Emotional and legal help
Someone threatens you in the middle of the street with a knife. You are being stalked, or you see a serious accident happening right before your very eyes. If you have experienced such a situation, you will have to deal with victim support.
Victim support is where volunteers and professionals help victims of crime and accidents with practical or therapeutic help. Not only the victim himself can go to victim support, but also, for example, family members, next of kin and witnesses.
Crimes
The organization that deals with victim support in the Netherlands is called Victim Support Netherlands. The organization has 75 offices spread throughout the country. Examples of crimes that Victim Support staff regularly deal with are burglary, robbery, stalking and sexual or domestic violence.
Volunteers and professionals
Victim support provides emotional relief and legal assistance. Professionals provide legal support. Volunteers provide emotional support during a limited number of conversations.
Victims of a crime or traffic accident can suffer from, for example, crying fits, headaches or hypersensitivity. These symptoms usually last for several months. If people continue to have problems for longer, they are referred to mental health care. Victim Support can also refer people to the Legal Aid Office. Victim Support approaches most people themselves. They get the details of the victims through the police. If someone reports a crime, the officer on duty asks whether the victim’s address may be passed on.
Victim Support will then contact you within 48 hours. There are no waiting times. People who accept help are invited to the office or visited at home. 20 percent of people come to Victim Support on their own initiative, for example via the website.
Facts and numbers
Victim Support Netherlands is financed by the Ministry of Justice, municipalities and the Victim Support Fund. This fund raises money from individuals and companies. The money is intended for the training and further training of the volunteer aid workers. So if you end up with Victim Support, you don’t have to pay anything.
Victim Support Netherlands helps around a hundred thousand people every year. Increasingly, these include vulnerable groups such as young people and victims of domestic violence or stalking. No less than one third of the people helped are victims of a violent crime. This is especially true for men under the age of 20.
