The impact of the victim support unit on Zambia's indignent victims

Abstract

In 1991, Zambia became a Third Republic. That is to say, the one-party system was abandoned in favour of the Multi-Party System.This transition also demanded that the Policing System equally transforms from its hitherto militaristic approach (force) into a more humane policing approach.The then Inspector General of Police, Francis, K. Ndlhovu, embarked on Police reform programmes in 1994.It is at this time that the then Police Force changed into Police Service. Many new policing techniques meant to bring the members of the general public closer to the Police were introduced in order to crash the fear people had of the Police down to dust. Among these new techniques was the Victim Support Unit which was established in 1995. This research paper attempts to look at the impact of the Victim Support Unit on the Zambia's indigent victims. In the past complaints from this class of persons were given less attention by the Police. It later appeared that the services of the Police were divisive and did not care about the indigent victims of crime so to speak. Hence the creation of the Victim Support to address this imbalance