Frequently Asked Questions

If you’re interested in conducting legal research relating to crime victims, visit the VictimLaw and the National Crime Victim Law Institute websites.

You may also visit a state, county, or local law library for legal research assistance.

Additional research assistance may be obtained through the Ask a Law Librarian page on the Library of Congress website.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics' National Crime Victimization Survey Victimization Analysis Tool provides victimization data by victim/offender relationship (stranger vs. non-stranger). Additional information is available on the Stranger and non-stranger crime section of the Bureau of Justice Statistics website.

Visit our Help for Victims microsite to learn about resources and services for victims of crime. Assistance may come in the form of financial reimbursement or victim services. Funding support for state assistance and compensation programs comes from the Crime Victims Fund administered by the OVC as authorized by the Victim of Crime Act.

Another source of help is your local victim/witness assistance program. You may contact the VictimConnect helpline by phone at 855–484–2846 or online chat for a referral in your area.

Find out more in this brochure, What You Can Do If You Are a Victim of Crime, which includes a brief overview of OVC, your rights, and where you can get help.

Missing and exploited children statistics are available in resources from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Statistics section of the Office of Justice Program's Missing Children Special Feature.

For additional information, visit the Child and Youth Victimization section of our website and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children website.

A definition of forcible rape used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program is available in the following Department of Justice Press Release. The FBI defines of rape as: "[t]he penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim."

The U.S. Department of State's Children's Passport Issuance Alert Program works to prevent international parental child abduction. The program allows parents to register their U.S. citizen children under the age of 18. If a passport application is submitted for that registered child, the U.S. Department of State will contact and alert the parent(s).

To learn more and to register a child, visit the Passport Issuance Alert Program website.

Visit the Get Posted section of the OVC Directory of Crime Victim Services for information on how to add your program or organization to the Directory.

The United States uses two national data collection systems to track detailed information on homicides.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation annual Crime in the United States report provides homicide data from thousands law enforcement agencies across the Nation.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also publishes annual homicide data in its National Vital Statistics System, Fatal Injury Reports. Mortality data are produced from standardized death certificates filed throughout the United States.

Read the Bureau of Justice Statistics report, The Nation's Two Measures of Homicide for information about these two data collection systems.

Statistics on homicides committed with a handgun are available in the Bureau of Justice Statistics report, Firearm Violence, 1993-2011 and in the Federal Bureau of Investigation's annual Crime in the United States reports. See the "Expanded Offense Data" section of each year's Crime in the United States report to view available data on weapons used in homicides, including data specific to murders committed with a handgun.

The Directory of Crime Victim Services is an Office for Victims of Crime resource that includes contact information for thousands of victim service providers. The Directory is designed to help service providers and individuals locate victim services in the United States and other countries.