The pilot project of advanced referral of victims to the National Call Center for victims of crimes (NCC) is a project launched by Victims and Witness Support Service Croatia, the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration and the Ministry of Internal Affairs in February 2022.
The idea of the project is to involve one police department and one police station from the City of Zagreb in order to request the victim’s consent when reporting a criminal offense so that their name, contact and criminal offense can be forwarded to the National Call Center with the aim of proactively contacting them and providing support immediately after the event. The idea is modeled on the principle of Opt-in referral, which exists in different forms in other EU countries.
For the beginning of the project, as stated, the Police Department of Koprivnica-križevci county and one police station in the City of Zagreb were involved with the aim of comparing the possibilities of the police to pass on victims’ contacts, and comparing the needs of victims in urban and less urban areas.
The pilot project officially started on February 15th, 2022, and by December 31st, a total of 152 victims were referred from the mentioned counties, of which 130 were successfully contacted, and 22 victims were not contacted successfully.
Victims are to be contacted via the phone number given to police officers, after multiple unsuccessful phone contact attempts those who also leave an email address are to be contacted via official email. For the first contact with the victim, a period of 48 hours is provided from the time the form is received, and if the first contact is unsuccessful, a period of five days is given when repeated contacts with the victim are to be attempted.
From February 1, 2023, four new counties were introduced into the implementation of the pilot project: Lika-senj county, Požega-slavonia county, Bjelovar-bilogora county and Virovitica-podravina county. With this addition, the possibility of extending the project to as many victims as possible is being tested. An increase in the number of victim forms received is also visible since the expansion of the project – by the end of August 2023, i.e. in the first six months of implementation, a total of 259 victims were referred, of which 209 were successfully contacted and 50 were unsuccessfully contacted.
Victims referred to the hotline are most often victims of criminal acts of threats and domestic violence, and over 60% of victims are referred for criminal acts that are gender-based.
Differences compared to talking to victims on the line are also noticeable, calls in referral on average last longer than calls on the free 116 006 line, more often it is about criminal acts of threats, sexual crimes and acts to the detriment of children compared to the calls we receive through the line. In the call, victims are more often psychoeducated about the elements and types of violence, and generally have a more positive image and expectations of the system.