| 英文摘要 |
The issue of victim protection emerged in the mid-20th century with New Zealand being the first to formalize measures for the protection of crime victims in 1964. Subsequently, many developed countries followed suit. Taiwan’s legal framework for victim protection began with the enactment of the Crime Victim Protection Act in 1998, which had undergone five amendments by 2015. However, this law primarily focused on monetary compensation, lacking other protective services. In 2022, the Executive Yuan proposed an amendment called“Crime Victim Rights Protection Act”. This amendment shifts the emphasis from“compensation”and“protection”to the concepts of“dignity”and“empathy,”aiming to more effectively safeguard victims’rights, the full set of provisions was officially enforced on January 1, 2024. For years, Taiwan’s criminal policy has heavily focused on the rights of the accused, often overlooking the rights of victims. While police practices have traditionally concentrated on the investigation of suspects, police officers, as the frontline law enforcement personnel, are often the first members of the judicial system that victims encounter. The revised law includes provisions related to the police, making them responsible for emergency assistance, security, care services, and necessary support for victims and their families. Also, police officers are required to provide information regarding available support services, case investigation progress, judicial procedures, and victims’rights. Based on the results of the practical interviews in this study and the relevant regulations in foreign countries, this paper argues that improvements in some areas are still needed, such as upgrading the level of the authorities in charge of victim protection, purifying and specializing the protection service, strengthening victim protection as a duty of police officers, implementing the system of accompanying the police during the police questioning stage, expanding the application of reduction of repeated statements for victims, establishing a professional translation register and regular training sessions, providing information on caring and assistance, and setting up a single“information platform for victims’protection cases,”etc. |
