public Defender , which is the body in charge of coordinating, operating, directing and controlling the public defender of citizens, providing legal guidance and defense in criminal, family and commercial matters , as well as protection in any legal procedure that meets the requirements indicated by this public entity.
Types of victims
The definition of victim can be applied depending on the meaning of the context in which it is used, there are times when the synonym of victim can be used, such as: offended or aggrieved by a crime.
The types of victims are:
Non-participating or non-expendable victims
These are also called ideal or innocent, their participation does not trigger the criminal act and their relationship with the perpetrator is irrelevant. They are distinguished from the group of indiscriminate or accidental victims, that is, they are chosen by the offender at random and do not represent any bond or link with the guilty party.
family victims
They are part of the offender's family group and for this reason, they are vulnerable due to their blood or domestic relationship with the aggressor. This group includes sexual and physical aggression against women and children.
Victims of participation or expendable
These somehow play some role in the crime. Their intervention may be voluntary or not, in the criminal act . Among them is the fact of not closing the doors of the house properly when leaving and leaving valuables visible . The revenge towards some action, and another form, is the participation in a duel or fight, the victims of euthanasia , suicides and homicides are also located.
vulnerable victims
They are those who for various reasons are in a situation prone to crime . Some of these circumstances are age, since the elderly and children are the most defenseless and can hardly resist aggression. Also disabled people and people with some psychological illness. In this group can be located race, homosexuality, people in the exercise of prostitution.
collective victims
It refers to crimes against non-natural assets, that is, those attacked are legal persons , whether they are the state or a community. Among them are financial crimes , computer crimes, consumer fraud, they are called white-collar criminals.
symbolic victims
It refers to those subjects who are overwhelmed by certain acts, which have been directed with the purpose of damaging or discrediting , be it an ideology, a political party (or its personalities), value systems, sects or influential families.
false victims
They are the ones who report crimes that have never occurred , acting with double standards, simulating fact and causing judicial errors, this can occur due to psychological problems or having suffered criminal damage.
Victim assistance service
In Mexico there is a commission in charge of providing care to victims, which is made up of the Specialized Ombudsman for Victims, the State Registry of Victims, the Immediate Attention and First Contact Unit, among others.
These institutions are in charge of giving attention to the victims offended by crimes , aggressions and human rights violations . They offer medical assistance, legal guidance, social work, psychological guidance, criminal, family, commercial and trial and protection.
SAV
It is a victim care service, made up of a series of multidisciplinary justice teams, psychologists and social workers, made available to affected people by the Criminal Enforcement Directorate.
The main benefits granted by SAV are:
- They inform victims of their legal rights and procedures.
- They specify the initial attention to the victims.
- They mobilize and facilitate both social and individual resources.
- They assist and protect the victims.
How to get over being a crime victim
The forms of crime to which people are exposed can range from the theft of a cell phone on public transport without the victim realizing it, to entering the home with a weapon in hand and a more serious attack occurring and violent with fatal outcome.
In addition to overcoming the material loss of the attack, the most difficult thing is to recover from the trauma of the event, for this reason the following aspects must be put into practice:
- Seek professional help: find a suitable person to overcome and process the facts, through therapies.
- Give yourself time: it is necessary to give yourself time to process and overcome the trauma , this does not happen from one day to the next.
- Do not play strong and do not try to hide what happened, it is essential to vent what you feel and not pretend that what happened did not cause damage.
- Do not feel guilty for the events that occurred and in which you turned out to be the victim, when a person is threatened or attacked, they react differently and on many occasions unconsciously, you should not feel guilty for that.
Frequently Asked Questions about Victim
What is the victim?
What is the victim in psychology?
What are the types of victims?
They are divided into:
- Non-participants who are not responsible under any circumstances for triggering the act.
- Relatives in which he is the aggressor's family.
- Of participation, they participate voluntarily or not in the act.
- Collective are characterized by being public goods.
- Symbolic, these are related to victims of harm or discredit
- False that are those who lie in relation to what happened.
What is victimology?
What is the victim for criminology?
What Does victim Mean
A victim is a person or animal that suffers damage or harm through someone else's fault or through a fortuitous cause . When the damage is caused by a person, he or she is called the perpetrator . For example: "The bank robbery left a fatal victim and two injured" , "This child is a victim of a system that does not give the same opportunities to all people" , "The victim was questioned by the prosecutor who treats to clarify the case ” .
The first meaning of the term (which has its origin in a Latin word of similar writing) refers to the living being (person or animal) destined for sacrifice . However, it should be mentioned that this use is the least common at present, since the notion of victim usually refers to the person injured by another human being or by a force majeure.
Omitting the possibility that an animal can be considered a victim is consistent with the position in which human beings place the rest of nature : it is nothing more than a simple resource that someone or something put at our disposal, for us to exploit. mercilessly in order to satisfy our needs. Of course, current societies are far from taking from the environment only what they need to survive.
Animals that are born and killed in a slaughterhouse are real victims, even if they don't report us, even if they don't plan a retaliation against their torturers. They are the perfect victims, because no one recognizes them as such, because they do not complain and accept the abuse that human beings impose on them. The animals, the silent victims, see their children die without being able to prevent it, they grow up in confined spaces that no person would endure without going crazy, eating and getting fat, allowing them to be groped, being subjects of cruel experiments .
All this has been going on for decades, without interruption, and the language wants to stop recognizing them as victims.
All people who suffer a crime are victims of this fact, even if they have suffered different types of harm. The victim may have been assaulted without any physical consequence (only money or other property was stolen), beaten or injured in the middle of the robbery (fist blows, stab wounds, bullets, etc.) or may have died as a direct consequence of The agression. In the latter case, we speak of a fatal victim.
In a more abstract sense, a person can be a victim of their own actions , which is especially the case in individuals with certain personality disorders. For different reasons, some people lead themselves to emotional or work failure, or they produce some kind of physical harm; Although in all cases there are underlying reasons, generally related to traumatic experiences during childhood caused by the elderly who had to take care of them, the consequences of said past injuries occur with or without the presence of the original aggressors.
Typically, victims of sexual or psychological abuse try to reproduce the feeling of submission and humiliation that they once suffered without choice; This does not mean that they are subjected to mistreatment similar to that received during the attacks that generated the trauma, but they do seek to feel again that frustration, that helplessness that the abuse generated. In a similar way, victims can become victimizers of third parties, continuing with a perverse cycle that feeds on the suffering of an innocent person to try to satisfy someone who at some point in his life was also an innocent, and who can never be one again.
Natural disasters also generate victims. These are cases of force majeure, where, in principle, nothing can be done to avoid the damage. However, there are always concrete ways to minimize the consequences of an eventual natural catastrophe ( floods , droughts , volcano eruption , earthquake ), although they require financial means and political will.