Sexual violence is the least recognized and least reported type of offense. The victims who have the courage to report these cases risk to later become victims of the legal system. There are yet no specialized services that the Moldovan public institutions could provide to victims of sexual abuse. These are some of the conclusions of a study designed to reveal the dimensions of sexual offenses and the way in which their victims are protected.
The authors of the study “Ensuring of access of victims of sexual violence to appropriate legal and social protection” presented a number of recommendations for improving the situation of the victims of sexual assault in a news conference at IPN.
Thus, some of the specialists of law enforcement bodies who took part in the carrying out of the study consider that the situations when it is resorted to the mediation and conciliation of the sides should be excluded. The withdrawal of the complaint by the victim should not be a reason for the police not to continue to examine the initiated criminal case. By the possibility of withdrawing the complaint, the legal system actually encourages sexual offenses.
Director of the Center of Investigations and Consultation “Sociopolis” Diana Cheianu-Andrei said the specialists of the law enforcement bodies should benefit from specialized training so as to know how to work with victims of sexual violence. De facto, there are many shortcomings in the legal system as regards sexual violence. “Not many actions are taken to prevent this type of offenses. We lack specialists in this field. The experts violate the deontological principles. The victim and the aggressor are confronted, but in the democratic states this is not allowed,” she stated.
Referring to the fact that sexual violence started to affect an increasing number of children, Diana Cheianu-Andrei said that trained specialists must be present when interviewing children victims of sexual abuse. Now the interviewer of the child is required to be a person with psychological or legal education who attended training courses on legal interviewing of children.
Another recommendation of the study is for all the victims of sexual violence to be questioned in interviewing rooms intended for children so as to reduce the possibility of re-victimization, while the number of repeated interviews should be reduced to a minimum.
Diana Cheianu-Andrei said that Moldova does not have specialized services intended for victims of sexual violence. These victims are placed at public centers that provide services to victims of domestic violence. But these services are insufficient, while the capacity of these centers is small compared with the geographical area they cover.
The legal experts involved in the study underlined the necessity of improving the conditions in which the medical examination is performed and of modernizing the medical equipment. These consider that the procedures should be improved so that the documents issued by the examination bodies do not leave room for interpretation. Also, the victims of sexual violence should be offered free psychological assistance so as to help them recover mentally.
The study was commissioned by the International Center for Women Rights Protection and Promotion “La Strada” to the Center of Investigations and Consultation “Sociopolis”. It was financed by the U.S. Embassy in Chisinau.
