Presenters:
Prof Karen Miner-Romanoff
Associate Provost for Academic Quality and Executive Director, International Institute for Innovative Learning, Franklin University, Ohio, USA
Dr Sylvester B. Maphosa
CRS of Governance and Security Unit,
AISA, HSRC
Date: 6 July 2016
Time: 12:30 – 13:30
Venue: Video Conference Centers: Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban
PRESENTATION available for download below
Crime and violence are complex social problems with complex social and legal consequences. Specifically, violent crime against women and children continues to place considerable strain on institutional resources and negatively impact the health and well-being of communities. National rape rates [in South Africa] remain among the highest in the world and often lie at the heart of gender inequalities and poverty. Collective and innovative solutions are necessary in order to decrease crime and increase the public health and well-being of communities. Restorative justice teaches us that victims must be treated with respect and maintain a powerful voice within the community and criminal justice systems.
With the prevalence of violent and chronic crime, victims face social, cultural and legal obstacles that must be addressed from an interdisciplinary perspective that seeks to break down silos and build partnerships across all stakeholders. No single subsystem or service can substantially impact social, legal and cultural change. Instead, as the Republic of South Africa Social Development Department in its National Policy Guidelines for Victim Empowerment clearly explains, this is a multivariate problem that necessitates multivariate and interdisciplinary solutions.
It is important to provide subsystems and organizations support for ongoing reflection, evaluation, collaboration, communication, and best practices. Indeed, progress has been made in the development of composite efforts to organize and implement victim services toward empowerment and a raising of awareness of the challenges, integrated solutions that address the victim lifecycle. This seminar seeks to build upon those efforts to further collaboration and assessment while sharing best practices among various and often-detached participants.
The HSRC seminar series is funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DST). The views and opinions expressed therein as well as findings and statements of the seminar series do not necessarily represent the views of DST.
Kindly RSVP by 5 July2016
Cape Town : HSRC, 12th Floor, Plein Park Building (Opposite Revenue Office), Plein Street, Cape Town. Contact Carmen August ,Tel (021) 4668004, Fax (021) 461 0299 or e-mail: caugust@hsrc.ac.za;
Durban : The Atrium, 5th Floor, 430 Peter Mokaba Ridge, Berea, 4001 , Contact Ridhwaan Khan, Tel (031) 242 5400, cell: 083 788 2786 or RKhan@hsrc.ac.za , or Hlengiwe Zulu at e-mail HZulu@hsrc.ac.za
Pretoria : HSRC Video Conference, 1st floor HSRC Library Human Sciences Research Council, 134 Pretorius Street, Pretoria. Arlene Grossberg, Tel: (012) 302 2811, e-mail: acgrossberg@hsrc.ac.za