Victim 2008

TOPICAL RIGHT NOW:

The Internet version of the Conference Report, and the power point presentations which were allowed to be published on the Internet, are now available here on the conference web site (2008-04-24).

Thank you to all the keynote speakers, the chairpersons as well as all the attendees for the interesting conference with good spirit! Hope to see you in the next Nordic Conference - maybe in three years´ time in Denmark?

Welcome to the Nordic Conference on Victimology and Victim Support, to be held in Helsinki, 3- 5 March 2008!

This is the third meeting of the Nordic conference on victimology and victim support (Victims of Violence – Our Responsibility). This time, the focus will be on those victims who have so far received less attention: children especially, but also e.g. the elderly and handicapped people. Questions concerning violence and health and abused minorities will also be on the agenda.

The conference is meant for researchers, representatives of various authorities, non-governmental organisations, private persons and institutions whose work brings them into contact with issues relating to crime victims. The conference is especially aimed at organisations that help victims of violence, social services and family counsellors, the police and the judicial system, health service personnel, academics, educationalists, and those making political and administrative decisions.

The event offers an interface between academics and practitioners from all the Nordic countries. The objective of the conference is to bring people together, spread new research, and to present information and the interim results of work in progress. The aim is also to encourage on-going experimental and development projects in order to increase our understanding of the crime victim's perspective. We hope that the conference will inspire new networks, open up possibilities for new working methods, and demonstrate the urgent need for further research.

The aim of the conference is to bring together practitioners and academics in the field from all the Nordic countries. In this way, current research, practice and professional challenges will be approached from different theoretical and practical angles. Information and good practice will thus be shared among different sectors and across national borders.

The programme will consist of seven lectures, each one reflecting an issue that is currently topical in the Nordic countries. The invited lecturers at the plenum are Nils Cristie (Oslo University), Jan van Dijk (INTERVICT, The International Victimology Institute Tilburg, Holland), Maria Eriksson (Uppsala University), Freja Kärki (WHO, Regional Office for Europe, Copenhagen), Olof Asta Farestveit (Barnhus in Reykjavik), David Shannon (Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention), and Kristin Skjørten (NKVTS, Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies, Oslo).

There is room in the programme for three sessions of parallel workshops. We hope the abstracts sent in will result in a large number of presentations. The number of workshops per session will depend, as will their respective topics, on the response to our invitations.

The conference will be conducted in English and Swedish, but papers can be presented in Danish and Norwegian as well. Simultaneous translation into English, if needed, will be available in the plenum hall.