CHAPTER 14

The Victim: Helping Those in Need

Chapter Objectives

1.      Briefly summarize the history of America’s victims’ rights movement including important federal victims’ rights legislation.

2.      List and describe the costs and consequences of criminal victimization.

3.      Understand how corrections agencies participate in meeting victims’ needs, and identify the kinds of victim services provided by correctional agencies.

4.      Explain how crime victim compensation programs work.

5.      Describe the official mission of the federal Office for Victims of Crime and identify its various operating divisions.

6.      Understand the nature of victim impact statements, and explain why they are important.

7.      Anticipate the future of victim’s rights by identifying the five global challenges now facing victims’ rights advocates.

Chapter Summary

I. A Brief History of America’s Victims’ Rights Movement

·        Victims were rarely recognized in the laws and policies that govern our nation until the 1970s.

·        The 1980 enactment of Wisconsin’s victims’ Bill of Rights, the nation’s first state bill of rights for crime victims, launched an era of dramatic progress in the victims’ rights movement.

A. Federal Legislation

·        A subsection of the Crime Control Act of 1990, known as the Victims’ Rights and Restitution Act of 1990 (Victims’ Rights Act), established a Bill of Rights for federal crime victims.

·        The Victims’ Rights Act requires that federal law enforcement officials must use their “best efforts” to ensure that victims receive basic rights and services.

·        The following are the basic rights and services that officials must use their best efforts to provide for the victims:

o    Fair and respectful treatment by authorities

o    Reasonable protection from the accused

o    Notification of public court proceedings

o    Presence at public court proceedings unless the court specifies otherwise

o    Conference with the prosecutor

o    Restitution

o    Fair and respectful treatment by authorities

o    Updates to information about the offender, including conviction, sentencing, imprisonment, and release

B. The Proposal for a Federal Victims’ Rights Constitutional Amendment

·        The 1982 President’s Task Force on Victims of Crime made 68 recommendations for protection of victims’ rights, including a recommendation that the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution be amended to guarantee specific rights to crime victims.

·        Although the recommendation has not yet been implemented, the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA), Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), the National Center for Victims of Crime (NVC—formerly the National Victim Center), and other national victims’ organizations joined together in 1987 to create the National Victims’ Constitutional Amendment Network (NVCAN).

II. The Costs and Consequences of Victimization

·        According to a two-year National Institute of Justice (NIJ) study, personal crimes result in costs of about $105 billion annually for medical expenses, lost earnings, and public victim assistance programs.

A. Who Pays the Bills? 

·        Victims and their families pay the bill for some crimes, and the public largely pays the bill for others.

TIP: Are you willing to pay more insurance to help crime victims? What services should be provided to crime victims and who should have to pay?

III. The Role of Corrections

·        Correctional agencies are also beginning to recognize the important role that victims can play in helping them develop policies, procedures, and programs that consider victims as well as correctional staff and offenders. 

A. Victim Notification

·        Victim notification of the release or pending release of convicted offenders is an important service. Without notification, victims are denied an opportunity to take precautions to ensure their own safety.

B. Victim and Witness Protection

·        Every day in the United States, victims and witnesses are harassed, intimidated, and retaliated against by incarcerated offenders, through intimidating phone calls, mail, or threatened visits from friends and associates.

·        Many correctional agencies have responded creatively to this problem.

C. Community Notification

·        Most states have laws that provide for community notification of sexual offender releases or authorize the general public or certain individuals or organizations to access sexual offender registries. 

D. Crime Impact Classes 

·        The purpose of such programs is to help offenders understand the devastating impact their crimes have on victims and their families and friends, on their communities, and on themselves and their own families.

E. Victim-Offender Dialogue

·        During the past two decades, a number of victim–offender dialogue programs have been developed in juvenile and criminal justice agencies, predominantly in juvenile probation agencies.

·        These programs, primarily used in property crime cases, give victims an opportunity to engage in a structured dialogue with their offenders who have already admit- ted their guilt or been convicted/adjudicated.

F. The Victimization of Correctional Staff

·        Correctional professionals are exposed to a wide range of victimization, including verbal harassment by inmates, sexual harassment by inmates or colleagues, physical or sexual assaults, hostage situations, and murder.

·        To lessen the acute and chronic trauma this violence has on employees, many adult correctional agencies have developed written policies and procedures to respond to staff victimization and critical incidents.

IV. Victim Compensation

·        Victims generally have three options for recovering crime-related financial losses:

o    State-sponsored compensation programs

o    Court-ordered restitution

o    Civil remedies, or lawsuits against offenders

A. President’s Task Force on Victims of Crime

·        In 1982, the President’s Task Force recommended federal funding to help support state victim compensation programs.

·        State-operated victim compensation programs have improved dramatically since 1982, in benefits provided and in recipients.

B. Victims of Crime Act

·        The task force’s recommendation for federal support of state victim compensation programs was implemented through the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA), passed in 1984.

C. Recent Trends

·        Due to increases in publicity concerning victim compensation programs and new laws mandating that rights, services, and information be pro- vided to victims, the number of victims applying for financial assistance has increased.

D. Eligibility Requirements

·        Report the crime promptly, usually within 72 hours.

·        Cooperate with law enforcement agencies in investigation and prosecution of the crime.

·        Submit a timely application for compensation, generally within one year.

·        Provide other information, as needed by the program.

·        Not file claims for compensation of victimization that resulted from claimant criminal activity or misconduct.

E. Benefit Criteria

·        Moving or relocation expenses, when a victim may be in danger or relocation becomes medically necessary as a result of victimization

·        Transportation for medical services when the provider is located far from the victim’s residence or when other special circumstances exist

·        Services, such as child care and/or housekeeping, that the victim cannot perform due to a crime-related injury

·        Essential lost or damaged personal possessions

·        Crime-scene cleanup—securing or restoring a home to its precrime condition

·        Rehabilitation—physical or job therapy, ramps, wheelchairs, and/or home or vehicle modification and/or driving instruction

F. Restitution

·        Restitution is repayment to the victim, by the offender, for losses, damages, or expenses that result from a crime.

·        Restitution is a form of victim compensation that holds the offender liable for the victim’s financial losses.

Collecting Restitution in Institutions

·        Many correctional agencies encourage inmates to fulfill restitution obligations.

·       These agencies increase collections by offering incentives (such as increased visitation and prison commissary services or priority enrollment in education pro- grams) for compliance and by denying privileges for failure or refusal to participate.

Community Restitution

·        Offenders who are truly indigent may be given the option to perform community service in lieu of monetary restitution.

V. The Office for Victims of Crime

·        State Compensation and Assistance Division (SCAD) administers federal grant programs for state crime victim compensation and state-administered local victim assistance programs.

VI. Victim Impact Statements

·        Victim impact statements are assertions — by a victim and/or friends or relatives of the victim—about the crime’s impact on the victim and the victim’s family.

·        Victim impact statements, now permitted at all sentencing hearings, may be verbal or written, depending on the jurisdiction.

·        The Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 gave federal victims of violent crime or sexual assault a federal right of allocution —the right to make a statement at sentencing.

VII. The Future of Victims’ Rights

·        Five global challenges for responding to victims of crime in the 21st century form the core of the ideas and recommendations presented in the report:

o    Enact and enforce consistent, fundamental rights for crime victims in federal, state, juvenile, military, and tribal justice systems and administrative proceedings.

o    Provide crime victims with access to comprehensive, quality services regardless of the nature of their victimization, age, race, religion, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, capability, or geographic location.

o    Integrate crime victims’ issues into all levels of the nation’s education system to ensure that justice and allied professionals and other service providers receive comprehensive training on victims’ issues as part of their academic education and continuing training in the field;.

o    Support, improve, and replicate promising practices in victims’ rights and services built upon sound research, advanced technology, and multidisciplinary partnerships.

o    Ensure that the voices of crime victims play a central role in the nation’s response to violence and those victimized by crime.