EDITORIAL

Abstract

EDITORIAL

The third year of the International Journal of Victimology and Restorative Justice begins with the expectation that the Victim Statute (PL No. 3,890-2020) will come into force in 2025, following its recent approval by the Chamber of Deputies. The Statute, which is the embryo of the Brazilian Institute for Comprehensive Victim Care and Support (Pro Victim), seeks to create more balance between the rights of those impacted by traumatic events and the perpetrators of these events. It is also aligned with international regulations on the topic, such as those in Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, the United States, Argentina, and Canada. The legislative process gives us hope that the country will advance towards the recognition of rights for everyone, regardless of their procedural or personal situation.

In honor of the project's author, Congressman Rui Falcão, held in São Paulo on January 29, 2025, by the Brazilian Institute for Comprehensive Victim Care and Support (Pro Victim), the congressman noted:

"I am not very fond of tributes, I am very shy, and there is some emotion too because it is a recognition of our work. But I think this tribute should be reversed – those who should be honored today are all of you here, and I name Celeste and Marilene to not be unfair and exclude anyone, as they were not only formulators but also those who urged me beyond interrupting for all the right reasons because deputies and senators think their mandate is theirs, they are arrogant, they like to listen little, so voters must demand, must push, must supervise. And these two, in addition to being formulators, discussed every change. As you know, in a legislative process, a project never enters and exits the same; sometimes you have to make concessions. For example, nothing that mentioned gender could be maintained; maybe if we talked about the human gender, they would even want to remove that, due to the negative connotation some backward sectors of society give to the issue of gender. In fact, Trump now said that there are only two sexes, the rest does not exist, diversity is done. From these details, even to remove gender, we had to consult if we could or not. We had a huge last-minute workload because, as Marilene mentioned, there was an end-of-year package where you make agreements here and there, find a rapporteur, and Deputy Lídice da Mata was incredibly supportive; I had already worked with her in the Fake News CPI. In the meantime, I was President of the CCJ. Not even all the work I did there to give rapporteurship to everyone and manage democratically ensured that we could vote on the project before that. Finally, we succeeded, and due to this collective work and the significant protagonism of Dr. Celeste and Marilene, we now move to the Senate. This week, I already told Senator Humberto Costa, who will be the second secretary of the house, announcing that there was a project I want to put on the agenda soon. Next week, Congress, the Chamber, and the Senate will resume work, and the first thing I will do is seek out the senators, first from my bench and others as well. I think the difficulty now is to put the project on the agenda, and I don't think there will be the same resistance that occurred in the Chamber. The Statute has almost the structure of a Code. So, it is difficult to vote on projects with the scope the Statute has. It covers everything, not just victims of crime, but victims of catastrophes, changes in the treatment of public servants to better attend to victims. So, it is truly a revolutionary work in this area. I was the bearer of this, not the author. This is another thing I have discussed – the popular legislative initiative. To date, you cannot collect signatures for a popular legislative initiative online. We are in the 21st century. It has to be by hand. When you manage to get the signatures, which is very difficult, a deputy needs to sponsor the project, and then it falls into the common pit. There is no special rite for being a popular legislative initiative. So, people lose interest in politics; look at the abstention rates in elections – São Paulo, blank votes, null votes, and abstentions 42%, and Ribeirão Preto 50%. Minister Carmen Lúcia suggested prohibiting justifying absence online. We need to encourage voting. To do that, we need to encourage people to engage in politics, to vote. Voters need to know that their vote produces results. In this case, you produced results – through effort, work, and persistence. I kept something here that guides me a lot, I'll call you "you," said that we need to have hope, and I am guided by a phrase from a Welsh socialist, Raymond Williams, who says: being radical is not being violent, it is going to the roots, being radical is making hope possible, instead of making despair convincing. That is what moves me, and you stimulated me, which gave an extra boost of hope that we can change not only the Victim Statute but the country. Make the country fairer, more democratic, more supportive, at a time when part of the world is turning to darkness, to the Nazi salute being naturalized, so my hope is that we can, with initiatives like this, have a country different from the one many want to take to another direction. So, thank you very much for taking this initiative and wanting to pay me this tribute that I actually extend to you."

In this edition, we bring articles from renowned international and national specialists. Among the topics addressed in this volume, we can mention from the analysis by political scientist Nicholas Dungey on the phenomenology of victimization from Foucault's perspective, to new forms of victimization introduced by the digital human discussed by Professors Maria Celeste Cordeiro Leite dos Santos and Fábio Rivelli. The issue of rape by chemical intoxication was the subject addressed by Professor Véronique Duran. In the same vein, Professors Fadia Coral Basile and Mariana da Silva Ferreira. Vilmar Maciel brings us an analysis of the theme in light of school security. Professors Luciana Sabbatine Neves and Celeste Leite dos Santos analyze recent discussions related to refugee issues based on the policy briefing of the C-20-G-20. The issue of collective victimization from the phenomenon of corruption is addressed by Rita de Cassia Biason and Roberto Livianu. We must also mention the issue related to stalking victims (Roberto Bacal), restorative justice (Gabriele Alvares da Silva), vicarious violence (Bianca Rodrigues Araújo), sustainability (Silvia Helena Rondina Mateus), complementary health (Gislene Cremaschi Lima), and public policies for people with autism spectrum disorder (Luciana Barbosa da Silva).

We wish everyone a good read!

Celeste Leite dos Santos

Marilene Araújo

Vanessa Therezinha de Souza Almeida