Lack of compensation for the victims of sexual offences

Lack of compensation for the victims of sexual offences 

RECENT studies show a lack of compensation for the victims of sexual offences. The compensation usually is inadequate, arrives late or not at all.

More than one third receive nothing, the lowest percentage for all common crime apart from robbery, found Helena Soleto and Aurea Grane, lecturers at Madrid’s Carlos III University.

Analysis of 2,600 court rulings between 2012 and 2015 revealed that compensation for common crime in Spain is unsatisfactory.

But the victims of sexual offences, principally women, girls and children, usually received only one in every four euros awarded in compensation. This is compared with the 44 per cent received for other crimes.

Half of the victims were given a paltry €166 and often waited up to five years to receive it.

Rape is a hard crime to report and normally results in long, distressing court cases as the La Manada rape trial showed.

The crime was committed during the San Fermin fiestas in Pamplona three years ago and the Supreme Court’s verdict has only just arrived.

“We wanted to demonstrate that more effort should be made when compensating victims,” Soleto said.

“They are newly victimised by sentences that raise hopes that are not fulfilled.”

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