The paper reviews recent developments in the system of protection, assistance and support of victims of human trafficking in Serbia. The establishment of the Agency for Co-ordination of Protection of Victims of Trafficking in Human Beings in 2003, the issuing of the Instruction on Conditions for Obtaining Temporary Residence Permit for Foreign Citizens — Victims of Trafficking in Human Beings by the Minister of Interior in 2004, and the adoption of the Strategy to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings in the Republic of Serbia in 2006 are important steps forward. Notable improvement has been achieved in the protection of victims as injured parties/witnesses in criminal proceedings. However, despite the respectable efforts made so far, further improvements to the system and mechanisms of victim protection in Serbia are still needed, particularly in terms of developing support for and protection of child victims.

The paper presents the results of an empirical study of prison deprivations suffered by women, conducted at the Female Department of Correctional Facility in Požarevac within the scope of a wider study of women's prison system. It was supposed that female prisoners in this penal institution face similar prison experience and suffer the same or similar deprivations as women in other penal institutions do. The research sample included female prisoners sentenced to more than one year, staying in prison for more than a year (54 female prisoners, i.e. more than 50% prisoners sentenced to long prison terms). Prisoners were interviewed employing a questionnaire measuring different types of deprivations using 26 indicators. Using the method of factor analysis - which was here used for the first time to study prison deprivations - six factors of women's prison deprivations were extracted: deprivation of maternity; deprivation of autonomy; deprivation of individuality; deprivation of human kindness and empathy; deprivation of a key role - a woman's role, and deprivation of friendship relations. The outcomes of this research, together with the findings of other researchers, affirm the assumption that these types of deprivations are realistic and dominant types of women's prison deprivations

Notably deplorable phenomenological changes of homicides in Serbia at the beginning of 1990’s proceeded along with the dismantling of SFRJ, wars and unsuccessful starting of social transition: within the turbulent and almost extreme social context it had been generated an increase of all types of violence as well as crime in general. Restrictive social conditions economic deprivation, social disorganization and deregulation are apprehended as factors of facilitation of risks of violent abreactions in the form of expressive homicides and also of risks of instrumental violence under the high structural pressure toward illegal alternatives and weak formal crime control at the same time. The crises of external and internal security coincided amplifying one another and succeeded by economic declension, deregulation and revived cultural definitions that extended the ‘legitimacy’ of violence. The plenty of cycles of structural and behavioural violence were initiated during the 1990s in Serbia: a holistic approach to violence as one complex phenomenon that extends from ‘invisible’ violence to homicides is the strategy which should be considered as perspective one regarding both the exploration and prevention of homicides. Key words homicide, violence, expressive homicides, instrumental homicides, social transition, Serbia

In this paper the problem of homicidal violence between heterosexual intimates is analyzed, and the need for its treatment as a specific criminological issue denoted, having in mind many of its distinctive etiological and victimological dimensions. The presented findings of an empirical research on intimate homicides committed in Belgrade from 1985 to 1993 allowed for a testing of some hypotheses related to the factors of homicidal criminalization and victimization within the context of the intimate heterosexual relationships. The evidence on history and dynamics of deeply disturbed intimate relations, as well as some typical characteristics of male intimate partners in violent heterosexual relationships, are particularly considered. On the bases of research findings, it seems possible that the plausible preventive strategies can be developed

The paper considers a development and social meaning of social heroes, as well as the substance, functions and dichotomies of heroism, with particular view on those conditions in a social system that enable and facilitate a mutual approximation and symbolic and functional alternation of its diverse categories. The situation in Serbia during the last two decades was particularly the object of attention in an attempt to fortify the assumption that extreme turbulent processes inside the social space, followed by willing and substantial antisocial activity of certain favorably positioned groups, as well as by specific processing of social reality by those unfavorably positioned, "ordinary" people, make possible the conversion of classic antiheroes into social heroes