THE former kidnap victim, Mrs Jennifer Guinness, has called for the rights and needs of victims of crime to be given recognition by the judicial system equal to the rights of the criminal. The national chairwoman of Victim Support was addressing delegates at the 45th annual social studies conference summer school in Donegal town this weekend.
Those taking part are experts from North and South who are involved in the legal and judicial systems or who work with victims or perpetrators of crime.
According to Ms Guinness there has long been an imbalance in the Irish judicial system in favour of the rights of the criminal. Such issues as the victim's right to information and the identity parade procedure where the victim is compelled to touch the person they have identified need to be addressed, she told the conference.
Ms Olive Travers, a senior clinical psychologist in Donegal who works with offenders and victims in the area of child sex abuse, was critical of the imprisonment of sex offenders with little hope of treatment. She advocated assessment of the offenders as part of a comprehensive treatment programme.