The XV Annual Conference of the Victimology Society of Serbia entitled Modern Technology and Victims: Victimization risks and possibilities to improve social responses, will be held on 20th and 21st November 2025 in Belgrade, Hotel Palace, Topličin venac 23.
This year’s conference aims to bring together experts, researchers, activists, and practitioners from various disciplines to explore the key challenges and opportunities that modern technologies present in the context of victimization and victim protection. The conference will focus on how digital technologies, artificial intelligence, and information and communication (ICT) tools impact victims’ experiences, with particular emphasis on the benefits, challenges, and risks associated with their use in providing support to victims and preventing violence.
Digitalization and rapid technological advancement bring numerous benefits, including faster communication, more efficient information exchange, remote access to support and services, as well as new tools for prevention and intervention in cases of violence and other forms of victimization. However, they also create space for new forms of threats to individuals’ rights, freedoms, and safety. Victims of crime and other harmful behaviours are increasingly confronted with digital dimensions of victimization, from cyber violence and harassment, to the non
consensual sharing of compromising content, deepfake technologies, and identity misuse. Technologies originally developed to simplify everyday life are increasingly being used as tools of control, exploitation, and violence. In this context, understanding the complex relationship between modern technology and victimization becomes crucial for improving societal responses. Such understanding enables more effective mapping of victims’ needs, the development of targeted interventions, and the application of innovative solutions in violence prevention and the protection of the most vulnerable. These issues, challenges, and potential courses of action will be discussed over the two days of the conference.
The conference work will be organized through:
- -Plenary sessions
- -Thematic sessions
- -Round tables/workshops
- -Poster presentations
Keynote speakers:
The Promise of Digital Technologies in Victim Support: A friend or a foe?
Dr Sanja Milivojević is an Associate Professor of Digital Futures at the Bristol Digital Futures Institute and School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol. She is a CI at the Centre for Sociodigital Futures at the University of Bristol, Co-Director of Border Criminologies/Research Associate at the University of Oxford (United Kingdom), and Adjunct Associate Professor at La Trobe University, Melbourne (Australia). Professor Milivojević holds LL.B. and LL.M. from Belgrade University’s Law School, Serbia, and a PhD from Monash University, Australia. She is one of the founders of the Victimology Society of Serbia. Her research interests are mobilities (borders, border control, human trafficking), digital frontier technologies (AI, robotics), gender and victimisation, international criminal justice and human rights. Professor Milivojević is a recipient of UK, Australian and international research grants, and was a visiting scholar at the University of Oxford, Oslo, Belgrade and Zagreb, and a Public Interest Law Fellow at Columbia University’s Law School in New York. She has published six books and over 60 publications in English, Serbian and Italian. Her latest book is Crime and punishment in the future Internet: Digital frontier technologies and criminology in the twenty-first century (Routledge 2021).
AI, Deepfakes, and Victimization: Navigating New Frontiers of Harm and Justice.
Prof. dr Jaishankar Karuppannan is the Founder and Principal Director of the International Institute of Justice & Police Sciences (IIJPS), Bengaluru, Karnataka, India and an Adjunct Faculty Member at the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), Italy. Recognized as the founding father of Cyber Criminology (2007), Cyber Victimology (2015), Therapeutic Criminology (2023), and Theological Criminology (2024), he pioneered the groundbreaking Space Transition Theory of Cyber Crimes (2008). A Top 16th Global Influential Criminologist (2010- 2020) among 25 and Top 3% Indian Legal Scholar, Professor Jaishankar serves as Distinguished Adjunct Professor at Saveetha University and has held leadership roles such as Dean and HOD at two major Indian universities. He founded the South Asian Society of Criminology and Victimology (SASCV) and the Centre for Cyber Victim Counselling (CCVC). His honors include the NASI-SCOPUS Young Scientist Award and appointments as UN Expert on Victims of Terrorism and British Society of Criminology Ambassador. With 11 books (Sage, Routledge) and publications in the British Journal of Criminology, his expertise spans Cybercrime, Victimology, Crime Mapping, and Policing. A Commonwealth Fellow (University of Leeds-2019), he continues to shape global justice education through IIJPS.
Opportunities and Challenges of Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the Prevention of Peer Violence
Prof. Dr Aleksandar Jugović holds a PhD in Political Science in the field of social policy and social work. He is a full professor at the University of Belgrade – Faculty of Special Education and Rehabilitation, and a visiting professor at the Faculties of Political Science in Belgrade and Banja Luka. His scholarly work focuses on social deviance and social policy. He teaches the courses Social Pathology, Social Policy, and Media and Social Deviance at the undergraduate level; Social Management at the master’s level; and Project Design in Research on Social Deviance at the doctoral level. He has published over 180 papers in nationally and internationally recognized scientific journals. He was a Head of the Department for the Prevention and Treatment of Behavioral Disorders at the Faculty of Special Education and Rehabilitation from 2012 to 2015. From 2015 to 2018, he was Vice Dean for Science and Head of the Scientific Research Centre at the Faculty of Special Education and Rehabilitation. From 2018 to 2022, he was a member of the Council for the Rights of the Child of the Government of the Republic of Serbia. Since 2024, he has been a member of the Advisory Board of the NGO Centre for Missing and Abused Children. He is also a member of the Victimology Society of Serbia and of the Advisory Board of the academic journal Temida
Fighting ICT Facilitated Trafficking in Human Beings Using a Survivor Centred Approach. Insights from the Vanguard Project.
Dr Karen Latricia Hough Dr Karen Latricia Hough obtained her doctorate in Social and Cultural Anthropology from the University of Oxford. She has received many important awards for her research including the Vice Chancellorships’ Award and the Bagby Award at the University of Oxford. She has written evidence for the Home Affairs Commission and published a variety of articles and books for Routledge, Springer, Oxford University Press, Franco Angeli, Emerald, and Open Democracy. Karen has worked as a researcher on over 15 EU funded projects in the Russian Federation and Europe. She was the project manager of the influential MIICT project at the Centre of Excellence in Terrorism, Resilience, Intelligence and Organised Crime Research (CENTRIC), Sheffield Hallam University, UK. She has also taught various courses in Anthropology and Migration Studies at the University of Oxford, University of Oxford Brookes and the University of Salento. Karen is currently working on several research projects in the area of security which focuses on human trafficking.
Call for abstracts is available HERE.
Information on conference fee and registration is available HERE.
For additional information about the conference, please address Ms. Milica Luković Radaković at +381112288040 or via email vdsconference@gmail.com and vdsrbija@gmail.com.
