Victim Services

The term victim services refers to various ways that victims of crime are being assisted. Victims of crime are people who have experienced direct physical, emotional, or pecuniary harms as a result of a compensable crime. Victim services are an important stabilizing agent in society as they help victims of crime cope with trauma and other negative effects of crime.

Even though services are provided to all victims of crime, the role of victim services has special meaning to minority crime victims. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, Blacks' homicide victimization rates were 6 times higher than Whites', and Blacks were much more likely to be killed in drug-related circumstances. Other statistics also indicate that racial minorities are disproportionately victims of crime. For example, according to the 2005 NCVS, the rate for Black victims of personal crimes, for every 1,000 people, is 28.7, compared to 20.9 White victims of personal crime and 14.1 victims in the other minority category. The data further indicated that Blacks in the United States experience property crime less often than Whites, 144.6 compared to 155.7, respectively. Even so, minority members of society continue to need and benefit from victim services.

In the early 1970s, criminal justice systems in the United States began showing greater sensitivity to the needs of crime victims. This occurred in part as a result of prosecutors' recognition of the important roles played by victims in the successful prosecution of offenders. To garner the support of victims in criminal prosecutions, many prosecutors began offering a variety of support services to crime victims who were also witnesses. For example, [Page 859]some prosecutors offered financial support to victims to address the income lost by victim-witnesses while assisting with prosecutions. Other services included counseling to assist with the psychological needs of victims, and even educational briefings to prepare victims for trial. By the mid-1970s, prosecutors in seven states implemented pilot victim-witness assistance projects. The success of pilot programs played an integral role in the political support for passage of the 1984 Victims of Crime Act (VOCA). Since that time, most local prosecutors' offices have provided varying levels of service to crime victims in the United States. The types of services provided are often a reflection of individual state policies and collaboration with the federal Office of Victims of Crime (OVC). A result of these early beginnings was the establishment of victim-witness assistance programs that currently provide victim services throughout the nation.

The Crime Victims' Fund, created by VOCA and administered through OVC, is a non-taxpayer-funded resource that pays for services provided to crime victims. Funding to support victim compensation and victim assistance programs is collected at the federal level and then awarded by the OVC to the states for disbursal to local programs. Funds are derived from several sources, that is, fines paid by the convicted, forfeited bail bonds, penalties, special assessments collected by the federal courts and U.S. attorneys' offices, fees collected by the Federal Bureau of Prisons from offenders convicted of federal crimes, private gifts, bequests, and donations. These funds support two types of locally administered programs, for example, those that provide victim compensation or victim assistance.

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