Susan Herman

Susan Herman is well respected among crime victims and victim assistance professionals throughout the Nation. She has brought noteworthy wisdom and innovation to the crime victims’ movement for more than 30 years. 

As the former Executive Director of the National Center for Victims of Crime, Ms. Herman demonstrated extraordinary leadership and vision through the development of numerous innovative programs, such as the Stalking Resource Center, which provides, among many other things, direct technical assistance and training to victim service providers and criminal justice agencies around the country; and the Teen Victim Project, which raises public awareness and helps communities develop multidisciplinary approaches to serving teen victims of crime. She also launched the National Crime Victim Bar Association, which educates attorneys, victim service providers, and the general public on the availability of civil remedies for crime victims. 

All of these initiatives were designed to fill important gaps in services in the crime victims field; however, Ms. Herman is probably most well known for her groundbreaking work to establish “parallel justice” for crime victims. As described in depth in her 2010 book Parallel Justice for Victims of Crime, this concept requires that society not only hold offenders accountable for the harm they cause, but also do everything possible to help repair the harm to crime victims. 

Ms. Herman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at Pace University in New York City, where she challenges her students to make a difference for crime victims in their communities and is helping to create the next generation of victim advocates.