Implementazione della Direttiva 2012/29/UE per le vittime di corporate crime e corporate violence. Linee guida nazionali per i servizi sociali, le organizzazioni che offrono assistenza alle vittime e i centri di giustizia riparativa

These National Guidelines for social workers, victim support services, restorative justice services and any other service coming into contact with victims are aimed at providing a practical and specific tool for a better implementation, within the Italian legal system and welfare system, of Directive 2012/29/EU, with specific respect to victims of corporate crime and corporate violence. Building on a previous theoretical and empirical research, these Guidelines provide an overview of the minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime established by the Directive (§ I), with specific respect to the peculiarities and problems related to corporate violence victimization, i.e. to criminal offences committed by corporations in the course of their legitimate activities, which result in harms to natural persons’ health, integrity or life, and whose victims experience a whole range of distinctive risks of secondary and repeat victimisation, of intimidation and retaliation, as well as of harm to their dignity and private and family life. An overview of the harms and risks suffered by these victims is therefore indispensible in view of a competent and effective individual assessment of their specific protection needs (§ II). The usually collective dimension of corporate violence victimization, together with the frequently long latency periods which characterize the onset of the harmful effects, and with the recurrence of scientific uncertainty about causal links and, in some cases, about the meaning and relevance of symptoms experienced by victims, all add to the greater difficulty in identifying and recognizing these victims and their status as such, so that specific guidelines are provided with this respect (§ III). Due to the same factors, these victims also present peculiar needs for information (§ IV), as well as for protection from secondary and repeat victimization, from intimidation and from retaliation, including against the risk of emotional or psychological harm (§ VI), as well as against risks for their privacy, their personal integrity and personal data (§ VII). Bearing in mind that social workers’ and victim support services’ have the task of informing victims about legal assistance, further guidelines for this specific target groups are provided in order to address, at this level, ways of tackling the difficulties victims of corporate violence experience in getting adequate and economically sustainable legal assistance (§ VIII). Guidelines also cover the topics of access to criminal justice, participation in criminal proceedings, and access to compensation, from the points of view of social work and victim support: guidelines therefore focus on the importance of victim’s preparation to trials, hearings, and extrajudicial settlements, pointing out how victims must be helped in developing fair and realistic expectations from the justice system (§ IX). The core of these Guidelines is represented by § V: this chapter is devoted to assistance and support in a Country where no specific victim support services have, as yet, been provided nationwide. Social workers and the few victim support services available in Italy at present have a crucial, yet difficult, task, which is outlined here within the national and local systems of welfare, and according to the need to expand such services. The possibilities that victims of corporate violence have to access specific restorative justice programmes are also addressed (§ X): they represent one of the highlights of this practical tool. The importance of training for all the professionals and volunteers potentially involved in providing victims’ assistance and support is also addressed, with specific attention to the available channels for the implementation of adequate and specific trainings aimed at tackling corporate violence victims’ criticalities and needs (§ XI). Finally, attention is drawn to possible critical issues, as well as general principles, related to the transposition of the Directive 2012/29/EU within the Italian legal framework and (§ XII).

Le "Linee guida nazionali per i servizi sociali, le organizzazioni che offrono assistenza alle vittime e i centri di giustizia riparativa" sono state elaborate nell'ambito del progetto "Victims and Corporations. Implementation of Directive 2012/29/EU for Victims of Corporate Crimes and Corporate Violence" finanziato dal programma "Justice" dell'Unione Europea. Il volume affronta il tema del sostegno e dell'assistenza alle vittime di reato, approfondendo in particolare la peculiarità dei bisogni di supporto e assistenza delle vittime della criminalità d'impresa. La Direttiva 2012/29/UE prevede che il supporto alle vittime di reato (al di fuori del procedimento penale), affidato al mondo delle professioni sociali, psicosociali, sanitarie, ecc., si concretizzi in un sistema integrato di interventi a più livelli, i quali includono l’erogazione di informazioni, la prestazione di assistenza ‘generica’ e ‘dedicata’ e l’istituzione di appositi «servizi di assistenza alle vittime» di tipo «generale» e «specialistico». Il personale coinvolto in tale sistema multilivello può includere un ampio ventaglio di figure professionali o volontarie, specializzate nell’assistenza alle vittime o a cui capiti, per la professione svolta o la funzione esercitata, di entrare a qualsiasi titolo in contatto con le vittime. Il d.lgs. 212/2015 ha però recepito la Direttiva Vittima limitatamente ai profili concernenti la partecipazione della vittima al procedimento penale, trascurando l’istituzione e la regolamentazione dei servizi di assistenza e, dunque, trascurando la concreta ed effettiva erogazione del sostegno dovuto. L’assenza, in Italia, dei servizi di assistenza alle vittime, l’accesso ai quali è previsto dalla Direttiva come «diritto» di queste ultime, attenua grandemente – fino quasi a vanificarlo – ogni intervento in favore delle vittime stesse, scaricando sulla giustizia penale compiti che non le appartengono e privando l’autorità giudiziaria di figure essenziali all’effettiva tutela delle vittime e alla corretta valutazione individuale delle esigenze di protezione.