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XXXVI Postgraduate Course of Victimology, Victim Assistance and Criminal Justice im Mai 2022
Marburg students at the Postgraduate Course of Victimology, Victim Assistance and Criminal Justice in Dubrovnik
From May 16 to May 28, 2022, the 36th Postgraduate Course on Victimology, Victim Assistance and Criminal Justice took place in Dubrovnik, Croatia. After a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19, numerous experts in the field of victimology met with around 40 students from Germany, Croatia, the United States, Canada, and India, including ICWC staff and students from Philipps University Marburg.
Read below the brief report from this year’s participants:
For two weeks, we engaged intensively with topics in victimology and criminology from the perspectives of different countries and academic backgrounds. Instructors from seven countries across three continents provided insights into their research and daily work. The subject areas were very diverse, covering a wide range of specific phenomena, problems, and research questions (e.g., Missing and Murdered Indigenous People, Hate on the Internet and Conspiracy Myths, Quebec’s Special Tribunal for Sexual and Domestic Violence Victims, Focus on Cyber Hygiene to Prevent Cyber Victimization). One focal point was the connection between victimization processes and criminalization across different affected groups and national contexts. Challenges within justice systems were also highlighted in lectures such as “Female Victims of a Wrongful Conviction: Continual Marginalization” and “Racialized Mass Incarceration in the U.S. as an Example of Mass Victimization.” The role of gender in the justice system was explored in lectures like “It Was My Life or His: The Socio-Legal Relevance of the Battered Women Syndrome in Canada” and “Perspectives on Women in Armed Conflicts: Victims and Perpetrators.”
Current issues were also addressed, including changes and impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on drug trafficking and domestic violence, as well as potential international criminal justice measures related to the war in Ukraine. Many topics sparked great interest in discussions beyond the lectures; however, the strict lecture schedule allowed only limited time for this. Therefore, long lunch breaks, shared evenings, and excursions provided excellent opportunities to get to know each other and critically exchange ideas about the lecture topics.
We, the participants, are students in the Master’s program “International Criminal Justice.” Since most of the past semesters were primarily online, the summer school also provided us with the opportunity to get to know each other better in person. The city of Dubrovnik offered a picturesque backdrop for the challenging topics of the course program, as well as a historical setting. The course concluded with presentations by the participating students. We were given the platform to present self-chosen topics from the field of victimology and to exchange ideas about them with fellow students and experts.
The Marburg students presented the following topics:
- The Murad Code and its role for the documentation of SGBV
- Re-victimisation - Re-dehumanization and rehumanization of victims in trials at the ICC: The example of the Ocampo Six
- Victimized perpetrators? Why reducing women's imprisonment can be a tool of transformative justice
Overall, this course provided an opportunity to meet participants from diverse regions and disciplines, explore new content, gain fresh perspectives on familiar phenomena, and practice presenting in English to an international audience.