Witnesses’ Secondary Victimization in Police Inquiry And Criminal Proceedings in Homicide Investigation

Abstract

Secondary victimization, or re-victimization, is a phenomenon caused by state agents involved with the criminal justice system, affecting victims and witnesses of crimes, especially homicide crimes. A significant number of witnesses choose not to collaborate with justice in the investigation of the homicide, for fear of retaliation by criminals and lack of police or court protection, which ends up leading to impunity. This study aimed to analyze the process of secondary victimization of witnesses in police inquiry and criminal proceedings in the homicide investigation, in addition to identifying the causes of such victimization and proposing actions that may minimize it. Non-systematic bibliographic research was carried out in the Google Scholar and Scielo databases, using the terms “vitimização de testemunhas”, “homicídio”, “witness victimization”, “secondary witness victimization” and “homicide secondary victimization” as keywords, applying the specific period filter (2016 – 2021). Thirteen probable causes for secondary victimization were identified, proposing some measures to try to avoid or minimize it. It was concluded that only by protecting homicide witnesses will it be possible to achieve better rates in the investigation of these crimes.