‘Trundled Along, Almost Unheard of, Almost Inaccessible’: Understanding Access to State Compensation for Victims of Violent Crime in Ireland and the European Union

Abstract

This thesis employs a socio-legal approach to examine the provision of state compensation for victims of violent crime in Ireland, which is provided through the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal (CICT). In bringing together legal and empirical considerations on the issue of state compensation, including perspectives gathered in 21 interviews with victims of violent crime, legal and victim support practitioners and former CICT decision-makers, I find that victims of violent crime face significant barriers and experience considerable re-traumatisation in attempting to access state compensation in Ireland. I also find, however, that advances in European Union (EU) law on victims’ rights, especially the newly developed EU right to state compensation has led to considerable improvements in decision-making at the CICT. In this manner, state compensation is shifting from a social solidarity approach to a rights-based conception of victimisation. Despite this important shift, I argue that several of the underlying challenges in relation to state compensation are likely to remain. These problems include restrictions on the type and amount of compensation available and the presence of eligibility and procedural criteria which fail to take account of the social construction of victimhood, the consequences of criminal victimisation and the need to protect victims from secondary victimisation.Whilst this thesis finds that state compensation provides many practical and symbolic benefits to victims, additional political will and public resources are ultimately needed to bring about the fundamental change necessary to tackle these underlying challenges and provide effective state compensation to all victims of violent crime.

Date of Award	2025
Original language	English (Ireland)
Awarding Institution	Dublin City University
Supervisor	Yvonne Daly (Supervisor)