IIt is common to say that the progress of the rule of law is defined by the attention the nation pays to vulnerable people.

In the name of national solidarity and the principle of fraternity, the bedrock of our Republic, it is essential to listen to the victims who sometimes feel a sense of abandonment, even neglect, on the part of public authorities, even as more and more people report them to speak up; This is all the more true as certain crimes and victims are discussed more in the media than others and become the subject of public policy.

Support solutions have been around for almost forty years. Pillars of our criminal justice system, help and support for victims have never been more necessary than they are today.

7 euros per year per victim

In fact, the need for victim support continues to grow. In France, due to the increasing types and categories of violence, as well as the precise identification of the resulting psychological trauma, it is now essential to ensure long-term, multidisciplinary support for all victims of crime, without interruption.

At the same time, every victim deserves compensation for their damage commensurate with the trauma suffered: for the sake of justice, we must promote the universality, equality and effectiveness of their support. Access to information remains inadequate: the development of skills and resources must be the basis for a modern vision of victim support. This problem represents a daily challenge for victim support associations, in particular under the auspices of the French Victims Association.

In order to be able to fulfill these monitoring and support tasks, a significant increase in the number of skilled workers and thus the funding provided is required. Today the budget allocated to prison facilities is 100 euros per day per inmate, which is clearly insufficient.

But the funds made available to victim support associations amount to 7 euros per year per victim, which is also clearly inadequate. It seems more than necessary to significantly increase the resources allocated to supporting victims in relief operations, while at the same time taking the same measures towards the prison administration.

Ambition and kindness

Even if support from the public sector has already been successfully initiated, it is still essential to provide new impetus for action through appropriate financial resources.

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