TITLE: Report to Congress, October 1997                
Series: OVC Report
SUBJECT: Program Evaluation 
Published: October 1997
126 pages
290,645 bytes

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U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Justice Programs
Office for Victims of Crime

Report to Congress
October 1997

------------------------------

U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Justice Programs
810 Seventh Street NW.
Washington, DC 20531

Janet Reno
Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice

Eric Holder
Deputy Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice

John C. Dwyer
Acting Associate Attorney General

Laurie Robinson
Assistant Attorney General

Aileen Adams
Director, Office for Victims of Crime
 
Office for Victims of Crime 
World Wide Web Site 
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/


The Office for Victims of Crime is a component 
of the Office of Justice Programs, which also
includes the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the
Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National
Institute of Justice, and the Office of Juvenile
Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

------------------------------
Victims of Crime Act of 1984
as Amended:
A Report to the President
and the Congress

Office for Victims of Crime
Office of Justice Programs
U.S. Department of Justice

This report covers activities undertaken by the 
Office for Victims of Crime and its grantees with 
Crime Victims Fund revenues during Fiscal Years
1995-1996

------------------------------

Table of Contents

MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR
The Office for Victims of Crime: Helping To Provide 
Justice and Healing

Executive Summary
               
Chapter 1 How Criminals Pay for Victim Services: 
The Crime Victims Fund    

Deposits Into the Crime Victims Fund                              
 Fiscal Responsibility and Management of the Fund
         
Chapter 2 Funding Services for Crime Victims: 
OVC's Unique Role                 

Formula Grants Program

New OVC Efforts To Improve Victim Services Through
the Formula Grants Program
The VOCA Victim Assistance Grant Program
The VOCA Victim Assistance Grant Program
Administration 
Victim Assistance Programs
The VOCA Victim Compensation Grant Program
The VOCA Victim Compensation Funds Serving Crime
Victims
The State Compensation Program Spotlight

Discretionary Grants Program

New OVC Efforts To Improve Victim Services Through
the Discretionary Grants Program
Discretionary Funding for Programs That Help
Federal Crime Victims

Federal Crime Victim Assistance Funds

U.S. Attorneys' Federal Crime Victim Assistance
Fund     
FBI Federal Crime Victim Assistance Fund                          
        
OVC Support of Training and Technical Assistance 
for Victim Assistance and Compensation Grants

National Association of Crime Victim Compensation 
Boards         
National Victim Assistance Training Conference      
Statewide and Regional Victim Assistance Conferences       

Chapter 3 Sharing Knowledge To Improve Victim Services:  
OVC-Funded Training and Technical Assistance
       
National Victim Assistance Academy
     
Discipline-Specific Training Programs   

Training for Law Enforcement Professionals     
Community Policing and Victim Services     
Promising Practices for Law Enforcement     
National Domestic Violence Teleconference     
Federal Bureau of Investigation  
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center     
Federal Criminal Justice Personnel Training
   
Trainings for Prosecutors  
Federal Prosecutors 
Promising Practices for Prosecutors   
Protecting Victims' Rights: A Prosecutor's 
Priority 
 
Trainings for Court Personnel  
The Juvenile Justice System  
Juvenile Court Response to Victims of Juvenile 
Offenders     
The Judiciary 

Trainings for Professionals in Corrections  
U.S. Parole Commission and Federal Bureau of Prisons

Trainings for Professionals in the Military 

Trainings for Professionals in the Mental Health 
and Medical Fields     
Mental Health  
Medical 

Training for Educators and Other School Personnel     

Training and Technical Assistance for Special 
Populations Vulnerable to Victimization     

Victims of Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence      
Victims of Sexual Assault  
Victims of Statutory Rape  
Domestic Violence Victims    
Community Responses to Family Violence       

Victims of Child Abuse   
Victims of Gang Violence    
Survivors of Homicide Victims    
Victims and Survivors of Drunk Driving Crashes      
Victims of Hate and Bias Crimes    
Victims With Disabilities  
Victims' Concerns About HIV/AIDS       
Victims in Rural Areas  
Victims of Criminal Transportation Disasters
    
Victims in Native American Communities      
Attorney General's Indian Country Initiative  
Tribal Court Appointed Special Advocate Programs      
Indian Health Services 
Child Sexual Abuse in Native American Communities        
Sixth National Indian Nations Conference    
Children's Justice Act Discretionary Grants for 
Native Americans    

Victims of Violence in the Workplace    
Crimes Against Older Americans     

Chapter 4 Using OVC's Diverse Resources To Assist 
Victims of Terrorism and Mass Violence           

OVC Response to the Bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah 
Federal Building in Oklahoma City  
OVC Assistance to the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, 
Georgia        
OVC Support for the Families of Victims Killed Abroad 
by Terrorists      
Legislative Reforms  

Chapter 5 OVC's International Efforts on Behalf of 
Victims: Facing New Frontiers      

International Victim Assistance Training Manual    
International Victim Compensation Program Directory       
OVC Resource Center Response to International Crime 
Victim Issues       
Assistance for Kidnaped Children Taken Across 
International Borders      
Support for the World Congress Against the Commercial 
Exploitation of Children        
Assistance for Americans Victimized Abroad: OVC's 
Plan of Action on International Issues for FY 1997
  
Chapter 6 Making Government Work for Victims of 
Crime:
 
Disseminating Information and Responding to 
Constituent Requests       

Enhancing Communication With the Victim Service 
Field
OVC Resource Center     
OVC World Wide Web Home Page
           
OVC Publications and Products    
Topic-Specific Videotapes  
OVC Newsletter   

Using Technology for Victims and Grantees     
Technology Grants   
Victim Assistance Case Automated Tracking/
Notification System        

Simplifying the Grant Process for Victim Assistance 
in Indian Country
     
Responding to Constituent Training Requests    
OVC Training and Technical Assistance Center      
Community Crisis Response    
Trainers Bureau  
Regional Coordination Initiative 
Mentoring Program for VOCA Administrators       

Putting It All Together To Serve Crime Victims 
Better: Washington, D.C. Case Study    
District-Specific Training 
State Needs Assessment   

National Crime Victims' Rights Week
     
Chapter 7 Future Directions  

Comprehensive, Quality Services for All Crime Victims      

Enactment and Enforcement of Consistent, Fundamental 
Rights for  Crime Victims  
Securing a Victims' Rights Constitutional Amendment 
and Other Legislative Protections for Crime Victims   
Enhancing the Federal Response to Victims of Federal 
Crime

Victims' Rights and Services for the 21st Century: 
An Action Plan From the Field      

Enhancing the Victims of Crime Act
    
Utilizing Defunct National Fine Center Funds To 
Improve the Federal System  
Expanding National-Scope Training and Technical 
Assistance and Services to Federal Crime Victims   
Establishing Fellowships and Clinical Internships   
Expanding Definitions and Duties and Authority of 
the OVC Director       
Return of Funds to the Crime Victims Fund     
Authorization of Deposits to the Fund From Private 
Sources      

Conclusion 

Appendix A Children's Justice Act Discretionary 
Grant Program for Native Americans:  Total Dollars 
Awarded to Tribes 1990 through 1997      

Appendix B TRIAD Programs     

Appendix C United Nations Declaration of Basic 
Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and 
Abuse of Power (full text)   

Appendix D Office for Victims of Crime Publications 
and Products     

Appendix E 1995 and 1996 Crime Victim Service Award 
Recipients        

Appendix F 1995 and 1996 Number of Victims Served 
by Program and State          

Appendix G Number of Advocates Trained Fiscal Years 
1995-1996                   

------------------------------

Message From The Director
The Office for Victims of Crime: Helping To Provide 
Justice and Healing 

The past 3 years have been a time of extraordinary
accomplishments for the crime victims field. The 
Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) has worked in
close partnership with victim service providers
and others in the field to help ensure justice 
and healing for crime victims. This report, as 
prescribed by statute, describes many of OVC's 
achievements made possible by funding authorized 
in the Victims of Crime Act of 1984, as amended. 
It covers activities in Fiscal Years (FYs) 1995 
and 1996, as well as important initiatives 
undertaken in FY 1997. Some of our milestones
include:

o Unprecedented Federal funding for local crime 
victims programs. The OVC-administered Crime Victims 
Fund (the Fund) reached a historic level of $528.9 
million in 1996. The Fund is derived from fines 
against Federal criminal offenders--not taxpayers. 
The dramatic increase in the Fund enabled OVC in 
1997 to distribute three times more Federal victim 
assistance dollars to States than ever before. In 
FYs 1995 and 1996, OVC grants helped to provide 
services to more than 2 million crime victims each 
year and support more than 2,800 local victim 
service agencies across the country.
 
o Comprehensive services for Oklahoma City bombing 
victims. The enactment of the Antiterrorism and 
Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 enabled OVC to 
provide major support for victims of terrorist acts, 
including funding for additional advocates, crisis 
counseling, safe havens, and travel expenses to 
court proceedings for Oklahoma City bombing victims. 

o National crime victims agenda. Within the next 
few months, OVC will release Victims' Rights and 
Services for the 21st Century: An Action Plan From 
the Field (Action Plan), which has been compiled 
by leaders in the field and will serve as a guide 
to providing comprehensive victims' rights and 
services well into the next century. The Action 
Plan will update the landmark 1982 President's 
Task Force on Victims of Crime Final Report, 
describe "promising practices" used around the 
country to facilitate implementation of victims' 
rights and services, and propose numerous 
recommendations to improve how crime victims are 
treated. 

o Advocacy for fundamental and consistent victims' 
rights. OVC played a major role in supporting a    
constitutional amendment to ensure fundamental 
rights for victims of crime in accordance with the   
Administration's endorsement of such an initiative, 
and supported stronger legislation to improve 
victim participation and rights in all phases of 
the criminal justice process.  

o Federal system improvements. In response to a 1996 
Presidential directive, OVC developed a comprehensive 
action plan to improve the treatment of victims in 
the Federal system. OVC provided victim-witness 
training to over 70 Federal law enforcement agencies; 
convened the first National Symposium on Victims of 
Federal Crime, which provided intensive training to 
nearly 1,000 key Federal employees; produced a film 
entitled Justice for Victims on victim-witness    
responsibilities to serve as a training tool for 
all U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) personnel; 
increased funding and technical assistance to DOJ 
components to enhance their victim-witness programs; 
and established Federal emergency funds for the 
Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Attorneys' 
Offices to ensure funding for needed victim services 
that could not be provided through other sources.
 
o National Victim Assistance Academy. The OVC-funded 
National Victim Assistance Academy, the first Federal 
training center for victim advocates, is entering its 
third successful year by providing state-of-the-art 
training to victim service providers across the 
country at four universities simultaneously. Its 
comprehensive curriculum is being modified for use 
in State training facilities.  

o International leadership. OVC is playing a major 
leadership role in the development of an International 
Victim Assistance Training Manual to implement the 
U.N. Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for 
Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power and is working 
closely with the U.S. Department of State to ensure 
quality services to Americans victimized abroad. 

o Reinventing Government. After listening at 
numerous conferences and meetings to a diverse 
field of customers, OVC streamlined formula 
grant guidelines as well as the annual grant 
application and award process; expanded and 
enhanced the automated system for reporting use 
of Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) funds; initiated 
an intradepartmental effort to design a joint 
Federal report form to reduce paperwork in the 
field; supported a mentor program for VOCA State 
administrators to provide state-of-the-art training 
for grantees; funded the development of compensation 
program standards and a needs assessment instrument 
that provide objective benchmarks for States to make    
program self-evaluation simple and straightforward; 
and included field-generated grant proposals in 
program plans that were developed with unprecedented 
input from the field. 

o Enhanced communication with the field. OVC became 
more accessible to constituents not only through 
increased participation in field activities, but 
also through the OVC Resource Center, a national 
information clearinghouse, which disseminated 
materials to thousands of policymakers, State and 
local criminal justice professionals, and other 
individuals. In addition, OVC launched a newsletter 
and a comprehensive home page on the Internet.  

o  Providing leadership on innovative approaches 
that benefit victims. OVC advanced cutting-edge    
practices through grants that will inform the field 
about how technology can benefit victims; promising 
practices used by different professionals who 
interact with crime victims; and the Victim Services 
2000 demonstration projects, which will provide 
training sites that showcase strong community 
partnerships and comprehensive, collaborative 
services for crime victims.  

o Collaboration with other Federal agencies. Many  
of OVC's projects are supported through partnerships 
with other agencies. These partners include other 
Federal agencies such as the U.S. Departments of 
State, Transportation, Health and Human Services, 
Interior, Defense, and Treasury; all of the bureaus 
within the Office of Justice Programs; and other 
DOJ components such as the Executive Office for 
United States Attorneys, the Federal Bureau of 
Investigation, the Office of Tribal Justice, and 
the Office of Policy Development.          

A most extraordinary part of OVC's work has been 
constant interaction with crime victims themselves--
people like Marilyn Smith, who founded a comprehensive 
victim service program in Seattle for deaf and 
deaf-blind victims after trying unsuccessfully to 
find services herself as a deaf sexual assault victim; 
Azim Khamisa, who joined with the grandfather of the 
14-year-old gang member who murdered his son to provide 
gang prevention programs in San Diego schools; 
and the many parents who came together after their 
children were killed or injured by drunk drivers 
to support Mothers Against Drunk Driving in its 
successful efforts to strengthen laws, provide 
victim impact classes, and educate the public about 
the devastating impact of this crime.      

Countless crime victims across America have turned 
their agony into activism--helping to establish 
effective prevention and treatment programs in their 
own communities. They will continue to be a constant 
source of inspiration to us in our work for they 
truly demonstrate that the human spirit can overcome 
any obstacle. The voices of victims across the country 
have contributed significantly not only to needed 
public policy and legal reforms, but also to the 
important work of this office each and every day. 
It is both an honor and a privilege to work closely 
at their side.
     
Aileen Adams
Director

------------------------------ 

Executive Summary 

For more than a decade, the Office for Victims 
of Crime (OVC) has served as the Federal Government's 
chief advocate for victims of crime. OVC provides 
significant financial support for victim assistance 
and compensation programs around the country and 
has launched a wide range of initiatives to ensure 
the fair treatment of victims in our legal system 
and in all other areas of public life.
 
With the passage of the Victims of Crime Act of 
1984 (VOCA), Congress created a unique funding 
mechanism--the Crime Victims Fund (the Fund)--to 
support services for crime victims. The Fund is 
derived from fines and penalties paid by convicted 
Federal offenders--not from tax dollars. Since 
its inception, the Fund has generated more than 
$2 billion to support thousands of crime victims 
programs throughout the United States. Congress 
amended VOCA in 1988 and designated OVC as a 
bureau within the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) 
in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to administer 
the Fund.

OVC distributes nearly 90 percent of the Fund money 
collected each year to States to help fund victim 
compensation and assistance programs, which for many 
victims are a lifeline to justice and healing in a 
time of great need. Federal victim assistance grants 
support more than 2,800 local victim service agencies 
serving approximately 2 million victims each year. 
Compensation funds provide reimbursement to victims 
for out-of-pocket expenses resulting from crime, 
such as mental health and health care costs. In 
addition, OVC sponsors trainings on victims' issues 
for a wide variety of professions, including Federal, 
State, and local victim service providers, law 
enforcement, prosecutors, the judiciary, corrections 
officials, the religious community, and medical and 
mental health personnel. OVC also provides training 
to more than 70 Federal law enforcement agencies, 
such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) 
and the National Park Service.     

This report describes the accomplishments that the 
Office for Victims of Crime has been able to make 
using deposits from the Crime Victims Fund for grants 
and other program initiatives. It covers activities 
from October 1, 1994, through September 30, 1996, 
or Fiscal Years (FYs) 1995 and 1996, as well as 
initiatives OVC has undertaken in FY 1997, in 
response to Section 1407(g) of VOCA, as amended, 
42 U.S.C. 10604(g). This section requires the 
Director of OVC to report every 2 years to the 
President and Congress on the effectiveness of OVC 
programs supported by VOCA. Summarized below are 
OVC's most significant accomplishments during FYs 
1995 and 1996.     

The major OVC and VOCA accomplishments in 1995 and 
1996 include: 

o Made available, through the Crime Victims Fund, 
$762 million to serve crime victims, the largest    
2-year total in the history of the Fund. Deposits 
to the Fund established records in both FY 1995    
($234 million) and FY 1996 ($528 million).

o Awarded $207 million in victim assistance grants 
to the States. Each year these grants help to    
provide services to more than 2 million crime 
victims and support more than 2,800 local victim    
service agencies across the country. In FY 1997, 
OVC distributed nearly $400 million to the States    
through victim assistance grants--the highest total 
in the program's history.  

o Awarded $148.5 million in victim compensation 
grants to the States. Total victim compensation 
funding rose 38 percent between FYs 1994 and 1996, 
and 255 percent between FYs 1986 and 1996. In FYs 
1995 and 1996, more than 209,000 victims nationwide 
received benefits, providing critical financial 
assistance to reimburse victims for lost wages, 
funeral and medical bills, and mental health 
counseling fees. In FY 1997, OVC distributed $74.2 
million to State compensation programs. 

o Advocated for victims' rights across America, 
including the adoption of a victims' rights   
constitutional amendment supported by the 
Administration and stronger legislation to protect 
the rights of victims. OVC helped to secure passage 
of the 1996 Antiterrorism Act, which expands OVC's 
authority to assist victims of terrorism and mass 
violence.  

o Funded emergency support and longer term advocacy 
and services for victims during mass tragedies such 
as the Oklahoma City and Olympic bombings.

o Funded nearly a dozen "promising practices" grants 
that will provide the field with crucial information 
about excellent strategies for many different 
professionals, such as law enforcement, prosecutors, 
the judiciary, and correctional personnel, to 
improve victim services around the country.     

o Provided more than $6.4 million to 21 States for 
services and technical assistance projects in 
Indian Country under the innovative Victim 
Assistance in Indian Country and Children's 
Justice Act programs.

o Supported pioneering partnerships between all 
levels of government and many different agencies 
to improve services to crime victims, including 
children's advocacy centers and TRIAD, a partnership 
between law enforcement and seniors to provide 
needed assistance to elderly victims. 

o Enhanced trainings and funding to improve victim 
services in the Federal system, including major 
support for the expansion of the FBI's victim-witness 
program.  

o Provided funding to train more than 52,000 Federal 
law enforcement officers from 70 Federal agencies 
during the past decade.

o Established training and technical assistance 
programs that reached thousands of diverse 
professionals who serve crime victims, including 
trainings on crisis response, hate and bias crime,   
implementation of victim services within community 
policing and corrections, death notification, victim 
impact panels, victims' concerns with HIV/AIDS, and 
elder abuse and other crimes against the elderly.

o Funded a project that will explore issues and 
challenges in responding effectively to victims 
with disabilities.
 
o Launched innovative initiatives to assist State 
VOCA administrators, including mentoring programs,    
regional meetings, national conferences, and a 
video on victim compensation.  

o Funded the National Victim Assistance Academy to 
help professionalize the field by providing hundreds 
of victim advocates with 46 hours of intensive, 
academic-based training on victimology and victim 
services at four separate universities.  

o Supported training sites that will feature 
crime-victim-centered systems in which the rights 
and needs of crime victims are addressed and 
supported in a comprehensive, collaborative way 
from the time that a crime occurs to the resolution 
of the case and beyond. These Victim Services 2000 
sites are incorporating promising practices from 
around the country and will help train others in 
implementing these practices.
 
o Released a comprehensive report and action plan 
on providing services to victims of gang violence. 

o Funded videotapes highlighting promising practices 
in victim services and the best medical practices    
for forensic examinations on child victims. 

o Funded the development of a curriculum for 
adolescent victims of violent crime for youths in    
middle and high schools, as well as youth group 
settings. 

o Supported initiatives to help ensure implementation 
of the full faith and credit provisions of the 
Violence Against Women Act of 1994; a teleconference 
that provided state-of-the-art domestic violence 
training for victim service providers and allied 
professionals; and a conference to build alliances 
between domestic violence shelters and children's 
advocacy centers. 

o Provided technical support and assistance to 
the United Nations Crime Commission and its member 
countries committed to instituting victims' rights 
and services and played a leadership role in 
developing an international training manual on how 
to implement victims' rights.  

o Enhanced communication with other agencies and 
practitioners in the field of victims' rights through 
the OVC Resource Center, a national information 
clearinghouse on victims' issues. Among its many 
important services, the Resource Center disseminated 
topic-specific videotapes, training curriculums, and 
guidebooks developed by OVC grantees and responded 
to thousands of requests for information from 
policymakers, State and local criminal justice 
professionals, and private organizations.
 
o Created the OVC home page (http://www.ojp.usdoj.
gov/ovc) on the Internet and distributed OVC's 
first newsletter--OVC Advocate.          

Many OVC-supported programs grew out of important
partnerships with other agencies. OVC partners 
include other Federal agencies as well as other 
bureaus in OJP and other DOJ offices, such as the 
Executive Office for United States Attorneys and 
the Office of Policy Development. Examples of 
these partnerships include the following:

o OVC-sponsored mentoring programs have included 
onsite training for teams from various jurisdictions 
to learn about promising practices in handling 
domestic violence cases. These programs were 
sponsored jointly by OVC and the Violence Against 
Women Grants Office. 

o To enhance coordination between domestic violence 
programs and children's advocacy centers, OVC 
collaborated with the Office of Juvenile Justice 
and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) to provide onsite 
technical assistance. In addition, OVC is coordinating 
closely with OJJDP on hate and bias crime projects 
and victims of gang violence programs. 

o The TRIAD program, which is a partnership between 
older Americans and law enforcement personnel to 
improve services to elderly crime victims, has been 
supported by OVC, the Bureau of Justice Assistance, 
and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 

o OVC, in partnership with the OJP Corrections 
Program Office and the National Institute of    
Corrections, has been assisting State correctional
administrators to expand the types of services 
their agencies offer to crime victims.

o OVC's international activities and plans to 
respond to incidents of mass violence at home 
and abroad have been coordinated closely with 
other DOJ offices, as well as with the U.S. 
Department of State and the National Transportation 
Safety Board.

o At the local level, OVC's first Victim Services 
2000 site is based on a solid foundation of 
communitywide collaboration and cooperation.

This report describes all significant OVC initiatives 
since the beginning of FY 1995.      

Chapter 1, How Criminals Pay for Victim Services: 
The Crime Victims Fund, provides an overview of 
the history and status of the Crime Victims Fund.      

Chapter 2, Funding Services for Crime Victims: OVC's 
Unique Role, describes important new developments 
in OVC's assistance to States through formula 
grants and other Federal awards.      

Chapter 3, Sharing Knowledge To Improve Victim 
Services: OVC-Funded Training and Technical Assistance, 
discusses new OVC training initiatives to help States 
provide services to particularly vulnerable groups 
of crime victims, including victims and survivors of 
domestic violence and sexual assault, drunk-driving 
crashes, gang violence, homicides, and hate/bias 
crimes, as well as disabled and older victims.
 
Chapter 4, Using OVC's Diverse Resources To Assist 
Victims of Terrorism and Mass Violence, sets forth 
the comprehensive assistance that OVC provided to 
victims of terrorism and mass violence, including 
services for victims of the Oklahoma City bombing 
and the Atlanta Centennial Park bombing during the 
1996 Olympics.
 
Chapter 5, OVC's International Efforts on Behalf of 
Victims: Facing New Frontiers, discusses OVC's 
leadership role on international victims' issues.
 
Chapter 6, Making Government Work for Victims of 
Crime: Disseminating Information and Responding to 
Constituent Requests, describes OVC's efforts to 
improve the services that it provides to victims 
of crime, victim service practitioners, and Federal, 
State, and local agencies working in the field. 
Included is a discussion of the OVC Resource Center 
and OVC publications and products, the OVC Training 
and Technical Response Center, the OVC Trainers 
Bureau, and a host of other projects to help 
communities respond to crime victims' needs.

Chapter 7, Future Directions, offers OVC's vision 
for protecting victims' rights and improving victim 
services in the future. The chapter presents recent 
legislative and policy initiatives.      

OVC's efforts have dramatically changed the way 
victims of crime are treated at the Federal, tribal, 
State, and local levels and across disciplines of 
professionals who interact with victims in 
communities across the United States. The Victims 
of Crime Act and the Crime Victims Fund have provided 
a unique form of justice through which convicted 
Federal offenders help to support victim services 
(see figure 1). OVC will continue to advance its 
mission of providing justice and healing for all 
crime victims in the years ahead.

------------------------------
 
Chapter 1

How Criminals Pay for Victim Services: The Crime 
Victims Fund

The Crime Victims Fund (the Fund), established by 
the Victims of Crime Act of 1984 (VOCA), serves as 
the major source of funding for U.S. Department of 
Justice (DOJ)-assisted victim services throughout 
the country. As the Federal steward of the Crime 
Victims Fund, the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) 
provides national leadership through the management, 
distribution, and protection of the Fund's resources.

The Crime Victims Fund consists of fines collected 
from persons convicted of Federal criminal offenses, 
forfeited appearance and bail bonds, special penalty 
assessments on criminal convictions, and criminal 
penalties for nonappearance assessed in addition to 
forfeitures. The Clerks of the Courts and the
Administrative Office of the United States Courts 
receive the money deposited into the Crime Victims 
Fund. These deposits are the results of collection 
and enforcement efforts by criminal prosecutors, 
the U.S. Attorneys' Offices' Financial Litigation 
Units, and U.S. probation officers. The Bureau of 
Prisons (BOP) also collects a substantial amount 
of money every year for the Fund through its Inmate 
Financial Responsibility Program.
 
OVC has worked closely with the Executive Office 
for United States Attorneys (EOUSA) to provide 
training on victims' issues and to help Federal 
prosecutors and others responsible for collecting 
criminal fines understand the connection between 
their efforts and OVC's ability to fund programs 
that serve crime victims. In addition, OVC recognizes 
innovative efforts to collect monies for the Fund 
by coordinating the Attorney General's Crime Victims 
Fund Award. The efforts of these Federal employees 
reflect the type of government reinvention efforts 
that Vice President Gore has encouraged through 
the Government Performance and Review Act.     

As mandated by VOCA, Crime Victims Fund dollars are 
distributed in the following manner. The first $10 
million, divided between the U.S. Department of 
Health and Human Services ($8.5 million) and OVC 
($1.5 million), is used to improve the investigation 
and prosecution of child abuse cases, particularly 
cases of child sexual abuse in a manner that limits 
additional trauma to child victims. The portion 
administered by OVC is used exclusively to help 
Native American communities improve the investigation 
and prosecution of these cases.

The remaining Fund deposits are distributed as 
follows: 

o 48.5 percent to State compensation programs.

o 48.5 percent to State assistance programs.

o 3 percent to discretionary funds to provide 
training and technical assistance and other 
assistance to expand and improve the delivery of 
services to crime victims. At least half of these 
funds must support services to Federal crime victims.

During Fiscal Years (FYs) 1995 and 1996, an 
additional $3 million was taken out of the Fund to 
help support the National Fine Center, a U.S. Courts' 
project that was discontinued in 1997. 

Deposits Into the Crime Victims Fund

In FYs 1995 and 1996, approximately $763 million 
from Federal criminal offenders was collected to 
serve crime victims--the largest 2-year total in 
the history of the Crime Victims Fund (see figure 2). 
These increased collections reflected heightened 
efforts by U.S. Attorneys' Offices and others to 
aggressively pursue fines from convicted offenders. 
In FY 1996, nearly $529 million was deposited in 
the Fund, eclipsing the previous record of nearly 
$234 million in FY 1995. 

A major portion of the Crime Victims Fund is 
derived from significant fines leveled against 
corporations. For example, in 1996, the Fund 
received more than $29 million from Caremark, 
Inc., a home health care provider that pled 
guilty to criminal charges stemming from its 
improper payment to doctors and other professionals 
to induce them to refer patients to Caremark. Other 
large fines included a payment of $15.25 million 
from C.R. Bard, Inc., for billing the Government 
for defective heart catheters; a fine of $18.5 
million from an individual, Lucas West, in a U.S. 
Department of Defense (DOD) fraud case; a fine of 
$21.8 million from Lockheed in a Federal Corrupt 
Practices Act case involving bribery and the 
Egyptian government; and a $13.5 million fine from 
the Iroquois Pipeline Operating Company. In 1995, 
a $549,000 deposit was also made into the Crime 
Victims Fund from asset forfeitures by convicted 
spy Aldrich Ames. In addition, the Bureau of Prisons 
deposits millions of dollars collected from inmates 
into the Fund each year. Other major deposits are 
reflected in a Washington Post article, "How 
Penalties Become Pay-Back" (see figure 3).     

However, these and many other criminal fines were 
overshadowed in 1996 by a record $340 million fine 
paid by the Daiwa Bank following the settlement of 
its illegal trading fraud case. This single fine 
exceeded the record total fines collected in all 
of FY 1995 by more than $100 million. This increase 
in fines provided OVC and the crime victims field 
with needed resources to expand services across 
the country into many unserved and underserved 
areas, such as rural America.      

Despite nearly $529 million being available in 
FY 1997 to fund victims programs, it is unlikely 
that the Fund will sustain that level of funding 
in FY 1998. Extreme fluctuations in funding cause 
victim service programs created in years of 
substantially increased funds to subsequently 
shut down in years when funding sources disappear. 
For example, between FYs 1992 and 1993, there was 
a decline of more than $75 million in Fund deposits. 
To ensure continuity of services, OVC has worked 
closely with victim advocates, the Clinton 
administration, and Congress to implement strategies 
to ensure that the increased funding will be 
distributed by States in a sustainable, consistent 
manner. As described in further detail below, OVC 
sponsored regional meetings to assist State VOCA 
administrators in developing a long-range plan to 
expend these funds over time and develop priorities 
for their use.  

Fiscal Responsibility and Management of the Fund

OVC undertook two major efforts in FYs 1995 and 
1996 to guard against dramatic decreases in Fund 
deposits by creating a reserve fund and convening 
planning meetings with the States to aid in the 
development of strategic funding plans.

In early FY 1995, OVC set aside $20 million in 
Crime Victims Fund deposits as a reserve fund, as 
authorized by changes to VOCA made by the Violent 
Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. A 
provision in Title XXIII of the 1994 Crime Act 
allows the Director of OVC to "reserve" a portion 
of the Crime Victims Fund in years of excess deposits 
for use in future years when the Fund may decline 
as it has done previously. The reserve fund may 
also be used as a funding source to assist States 
in responding to acts of terrorism and mass violence. 
OVC Director Adams accessed the reserve fund to 
support substantial services to Oklahoma City 
bombing victims, including additional funds for 
victim compensation, crisis counseling, victim 
travel to Denver, and increased victim-witness staff.      

The reserve fund was created by Congress to help 
address the inability to predict future deposits 
into the Fund. This reserve will help ensure that 
funding levels to the States remain constant in 
future years.
 
Following the Daiwa Bank fine, OVC launched an 
effort to help States and the crime victims field 
plan how the funding might best be distributed to 
serve crime victims. In June 1996 OVC hosted a 
working group with State VOCA administrators and 
representatives of national crime victims 
organizations to seek advice regarding the use of 
increased VOCA funds that were distributed in FY 
97. The Daiwa fine meant that State victim 
assistance programs would receive total funds of 
almost $400 million in FY 1997 versus the $127 
million that they received in FY 1996--a threefold 
increase. The working group issued several 
recommendations, including expanding the period 
States may spend funds to 3 years from the year of 
award. Congress implemented this recommendation by 
amending VOCA through a provision of the Antiterrorism 
and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which gives 
States an additional year to expend victim assistance 
funds beginning with grants awarded in FY 1997.

In FY 1997 OVC is continuing its outreach and 
strategic planning efforts with the States. OVC 
hosted six regional roundtable meetings of State 
VOCA victim assistance administrators to help States 
develop effective funding strategies for FY 1997 
(see figure 4). Some strategies encouraged by OVC 
include (1) expending the one-time influx of FY 1997 
funds over a few years to ensure continuity in 
victims programs; (2) funding automated victim 
notification systems and other one-time technological 
enhancements; and (3) expanding services to assist 
underserved populations such as victims of gang 
violence, victims with disabilities, and victims 
living in rural areas.  

------------------------------

Chapter 2

Funding Services for Crime Victims: OVC's 
Unique Role

In passing the Victims of Crime Act of 1984, as 
amended, Congress created two ways to fund crime 
victims programs: (1) formula grants for States 
and territories to establish and operate crime 
victim assistance and compensation programs and (2) 
discretionary grants for States, localities, and 
nonprofit organizations.

More than 90 percent of the Crime Victims Fund 
dollars support direct services to crime victims 
through formula grants to States and territories 
(see figure 5). In addition to administering funding 
of direct services through formula grants, OVC 
provides technical assistance to State formula grant 
recipients in identifying populations of crime victims 
requiring unique and specialized services. Moreover, 
OVC identifies and funds innovative discretionary 
programs that target these populations and the 
service providers who assist them in an effort to 
enhance services and to strengthen the network of 
crime victim services available across the Nation. 
For a more indepth discussion of these discretionary 
programs, see chapter 3.
    
This chapter begins with an overview of the formula 
and discretionary grants programs, including a 
discussion of new OVC initiatives to enhance each 
program. The remainder of the chapter is devoted to 
illustrations of special projects developed during 
the past 2 fiscal years that target specific 
populations of crime victims, such as victims of 
terrorism, international crime, gang violence, and 
crimes on Native American lands.

Formula Grants Program

Crime Victims Fund dollars are allocated to the 
States to support victim assistance and victim 
compensation programs that provide immediate 
financial and emotional assistance to victims. 
VOCA victim assistance funds are distributed by 
States to support more than 2,800 of the estimated 
10,000 State and local victim services agencies 
across the United States. These agencies provide 
an array of direct services and support to victims. 
These direct service efforts are supplemented by 
victim compensation payments to crime victims to 
cover their out-of-pocket expenses resulting from 
their victimization.
 
New OVC Efforts To Improve Victim Services Through 
the Formula Grants Program

Based upon numerous recommendations from the field, 
OVC initiated a number of important new projects to 
improve its victim assistance and compensation formula 
grants program, including: 

o Launching a number of innovative initiatives to 
assist directors of State victim assistance and    
compensation programs, such as a mentor program for 
State VOCA administrators to support the exchange of 
information and expertise among programs, as well as 
a public service announcement and video on victim 
compensation.  

o Sponsoring regional meetings for VOCA assistance 
administrators to provide a forum for them to exchange 
ideas and disseminating a report of the meetings to 
serve as an excellent resource for promising practices 
and funding strategies.
 
o Streamlining OVC guidelines, as well as the annual 
grant application and award process.  

o Enhancing the OVC automated system for reporting 
use of VOCA funds. 

o Sponsoring training conferences for State VOCA 
administrators. 

o Collaborating with the three other primary Federal 
funders of crime victim services--the DOJ Violence 
Against Women Grants Office (VAWGO), the Administration 
for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of 
Health and Human Services, and the sexual assault 
grant program office within the Centers for Disease 
Control and Prevention--to develop a joint Federal 
performance reporting instrument to reduce the 
reporting burdens on front-line service providers 
and allow them to focus their efforts on serving 
crime victims. 

o Supporting the development of compensation program 
standards to help set a consistent level of service 
to victims.

o Developing an international directory of victim 
compensation programs worldwide. 

The VOCA Victim Assistance Grant Program 

I left my home with the clothes on my back. The 
shelter helped me get back on my feet. I'm happy 
to be among the living and to have a nonviolent home. 
My children are on the honor roll and they're not 
as withdrawn as they used to be. And they sleep 
soundly at night.

--A domestic violence victim from Pennsylvania who 
received assistance through a VOCA-funded battered 
women's program that provides shelter, counseling, 
advocacy, and support services to battered women 
and their children.

During FYs 1995 and 1996, OVC awarded $207.1 million 
in victim assistance grants to the States through 
provisions of VOCA. Total funding of these grants 
to States rose almost 95 percent between FYs 1994 
and 1996 (see figure 6). From FY 1986 through FY 
1996, 57 States and territories received more than 
$688 million in VOCA victim assistance grant funds. 
OVC has distributed nearly $400 million in victim 
assistance formula grants to States and territories 
in FY 1997--the highest award to States in the 
12-year history of program funding.

These grants help to provide services for more than 
2 million crime victims each year and employ nearly 
41,000 victim service staff and volunteers across 
the country. Of the victims served by VOCA-funded 
victim assistance programs in FY 1995, 51 percent 
were victims of domestic violence, 7 percent were 
adult victims of sexual assault, and nearly 14 
percent were victims of child physical or sexual 
abuse (see figure 7).[1]

VOCA victim assistance grants to States support a 
variety of local victim service agencies (see 
figure 8), including rape crisis centers, battered 
women's shelters, children's advocacy centers, 
victim service units within law enforcement agencies, 
prosecutor-based programs, hospitals, and social 
service agencies. These agencies and programs provide 
services that range from crisis intervention and 
emergency shelter to counseling, court notification 
and accompaniment, case tracking, referral for 
services, transportation, and a host of other 
critical services that help crime victims heal and 
participate in the criminal justice process.

The VOCA Victim Assistance Grant Program 
Administration
 
All 50 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, 
and the U.S. Virgin Islands receive an annual VOCA 
victim assistance formula grant with a base amount 
of $500,000. The territories of Guam, American Samoa, 
the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Republic of 
Palau are eligible to receive a base award of 
$200,000,[2] as prescribed by VOCA. The remainder of 
the available funds are then distributed to the 
States and territories on the basis of population.     

VOCA authorizes each State to award VOCA Federal 
funds to the agencies and nonprofit organizations 
that they believe will best meet the unique needs 
of crime victims in the community. States establish 
their own victim assistance grant application 
process in accordance with guidelines developed by 
OVC and have maximum discretion to set priorities, 
establish policies and procedures, identify the 
services and programs to be funded within the State, 
and determine the conditions for continuation funding. 
States also assess statewide crime victims' needs, 
target resources in those areas, and train advocates 
to improve services for crime victims.

VOCA contains three original priority areas for 
State distribution of the victim assistance funds: 
child abuse, domestic violence, and sexual assault. 
In FY 1995, States awarded 19 percent of their VOCA 
victim assistance funding to support child abuse 
services; 36 percent to domestic violence services; 
and 17 percent to sexual assault services. These
percentages varied only two to three percentage 
points in either direction in FY 1996. In addition, 
States awarded 22 percent of their victim assistance 
funds in FY 1995 to support services to underserved 
crime victims, such as survivors of victims of 
Driving Under the Influence/Driving While 
Intoxicated (DUI/DWI) crashes, survivors of victims 
of homicide, assault victims, adults molested as 
children, elder abuse victims, robbery victims, 
and other violent crime victims. 

Victim Assistance Programs

The following are examples of programs and services 
supported in part by VOCA victim assistance grant 
funding at the local level during FYs 1995 and 1996:     

Family Tree's Women in Crisis is the only domestic 
violence shelter in Colorado's Jefferson County 
(population 488,300), which covers nine law 
enforcement municipalities. In 1995 Jefferson County 
law enforcement agencies made 2,113 arrests for 
domestic violence-related incidents, and 231 children 
who had witnessed or experienced domestic violence 
in their home entered the shelter. Of these children, 
122 received counseling services, which included 
play therapy in individual and group sessions. 
During that year, more than 438 families were 
referred elsewhere due to lack of space in the 
shelter. This number is conservatively estimated 
to have included more than 1,000 children.     

Honolulu's Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) 
Office received a total of $64,000 in VOCA funding 
in FYs 1995 and 1996 to provide comprehensive 
services to victims of drunk driving crashes and 
their families, as well as survivors of homicide 
victims. VOCA funds support a victim advocate who 
provides crisis counseling, court accompaniment, 
information and referrals, and assistance in applying 
for crime victims compensation. The advocate also 
facilitates support groups for victims of homicide 
and negligent homicide, as well as individual grief 
counseling.      

The Santa Fe Rape Crisis Center was started in 1974 
by a handful of dedicated women. In that first year, 
volunteers handled 20 sexual assault cases out of 
their homes. After a Federal grant helped to provide 
staff time, the Center increased its advocacy activity.
Coordination among medical, legal, and judicial areas 
improved services, and a full-time program specialist 
was added to address the growing need for community 
education. The Center now has a staff of 17 paid 
employees and 50 volunteers. 

The Center provides services to any individual who 
has been a victim of a sexual assault or attempted 
assault and suffers from posttraumatic stress disorder. 
It also provides services to the victim's spouse, 
parents, and family members. The Center currently 
provides the following services: a 24-hour crisis 
intervention line; medical and legal advocacy; 
crisis intervention; ongoing individual, group, and 
family therapy for children and adults; education 
and prevention services for both schools and the
community, including the prize-winning "Hands that 
Hurt, Hands that Heal" prevention program for grades 
4 to 6; Fatherlode, a proactive forum for males 
against sexual violence; StrongHeart, a forensic 
interviewing service for children; NO MAS (no more 
sexual abuse), a therapy and community education 
program in Spanish, serving rural northern New 
Mexico; an information hotline for all of northern 
New Mexico; and PARE, an assessment/education and 
treatment program for children who are sexually 
abusing other children.

AWAKE: Advocacy for Women and Kids in Emergencies 
was established at Children's Hospital in Boston 
in 1986 with a VOCA grant. AWAKE was the Nation's 
first program in a pediatric setting to provide dual 
advocacy for both battered women and their abused 
children. The program was created with the belief 
that by providing help to battered women in 
conjunction with clinical services to children, 
both populations are more effectively served. 
AWAKE integrates crisis intervention and ongoing 
advocacy services such as risk assessment; safety 
planning; telephone and in-person counseling; 
support groups; court, educational, legal and 
medical advocacy; and referrals to health care 
services for women and their children. Through 
training, hospital staff in the area have greater 
awareness of domestic violence and child protection 
issues, and assessments for domestic violence and 
referrals to AWAKE are now routine. Interdisciplinary 
collaboration to treat the victims of domestic 
violence has become the norm rather than the exception.

Protecci¢n Legal Para Menores (Legal Protection for 
Children) commemorates its 15th year of providing 
legal services and assistance to low-income, 
victimized, and underprivileged persons in St. Paul, 
Minnesota. Representation of battered women, who 
often are Spanish speaking, includes taking action 
on behalf of their children. Services for children 
include orders for protection and referrals to 
crisis nurseries. The program also seeks to obtain 
culturally appropriate custody orders and visitation 
schedules, which bring structure and stability to 
children's lives by eliminating random visitation 
and by recognizing culturally significant holidays. 
Because children who have been abused are much more 
likely to engage in antisocial and injurious behavior, 
staff attorneys play a critical role in children's 
lives by advocating for needed services. During 
meetings with school officials, they advocate for 
academic and behavioral assessments, behavior 
intervention plans, and academic services such as 
peer tutoring. Participation in counseling and 
support groups for the children and their families 
is strongly encouraged.

The Fond du Lac Reservation Child Abuse Program 
has provided services for 9 years to children who 
are victims of various types of abuse, including 
witnessing violence in the home. The program's 
child abuse advocates offer in-home parenting 
skills training and office visits and group support 
to children and their families and serve as a 
liaison between schools and other providers on 
and off the reservation. Parenting skills training 
includes teaching cultural approaches to living and 
encouraging basic standards of adult individuality 
and responsibility. The program also helps families 
follow a plan to prevent continuation of abuse and 
provide education through videotapes, books, 
pamphlets, and cultural activities to cope with 
problems in a constructive manner. Transportation 
is provided to court hearings and other services 
when necessary.

Project UJIMA (a Swahili word meaning working 
together to make things right) in Milwaukee is a 
multidisciplinary collaboration that includes 
Children's Hospital of Wisconsin and other community 
agencies that work together to provide services to 
victims of gang violence, as well as prevention and 
intervention programs for youth. It establishes a 
network of services to provide emergency treatment 
promoting physical and psychosocial recovery from 
violence and links victims and their families to 
community agencies that provide long-term 
psychosocial intervention after the hospital 
discharge. In the emergency department, peer 
counselors, community-based staff, and a social 
worker provide support to victims. In addition to 
medical care for wounds, home-based visits provide 
a complete health assessment and integrated 
violence prevention services. The project also has 
a monthly educational session for staff on cultural 
competence and the care of violently injured youth.  

The VOCA Victim Compensation Grant Program

The life of a young woman from Washington State 
changed forever when the car in which she was riding 
as a passenger was struck head on by a car driven 
by a drunk driver. The woman sustained multiple 
injuries. The treatment for these injuries was long 
and arduous, and the woman's medical bills were huge. 
Her employer provided no health insurance, and the 
drunk driver was uninsured. The woman also lost her 
income for 18 months because her injuries prevented 
her from working during that time. The hospital 
where she was treated assisted her in submitting 
an application to the Washington Crime Victims 
Compensation program. The program paid $19,000 in 
medical bills, $15,000 in lost wages, and an additional 
$15,000 in permanent disability benefits for the 
impairments the woman sustained as a result of her 
injuries. The woman expressed her gratitude during 
a victim awareness day event. "Without this program," 
she said, "I would have been in debt for years. 
It took a lot of pressure off my family and myself. 
We were able to just concentrate on my getting better."

While no amount of money or services can adequately 
compensate victims like this woman for the physical 
and emotional trauma caused by crime, the financial 
assistance provided by State victim compensation 
programs assists victims with some of the economic 
costs of crime. Without this help, lost wages and 
the large medical, counseling, and funeral costs 
associated with crime can have a devastating impact 
on individuals already suffering from the crime itself.      

As shown by a variety of measures, direct payments 
to crime victims rose dramatically in the past decade. 
Between 1986 and 1996, claims to State compensation 
programs across the Nation rose 102 percent. During 
that period, OVC distributed more than $563 million 
in VOCA compensation grants to States and territories, 
and total funding to States increased by 255 percent 
(see figure 9).     

In FYs 1995 and 1996, more than 209,000 compensation 
claims were approved for payment nationwide (see 
figure 10). OVC awarded $148.5 million in VOCA 
victim compensation grants to the States in those 
years, and total funding to States rose 38 percent 
between FYs 1994 and 1996. In FY 1997, OVC 
distributed $74.2 million.

All 50 States, the District of Columbia, the U.S. 
Virgin Islands, and Guam have established victim 
compensation programs. During this reporting period, 
49 States, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. 
Virgin Islands were eligible to receive Federal 
VOCA victim compensation grant funds. The State of 
Nevada operates a compensation program and has 
recently passed legislation that will make it 
eligible for Federal VOCA compensation grant funds 
in FY 1998.

VOCA victim compensation funds supplement State 
resources already dedicated to compensating crime 
victims. States receive a VOCA grant from OVC equal 
to 40 percent of the amount of victim compensation 
payments made by the State to crime victims 2 
years prior to the grant year (for further 
information, see figure 11). Thus, the more money 
that States pay out in compensation to victims, 
the larger their VOCA victim compensation grant 
from OVC. Each State maintains its own administrative 
structure, rules, procedures, and eligibility 
requirements for distributing crime victim 
compensation; however, States must abide by general 
guidelines developed by OVC. 

Crime victims apply directly to the State for 
compensation for out-of-pocket expenses incurred as 
a result of crime. To receive compensation benefits, 
crime victims must comply with State rules, which 
generally require that they cooperate with the 
reasonable requests of law enforcement and submit 
a timely application to the State compensation 
office. States have streamlined the application 
process and reduced the time required to process 
compensation claims. In addition, States have 
implemented innovative outreach strategies such 
as placing compensation specialists at victim 
services centers to help victims file claims.

The VOCA Victim Compensation Funds Serving Crime
Victims

With acceptance and growing support for victims' 
rights comes the responsibility to serve victims 
even more efficiently and effectively than in the 
past. State victim compensation programs have made 
great strides in doing so and hold themselves to a 
higher professional standard than ever before.
 
In FY 1995 OVC funded the development of program 
standards for victim compensation grant programs. 
The development of these standards by the National 
Association of Crime Victim Compensation Boards 
working with State compensation administrators, 
victim advocates, and crime victims is a tremendous 
accomplishment because the standards provide objective 
benchmarks that make program self-evaluation simple 
and straightforward. Based on an examination of the 
most promising practices of State compensation 
programs, the program standards describe basic 
and advanced strategies in four performance elements:

Sound Financial Planning. Ensuring that each State 
and Federal dollar for compensating victims is 
maximized and recovering resources from private 
insurance and restitution due from convicted 
defendants are important functions of every State 
compensation program. Several States have developed 
efficient financial management systems that maximize 
funding through collections from offenders, private 
insurance policies, and other parties. In Iowa, for 
example, county attorneys are authorized to attach a
restitution lien to a defendant's property or other 
assets at the time of indictment so that the assets 
cannot be divested after conviction. The State 
initiated contempt of court proceedings against 
defendants who become delinquent in their restitution 
payments. Iowa now recaptures a full 15 percent of 
their payouts, primarily by mailing notification 
letters to county attorneys when the victim files 
a claim and then again after the victim receives 
compensation benefits. Iowa has also implemented 
strategies to offset income taxes and garnish and 
assign wages.      

Effective Public Outreach. Getting the word out to 
victims about the availability of compensation 
benefits and program application requirements is 
critically important for victims to access program 
services. Not all compensation programs have public 
relations budgets but, even in the absence of staff 
and financial resources, programs have implemented 
innovative steps to increase public outreach. 
Arkansas, for example, does a laudable job with 
public outreach. In addition to providing statewide 
training, the State's compensation program distributes 
notification cards to crime victim service providers, 
law enforcement officials, and the State's victim-
witness coordinators on how to file a claim for 
victim compensation. Program staff also prepare 
monthly news releases with information about the 
compensation program and awards that have been made 
to residents. Arkansas' most creative public 
awareness project is the Smart Choices, Better 
Chances program, which educates elementary school 
students about juvenile violence and the State's 
crime victim compensation program.      

Claims Processing. How well claims are processed 
speaks volumes about a State's commitment to 
serving crime victims effectively and efficiently. 
Compensation programs are using technology not only 
to improve claim processing but also to monitor 
program performance. Efficient claims processing 
is most easily accomplished through automation. 
The New Mexico victim compensation program uses a 
software system that allows staff to enter all 
claim information into a data base when the claim 
is opened. Thereafter, correspondence to the 
claimant, law enforcement agency, court officials, 
and service providers can be generated through the 
data base. The program's director monitors staff 
case loads and productivity by generating reports, 
monthly claims processing statistics, and program 
performance data using the same system. Finally, 
through New Mexico's restitution data base, program 
staff monitor compliance with restitution orders, 
generate delinquency notification letters to 
offenders, and issue periodic restitution reports.

Decisionmaking. Having the ability to make sound 
decisions and sensitive notifications is an essential 
part of providing quality services to crime victims. 
It is difficult, if not impossible, to render fair 
decisions without a written manual of policies and 
procedures such as the one produced by this project. 
In addition, the decentralization of decisionmaking 
has vastly improved final claim determination outcomes 
and made the process much more time efficient. For 
example, when the Massachusetts victim compensation 
program converted from a court-based to an 
administrative program in 1994, the decisionmaking 
process was shortened from 104 weeks to 25 weeks 
while the number of claims approved for payment 
increased by 30 percent and payout to victims 
increased by 25 percent. The Massachusetts 
compensation program staff review the claims and 
make recommendations. Decisions are made according 
to the statute, which clearly outlines eligibility 
requirements and benefits.
 
Training and technical assistance in each area 
described above is readily available through OVC's 
Mentor Program, Trainers Bureau, or Regional and 
Statewide Training Initiatives discussed further in 
chapter 6.

The State Compensation Program Spotlight

Colorado's victim compensation program is administered 
by 22 judicial districts throughout the State. Each 
judicial district has a crime victim compensation 
board appointed by the district attorney, with staff 
support attached to the district attorney's office. 
This decentralized funding strategy allows Colorado 
to process compensation claims in 32 days on average 
and make payments in 18 days. The national average 
for claims processing is 6 months. Administrative 
oversight is provided by the Department of Public 
Safety, the State's recipient of VOCA compensation 
grants, which makes funding allocations, provides 
training and technical assistance, develops a uniform 
data base of information, and formulates program 
standards. In FY 1995, judicial districts in the 
State awarded 4,734 compensation claims totaling 
$5.5 million. The three largest numbers of claims 
and dollar awards were made to victims of assault 
(1,181 claims totaling $2,030,741), domestic 
violence (1,176 claims totaling $911,412), and 
child sexual abuse (1,163 claims totaling $983,847). 

Discretionary Grants Program          

Although most OVC funds to support victim services 
are distributed by formula to the States, OVC awards 
a small fraction of Crime Victims Fund dollars 
in discretionary grants to national and State 
organizations to improve national-scope training 
and technical assistance, as prescribed by VOCA. As 
discussed subsequently in this report, especially in 
chapter 3, these discretionary grants support training 
for victim service professionals and pay for projects 
designed to identify and fill gaps in services within 
specific States or local communities. Finally, 
discretionary monies are used to help develop 
national goals and strategies for meeting victims' 
needs today and in future years.     

Each year, OVC develops a discretionary program plan 
that identifies the training and technical assistance 
initiatives to be funded on a competitive basis in 
the coming fiscal year. Many projects identify 
promising practices in the areas of law enforcement, 
prosecution, corrections, probation and parole, victim 
assistance in rural areas, professional education, 
and workplace violence. Additional projects focus on 
promising practices in juvenile court, the collection 
of restitution, and the use of emerging technologies. 
OVC develops program and training materials for these 
projects that can be replicated and implemented across 
the country.
 
New OVC Efforts To Improve Victim Services Through 
the Discretionary Grants Program

In FYs 1995 and 1996, OVC continued its efforts to 
expand the knowledge of victim service providers 
regarding the most effective and promising practices 
in victim services. Several OVC-funded discretionary 
projects in FY 1996 focused on helping communities 
create victim-centered environments that provide 
comprehensive services for all crime victims. The 
development of these Victim Services 2000 sites is 
described further in chapter 7. The following list 
describes new OVC discretionary projects that 
improved the delivery  of services to victims of 
crime in FYs 1995 and 1996:

o Expansion of the National Victim Assistance Academy, 
which offers comprehensive, cutting-edge training to 
victim service providers to improve training in the 
victim services field. In FY 1996, 110 students 
graduated from the Academy and Federal attendance 
rose to 15 from 6 in FY 1995.[3] 

o Development of a new Training and Technical 
Assistance Center, which will funnel needed training    
resources to local, State, tribal, and Federal 
agencies to strengthen their capacity to serve 
victims. 

o Programs to improve the response of communities 
and the juvenile justice system to victims of juvenile 
offenders and gang violence.

o Development of a comprehensive plan to expand 
victim-witness training to the FBI and the EOUSA's 
Office of Legal Education, as follows:

Federal Prosecutor Training. OVC funded the detail 
of an attorney-instructor position at the EOUSA's 
Office of Legal Education to instruct Federal 
prosecutors on victims' rights legislation, case 
law and policy, and prosecutors' duties and 
responsibilities to Federal crime victims.     

Federal Law Enforcement Training. OVC funded skills 
development training of FBI victim-witness coordinators 
and provided funding for a full-time victim assistance 
instructor position at the FBI. OVC also continued 
basic- and advanced-level victim assistance training 
at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center for 
nearly 11,000 law enforcement officers from 74 
Federal agencies.
    
Multidisciplinary Teams. OVC funded training for 94 
Federal criminal justice multidisciplinary personnel 
serving on 28 multidisciplinary teams at the National 
Symposium on Child Sexual Abuse.     

Regional Training for Native Americans. OVC funded 
U.S. Attorneys' Offices to support training for 
seven regional training seminars for more than 350 
Federal and Native American victim service providers 
addressing Federal victims' rights issues and 
compliance with statutes and guidelines. To ensure 
that victim service providers from across the Nation 
were aware of the opportunity to receive this funding, 
OVC distributed more than 4,000 discretionary grant 
program plans and application kits in FYs 1995 and 
1996.

Discretionary Funding for Programs That Help Federal 
Crime Victims

In addition to providing funding to States for crime 
victim services, VOCA funding also supports direct 
services to victims of Federal crimes. This section 
describes OVC's discretionary funding initiatives in 
FYs 1995 and 1996 that supported services to this 
previously underserved population.     

A priority for discretionary funding in FYs 1995 and 
1996 was supporting services for crime victims in 
Native American communities and Nations. More than 
$5.7 million was committed during that period to 
provide direct services to crime victims on Native 
American lands. Since 1988, the first year OVC awarded
discretionary funds for direct services in Indian 
Country, $6.6 million have been awarded through the 
Victim Assistance in Indian Country (VAIC) program. 
Funding was awarded on a competitive basis with 
continuation funding to tribes and service providers, 
a strategy that allowed tribes already receiving 
funds from OVC to build upon existing programs.     

In addition, $665,000 was allocated for the Children's 
Justice Act and VAIC training and technical assistance 
programs, described below, to Native American owned 
and operated organizations. The funding was used to 
support cross-cultural skills development and training 
for Federal criminal justice personnel in Indian 
Country as well as the Sixth National Indian Nations 
Conference, which was held in San Diego, California, 
in January 1997. Crime Victim Fund dollars also 
supported training for tribal judges, children's 
advocacy centers in Indian Country, court-appointed 
special advocates (CASA) in Indian Country, and the 
development of monographs on victims' issues in 
Indian Country.     

Working closely with VOCA victim assistance programs, 
VAIC fills a critical gap--the lack of victim 
assistance programs "on reservation" and in remote 
parts of Indian Country. To date, VAIC has supported 
52 reservation-based victim service programs, 
providing such services as crisis intervention, 
domestic violence shelters, court advocacy networks, 
and court transportation. In FY 1995 OVC provided 
almost $730,000 to State governments to support 36 
VAIC programs in 18 States. These programs served 
7,266 victims. Approximately 15 percent of the 1995 
funds supported child abuse services, 52 percent 
supported domestic violence services, 4 percent 
supported adult sexual assault services, and more 
than 29 percent supported services for victims of 
other types of crime such as drunk driving crashes 
(see figure 12). In FY 1996 OVC provided $767,000 
in VAIC funding to 18 States to support 37 programs. 
OVC provides training and technical assistance to 
the tribes, through a grant to the National Indian 
Justice Center, to assist in implementing the VAIC 
programs.     

In recognition of tribal sovereignty and the 
government-to-government relationship between 
the Federal Government and tribes, in 1997 OVC 
is soliciting applications directly from tribes. 
Previously OVC gave funding to the States, which 
then made awards to tribes to establish on-reservation 
victim assistance programs.

Federal Crime Victim Assistance Funds

VOCA emphasizes the importance of fair treatment for 
crime victims who participate in the Federal criminal 
justice system. To that end, OVC reserves a portion 
of the discretionary monies from the Crime Victims 
Fund to provide emergency services to victims of 
Federal crimes. The programs described in this 
section were established to help victims participate 
in criminal justice proceedings and to ensure provision 
of crucial services such as crisis counseling, 
transportation to court, short-term child care, and 
temporary housing and security measures when these 
services are unavailable through other means.

U.S. Attorneys' Federal Crime Victim Assistance Fund

In FY 1996, OVC finalized and distributed its 
Guidelines for Use of the Federal Crime Victim 
Assistance Fund to all U.S. Attorneys' Offices. The 
guidelines, developed with input from a DOJ working 
group, set forth procedures for accessing funds to 
provide direct services to Federal crime victims in 
the absence of other resources. The guidelines 
include lists of allowable and unallowable costs, an 
explanation of the steps for requesting funds, and 
a description of the mechanism by which funding is 
made available. The Federal Crime Victim Assistance 
Fund is accessible to U.S. Attorneys' Offices through 
an interagency agreement with EOUSA.

The following list provides several examples of how 
the fund was utilized:  

o The U.S. Attorney's Office in the Middle District 
of Tennessee made a request on April 12, 1996, on 
behalf of two victims of arson and civil rights 
violations. The crime was committed in August 1994 
when the defendant set fire to two homes and a lodge 
building, burning them to the ground. Though the 
owners of the homes and lodge were protected with 
insurance, one home was rented by a man and woman who 
were not covered and lost everything. OVC assisted 
by providing payment for temporary lodging and 
emergency clothing while the victims sought longer 
term living arrangements.
 
o In October 1995, OVC coordinated with the U.S. 
Attorney's Office, District of Maine, to fund 
airfare to allow the brother of a murder victim to 
attend the parole hearing of the murderer. The 
hearing, held at a Federal prison in Michigan, was 
postponed and rescheduled three times at the last    
minute by the offender. These postponements forced 
family members of the victim to cancel travel    
arrangements each time. Parole was denied to the 
murderer following the brother's statement    
explaining the devastating impact of the crime upon 
the victim's family. 

o In October 1995, OVC worked with the U.S. Attorney's 
Office, District of Hawaii, to pay crisis counseling 
expenses for a victim who was sexually assaulted at 
sea. The FBI victim-witness coordinator in 
Washington, the victim's State of residence, helped 
to find services for the victim. 

FBI Federal Crime Victim Assistance Fund           

This program, established by OVC in FY 1996 using 
$100,000 in VOCA discretionary funds, extends the 
Federal Crime Victim Assistance Fund to the FBI. The 
program, which provides direct services to Federal 
crime victims, will be transferred to the FBI once 
special accounting procedures have been established. 
Money in the fund may be used by field offices to pay 
for crisis intervention; emergency food, shelter, or 
clothing; emergency legal assistance such as filing 
restraining orders; and transportation for emergency 
services.
 
Examples of how the fund has been utilized during 
FY 1997 include the following: 

o The FBI field office in Little Rock, Arkansas, paid
transportation expenses to allow the mother of a    
14-year-old kidnap victim to travel to Detroit, 
Michigan, to recover the victim. 

o The FBI field office in Omaha, Nebraska, paid 
expenses to allow for the recovery of a 12-year-old    
male victim who had been kidnaped and taken to South 
Carolina by a documented sex offender. 

o OVC funds were used by the FBI field office in 
Minneapolis, Minnesota, to pay for counseling 
expenses for victims in a violent bank robbery. The 
robber had taken a bank employee hostage and shot at 
police several times during the escape. The hostage 
and bank employees were extremely traumatized by the 
events. The field office contracted with a 
psychologist who had been a victim of a bank robbery 
to provide crisis counseling for the staff of the 
bank. 

OVC Support of Training and Technical Assistance 
for Victim Assistance and Compensation Grants

National Association of Crime Victim Compensation 
Boards

In FYs 1995 and 1996, OVC continued its support of 
the annual national training conferences organized 
by the National Association of Crime Victim 
Compensation Boards (NACVCB). OVC staff conducted 
workshops on OVC's role and responsibilities for
assisting State efforts to compensate victims of 
violent crimes, VOCA statutory requirements, and 
training and technical assistance that are available 
to improve services to crime victims. In FY 1995, 
more than 140 compensation program directors, staff, 
and board members came together to share program 
implementation strategies.     

The NACVCB training conference in FY 1996 was the 
largest ever, with more than 200 compensation 
specialists from 49 States. OVC staff members and 
representatives from six countries also participated. 
Special sessions for program managers, claims 
specialists, and board members focused on improving 
practical job skills and enhancing program performance. 
The agenda included training on topics such as 
restitution recovery, automation, contributory 
conduct, financial planning for compensation programs, 
domestic violence, child abuse, Native American 
victims, and board development for victim compensation 
programs.

National Victim Assistance Training Conference
 
In FY 1996 OVC, in cooperation with both the National 
Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA) and the 
National Criminal Justice Association (NCJA), hosted 
a National Technical Assistance Conference for VOCA 
victim assistance administrators. The conference 
took place during National Victims Rights Week to 
highlight victims' issues and capitalize on expert 
resources in Washington during the week. Approximately 
75 participants attended plenary sessions and workshops 
on topical issues such as information technologies 
and cultural diversity. To enhance State coordination 
of victim services, representatives from VAWGO 
described promising approaches adopted by the 
Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA) State 
grant recipients in meeting the VAWA statutory 
requirements for serving underserved populations, 
as well as opportunities for VOCA victim assistance 
and VAWA program resources to complement State 
efforts to deliver services to crime victims.

Statewide and Regional Victim Assistance Conferences

In FYs 1995 and 1996, OVC awarded 23 grants totaling 
$416,000 to agencies to conduct statewide and 
regional victim assistance conferences. The 
conferences brought together crime victim service 
providers, victim advocates, criminal justice 
professionals, statewide coalition members, and 
others who serve crime victims and enforce victims' 
rights for the purpose of providing cutting-edge 
training, developing multidisciplinary partnerships 
and protocols, and encouraging networking among the 
participants.

------------------------------

Chapter 3

Sharing Knowledge To Improve Victim Services:
OVC-Funded Training and Technical Assistance

The Victims of Crime Act of 1984 authorizes the 
Director of OVC to use a small percentage of the 
Crime Victims Fund to award grants for training and 
technical assistance. Since its inception, OVC has 
provided valuable assistance to State and local 
jurisdictions and to a broad array of professionals 
who interact with crime victims.          

Training and technical assistance is of particular 
value in the field of crime victim services because 
of the extraordinary circumstances in which those 
services are provided. Victims of crime suffer 
severe physical, psychological, and financial
hardships, and they require informed, sensitive 
treatment by personnel from various disciplines 
that deliver victim services. OVC has committed 
considerable time and resources to ensure the 
provision of high-quality assistance to victims and 
the development of professional competence.
 
This chapter highlights major OVC-funded training 
and technical assistance initiatives for FYs 1995 
and 1996. Whenever possible, OVC delivers training 
in a multidisciplinary setting to improve the 
coordination of services and to maximize the sources 
of funding for training. The initiatives described 
below include projects organized in collaboration 
with agencies spanning the Federal criminal justice 
field, including the FBI, DOD, BOP, the Bureau of 
Justice Assistance (BJA), the Office of Juvenile 
Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), and the 
Department of Health and Human Services. 

National Victim Assistance Academy

The centerpiece of OVC's efforts to train crime 
victim advocates and allied professionals is the 
National Victim Assistance Academy. In FY 1995 OVC 
funded the first Academy through a grant to a 
consortium of national victim assistance 
organizations. The purpose of the grant was to make 
high-quality, college-level educational training 
available to a diverse group of victim service 
providers across the country from Federal, tribal, 
State, and local settings. The Academy represents 
the first step toward instituting annual training 
with a core curriculum and creating an academic 
setting for training candidates.

The first Academy was convened in August 1995 at the 
George Washington University campus, in Washington, 
D.C. Thirty-two students representing local, State, 
and Federal victim service agencies from 21 States 
and the District of Columbia completed the course. 
These uniquely qualified individuals, all of whom 
have made a long-term commitment to victims' rights 
and services, were selected from across the Nation 
on the basis of geographic and cultural diversity, 
as well as diversity within their respective victim 
assistance disciplines. OVC funding allowed students 
to attend the week-long session free of charge, and 
22 students earned three graduate or undergraduate 
academic credits from California State University at 
Fresno, Department of Criminology. A special feature 
of the Academy was the use of compressed video uplink 
to a second classroom of Academy students in Fresno, 
California, as well as a state-of-the-art interactive 
session on how victim service providers can master 
the information age, with real-time online 
instructions on using the Internet.       

The second Academy was held in July 1996 
simultaneously on three campuses: the University of 
Maryland at College Park; Washburn University, 
Topeka, Kansas; and California State University at 
Fresno, California. Each site accommodated 
approximately 40 students for a total of 120 students, 
12 of whom were Federal victim-witness personnel. 
The third Academy, held during July 1997, was 
expanded to four campuses, reaching 180 students.

To refine the Academy concept, a train-the-trainers 
program for 30 experienced professionals was conducted 
in Washington, D.C., in December 1996. The program 
provided specialized training for a select group of 
professionals who had completed the 45-hour Academy 
course and who exhibited potential to serve as future 
Academy faculty in OVC-sponsored or State-sponsored 
Academy courses. 

The Academy's 45-hour, academic-based, rigorous 
course curriculum emphasizes foundations in 
victimology and victims' rights and services, as 
well as new developments in the field of victim 
assistance. The curriculum is continuously enhanced 
by adding new chapters to address emerging issues 
and underserved victim populations. For instance, 
the Academy curriculum was expanded to address topics 
such as bank robbery, white-collar crime/fraud, the 
military response to victimization, and disabled and 
Native American victims. OVC is already receiving 
requests from State and local practitioners  to 
utilize the Academy curriculum and instructors to 
support training at the State and local levels. 

Discipline-Specific Training Programs

Training for Law Enforcement Professionals

Law enforcement officers are often the first responders 
to crime victims. Any effort to improve the quality 
and sensitivity of the criminal justice system's 
response to crime victims begins with training for 
personnel in this discipline. In FYs 1995 and 1996, 
OVC initiated a number of projects to provide such 
crucial training. OVC funded domestic violence 
training at a national Women in Policing conference; 
the OVC Director provided training for law enforcement 
officers on victims' issues over the Law Enforcement 
Training Network; and the OVC curriculum on hate and 
bias crime and elder abuse was widely used by law 
enforcement around the country. In addition, OVC 
training projects included:
 
Community Policing and Victim Services

Pilot training sessions for OVC's "Implementation of 
Victims Services Within Community Policing" project 
were held in four cities--Seattle, Washington; 
Gaithersburg, Maryland; Charlotte-Mecklenberg, North 
Carolina; and Denver, Colorado. These cities were 
selected because of geographic differences and their 
various methods of applying community-oriented 
policing activities.  

Promising Practices for Law Enforcement

The way in which law enforcement officers treat 
victims in the wake of a victimization can have a 
profound impact on how well and how quickly victims 
recover from traumatic events. This project is 
identifying and documenting innovative policies, 
procedures, practices, and programs used by law 
enforcement agencies to respond to the needs of crime 
victims. A compendium of promising practices and an 
OVC Bulletin will be completed in FY 1997. 

National Domestic Violence Teleconference

OVC cosponsored and participated in a national
teleconference to train law enforcement officials on 
promising practices when handling domestic violence 
cases. This teleconference was viewed at 165 
locations in 45 States across the country, by nearly 
4,000 criminal justice professionals and victim 
advocates. A second teleconference in June 1997 
covered the issue of domestic violence and its 
impact on children.
 
Federal Bureau of Investigation

Under the Attorney General's Guidelines on Victim 
and Witness Assistance (AG Guidelines), the FBI has 
a number of important responsibilities for ensuring 
that the rights and needs of Federal crime victims 
are met. OVC's work with the FBI has evolved into a 
full-fledged partnership based on the FBI director's 
support of the FBI's role in meeting victims' 
needs and rights. During FYs 1996 and 1997, OVC 
provided intense technical assistance and funding to 
the FBI to enhance services to victims of Federal 
crime. In FYs 1995 and 1996, VOCA supported funding 
for a number of training programs for FBI victim-
witness coordinators. OVC has undertaken the 
following activities to help the FBI fulfill its 
responsibilities under the AG Guidelines and 
strengthen the FBI victim-witness program: 

o Funded two temporary positions to help staff the 
FBI Headquarters Victim-Witness Assistance Program 
for a period not to exceed 3 years. A victim-witness 
assistance specialist will provide dedicated staff 
for training and technical assistance conferences 
and seminars, serve as a liaison with field offices, 
conduct site visits to monitor implementation of 
victim-witness assistance responsibilities, and 
oversee other appropriate quality control issues. 
Another victim-witness assistance specialist will 
provide new agent training in Quantico, Virginia, 
and help produce training    videos and manuals as 
well as conduct conferences and seminars. 

o Funded trainings in FYs 1995 and 1996 for the 56 
FBI administrative staff members who were assigned 
collateral duties as victim-witness coordinators.  

o Assisted the FBI, with input from EOUSA, the 
Office of Policy Development, and victims    
organizations, in updating the FBI victim-witness 
brochure, which contains general information on 
victims' rights and services. This brochure, 
accompanied by another FBI pamphlet under development, 
will be given to every victim identified in FBI 
investigations. 

o Funded two model victim-witness programs in FBI 
field offices in Tampa, Florida, and Salt Lake City, 
Utah, to provide comprehensive victim services. The 
program in Salt Lake City will address the needs of 
Native American victims, and the program in Tampa 
will address white-collar crime targeting elderly 
victims as well as violent crime. The programs will 
be replicated elsewhere in the field after their 
demonstration.

As noted in chapter 2, OVC recently established 
Federal Crime Victim Assistance Funds for the FBI 
to assist victims in participating in the criminal 
justice system when no other resources are available 
to help with transportation, child care, and other 
needed support.  

Federal Law Enforcement Training Center          

Since 1986 OVC has provided funding to the Federal 
Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) to provide 
victim-witness training to Federal law enforcement 
officers at its campuses in Glynco, Georgia, and 
Artesia, New Mexico. Over the past decade, 52,632 
Federal law enforcement officers have received 
training on victim-related topics such as 
interviewing techniques, financial fraud, and 
white-collar crime. FLETC also conducts regional 
training sessions and develops victim-witness 
training manuals, lesson plans, audiovisual materials, 
articles for publication, and other training products. 
FLETC training is provided to law enforcement 
officers from more than 70 Federal agencies. 

Federal Criminal Justice Personnel Training

In FYs 1995 and 1996, OVC provided $1,915,000 in 
funding for thousands of Federal criminal justice 
personnel to receive OVC-sponsored training (see 
figure 13). For example, OVC sponsored teams of 
Federal prosecutors, investigators, victim-witness 
coordinators, and tribal service providers to attend 
the National Symposium on Child Sexual Abuse in 
Huntsville, Alabama. Selection criteria were based 
on the number of child abuse cases prosecuted in 
the participants' districts, their use of 
multidisciplinary teams, and special considerations 
such as large numbers of Indian reservations or 
military installations under Federal jurisdiction. 
Other training sessions attended by Federal criminal 
justice personnel with VOCA support included:

o OVC's Crime Victims and Corrections initiative, 
which has provided training on victims' issues for  
200 military personnel. 

o The Dallas Crimes Against Children Seminar in FY 
1996, which provided training for 31 Federal law 
enforcement officers. 

o OVC's Military Communities Assisting Crime Victims 
Conference, which provided training for 1,400 
military personnel.

o OVC's Dual-Track Conference with EOUSA, which 
supported training for 100 victim-witness coordinators. 

o OVC's Multijurisdictional Child Exploitation 
program, which supported training for 150 Federal 
law enforcement investigators, prosecutors, and 
victim-witness coordinators. 

o Trainings provided by the National Center for 
Prosecution of Child Abuse, which delivered courses    
to 112 Federal prosecutors on prosecuting child abuse 
cases effectively.          

OVC also sets aside funding for various Federal 
agencies to enhance their capacities for responding 
to victim and witness needs. The funds were used to 
support requests for training and production and 
distribution of brochures, pamphlets, videotapes, 
and other materials that explain victims' rights and 
agency responsibility for implementing victim 
programs and enforcing rights. 

Trainings for Prosecutors

Prosecutors' offices have the most contact with 
victims during the adjudication of cases. OVC has 
invested considerable resources in improving the 
types and quality of services provided to victims 
by these offices. In this section examples are given 
of OVC-funded projects involving prosecutors that 
were begun in FYs 1995 and 1996. OVC sponsored many 
diverse trainings for Federal, State, and local 
prosecutors.
 
Federal Prosecutors

Federal prosecutors are charged with ensuring that 
victims' rights are taken into consideration during 
the adjudication stage of the justice system. All 94 
U.S. Attorneys, their assistants, and victim-witness 
coordinators must abide by the provisions contained 
in the Federal Crime Victims' Bill of Rights and the 
AG Guidelines. These responsibilities range from 
protecting victims from the accused offender to 
enforcing orders of restitution. OVC has supported a 
variety of training and technical assistance 
opportunities for staff from U.S. Attorneys' Offices. 
Examples of this training support include:

Office of Legal Education Victim Rights and Legal 
Issues Instructor. In this project, OVC initiated 
support to help the Office of Legal Education provide 
victims' rights and responsibility training for 
Federal prosecutors, including supporting the 
development of a draft litigation curriculum and 
presenting classroom instruction on Federal victims' 
rights legislation, case law, and policy. The Office 
of Legal Education received $100,000 in Federal VOCA 
funds to hire a trainer on victims' rights.     

District-Specific Training. OVC's district-specific 
training program assists U.S. Attorneys' Offices in 
complying with Federal crime victims' legislation 
and in improving services to Federal crime victims 
in their districts. In FYs 1995 and 1996, OVC approved 
10 training requests under this project and expended 
$150,000. The training supported by this funding 
provides discipline-specific, day-long workshops as 
well as conference support for regional, 
multidisciplinary programs and scholarships for 
conference participants.

Federal Prosecutor and Victim-Witness Coordinator 
Travel. OVC provides funding to allow victim-witness 
coordinators and prosecutors from U.S. Attorneys' 
Offices to attend OVC-sponsored or victim-related 
training conferences across the country. These funds 
are made available through an interagency agreement 
with EOUSA and cover travel-related expenses.     

In addition, OVC funded three model program 
initiatives during FYs 1995 and 1996 to help U.S. 
Attorneys in three districts--Eastern District of 
Wisconsin, Northern District of California, and the 
District of Columbia--develop comprehensive crime 
victim programs and services, create specialized 
services for child victims of crime during 
prosecution, and identify promising practices in 
serving white-collar crime victims. Each model 
program will serve as a demonstration site and 
support replication of program efforts through 
training, videotapes, and written manuals and 
publications.      

OVC and EOUSA have had a longstanding partnership to 
address the needs of crime victims during prosecution. 
In FY 1996 OVC funded a position in EOUSA for a 
violence-against-women specialist. This position 
provides training and technical assistance to victim-
witness coordinators and Assistant U.S. Attorneys 
throughout the country on the relevant provisions of 
VAWA, including the battered immigrant women 
provisions. Since coming on board, the specialist 
has conducted five training events and trained 199 
victim-witness coordinators and Assistant U.S. 
Attorneys.     

OVC will continue to support training and 
collaboration efforts for Federal prosecutors in FY 
1997. In early FY 1997, for example, OVC and the 
Office of Community Orientated Policing Services 
(COPS) cosponsored EOUSA's Law Enforcement Victim 
Witness Coordinator Conference, which brought 
together U.S. Attorneys and their Law Enforcement
Coordinating Council victim-witness coordinators 
from all districts to discuss the importance of 
treatment of victims within the Federal criminal 
justice system. The OVC Resource Center (OVCRC) 
established an onsite distribution center that 
provided 34 documents and close to 4,000 pieces of 
informational materials for victims and participants. 
Other FY 1997 activities include support for three 
to four new demonstration projects in U.S. Attorneys' 
Offices, a symposium to improve the response of 
Federal victim-witness coordinators to the rights 
and needs of elderly victims of telemarketing scams 
and frauds and crisis response team training for 
Federal victim-witness coordinators.

Promising Practices for Prosecutors
 
This project will identify the elements of exemplary 
victim-related prosecutorial practices; find existing 
practices, programs, or models of excellence that 
contain these elements; prepare detailed descriptions 
of promising practices; and prepare a plan for 
disseminating this information to prosecutors' 
offices nationwide. A compendium of promising 
practices and an OVC Bulletin will be completed in 
FY 1997.

Protecting Victims' Rights: A Prosecutor's Priority
 
OVC is funding the American Prosecutors Research 
Institute (APRI) to develop a handbook for prosecutors 
on establishing and improving prosecutor-based victim 
services programs. As part of the project, APRI will 
also develop a directory of existing prosecutor-based 
victim services programs throughout the country.
 
Trainings for Court Personnel

In FYs 1995 and 1996, OVC developed a number of 
programs to help the judiciary and court personnel 
improve services to victims.
 
The Juvenile Justice System

OVC devoted much energy to finding ways to improve 
the juvenile justice system's response to crime 
victims in FYs 1995 and 1996. OVC worked closely 
with OJJDP to develop the National Juvenile Justice 
Plan, which was released in FY 1996. Based on OVC 
input, the plan includes recommendations for better 
treatment of victims of juvenile offenders in the 
juvenile justice system. OVC worked to ensure that 
those recommendations balance concerns for those 
harmed by juvenile offenders with concerns for the 
juvenile offenders themselves. A separate section of 
the Plan recommended that the rights of victims of 
juvenile offenders mirror the rights of victims of 
adult offenders. These include the right to 
notification, the right to make an impact statement, 
and the right to receive restitution. The Plan also 
includes other victim-friendly recommendations, such 
as the inclusion of crime victims and their advocates 
in community coordination efforts and opportunities 
for juvenile offenders to understand and make 
reparations for the long-term damage they have caused.
 
Juvenile Court Response to Victims of Juvenile 
Offenders
 
In addition to its efforts with OJJDP, OVC is 
funding a project to identify and describe promising 
practices that assist and support the rights of 
victims in juvenile courts. The project will develop 
a training and technical assistance package to assist 
juvenile court personnel and probation staff in 
incorporating the promising practices into their 
court systems. An assessment report profiling 
promising practices and legislation will be compiled, 
as well as a training curriculum, trainers' manual, 
and related technical assistance materials. A number 
of short informational pamphlets on specific topics 
related to victims' rights and services in the 
juvenile court process will also be produced. 

The Judiciary

Judges also need training on crime victims' issues 
that arise in court, and OVC has developed programs 
to meet those needs. In FY 1995, for example, OVC 
developed its Tribal and Federal Judges initiative 
in collaboration with the DOJ Office of Policy 
Development and the Federal Judicial Center. This 
project will update a Judge's Benchbook with materials 
relevant to physical and sexual abuse of Native 
American children; develop a training conference 
using the new materials; and support scholarships 
for tribal judges to attend the conference. In 
addition, OVC has developed initiatives to train 
juvenile court judges on important victims' concerns 
and victims' rights legislation. In FY 1997, OVC 
convened a working group of a dozen judges to 
provide recommendations on how the judiciary can 
be more sensitive to victims.

Trainings for Professionals in Corrections

Services for crime victims should not end with the 
incarceration of the offenders. Many victims wish to 
be notified of changes in the offenders' status and 
to have the opportunity to appear at hearings. 
During the past few years, OVC has made great headway 
in improving the response of the corrections community, 
including the prison, probation, and parole systems, 
to the rights and needs of crime victims.
    
Until quite recently, many victims and victim 
advocates have considered corrections to be the 
"last frontier" of the criminal justice system. 
This view began to change in the late 1980s, when 
leading members of the corrections community 
expressed a desire to assist their agencies in 
becoming more aware of the needs of crime victims 
and developing services to address those needs.      

In 1991, in response to the new openness of some 
corrections officials to victim issues and services, 
OVC funded two national, corrections-based training 
and technical assistance programs. One focused on 
institutional corrections and the other on community 
corrections. These projects provided training and 
technical assistance in the following areas:

o Integrating victims into agency goals and practices.

o Understanding the victim experience and assessing 
crime's impact. 

o Collecting and managing restitution payments.

o Incorporating other victim services.

o Work-related staff victimization.

o Educating offenders about the impact of crime.

o Victim/offender programs.

o Building networks with local victim service 
agencies.

o Legal rights of victims.

By late 1994 the two projects had provided intensive 
training to 15 State corrections programs, DOD 
correctional officials, and BOP. In addition, 
training and technical assistance were provided to 
approximately 20 additional States. The projects 
also achieved major accomplishments through their 
work with affiliated professional associations, 
including establishing standing victims committees 
with the American Probation and Parole Association 
(APPA) and the Association of Paroling Authorities 
International, and developing new standards for 
essential victim services and recommendations for 
victims of juvenile offenders with the American 
Correctional Association.     

OVC continued to build on these efforts to create 
systemic change in FYs 1995 and 1996. Major 
corrections-related activities included a project 
to improve the correctional system's response to 
the needs and rights  of crime victims; a project 
to identify, disseminate, and encourage the 
replication of innovative policies, procedures, 
and programs developed by probation and parole 
agencies to respond to the needs of crime victims; 
funding for seminars to assist in the development 
of programs where victims, as one aspect of their 
recovery process, tell offenders about the impact 
of crime on their lives, families, and communities; 
funding for seminars to address agencies whose staff 
members regularly deal with offenders; and funding 
for train-the-trainers seminars on victim assistance 
efforts within probation, parole, and other 
community corrections agencies and programs.  

U.S. Parole Commission and Federal Bureau of Prisons          

In FY 1996, through an interagency agreement with 
the U.S. Parole Commission, OVC provided $54,000 to 
fund a victim-witness coordinator position to provide 
services for victims and witnesses wanting to attend 
Federal parole revocation hearings and receive 
notification of the results of those hearings. The 
coordinator also is responsible for coordinating 
with BOP when offenders are returned to prison to 
ensure that victims of the original Federal offenses 
are notified of the offender's return to prison, 
any subsequent parole considerations, and the 
offender's eventual release. A survey and evaluation 
are being conducted to identify helpful information 
for State systems seeking to replicate this effort.

In FY 1997 OVC, the Parole Commission, and BOP began 
discussing a possible expansion of the Bureau's 
Victim-Witness Notification Program to enroll victims 
and witnesses of crimes committed while offenders 
are on parole. Notification will be provided when 
parole is revoked and the parolee is returned to 
Federal correctional custody. Enrollment to the 
Bureau's program is currently made by victim-witness 
coordinators in U.S. Attorneys' Offices, who may 
not become involved in the parolee's new crime. To 
remedy this, a separate entry system is being set 
up through the OVC-funded victim-witness coordinator 
at the U.S. Parole Commission, who will handle these 
enrollments and victim notification.

In addition, OVC is working with the BOP Planning 
Group on Victim Issues to develop a long-term 
strategy to respond in a comprehensive and integrated 
way to the needs of crime victims, their communities, 
and victimized staff members. OVC's Trainers Bureau 
sponsored a facilitator who provided a review of the 
breadth of corrections-based victim services and the 
most promising practices currently in place across 
the country.

Trainings for Professionals in the Military

In FYs 1995 and 1996, OVC continued its longstanding 
and successful relationship with DOD in providing 
assistance to the military services in implementing 
responsive victim assistance programs. The OVC-DOD 
collaboration is an outstanding example of 
interagency cooperation that has produced systemic 
change and a model strategy for the Federal criminal 
justice system to emulate.      

In FYs 1995 and 1996, OVC and DOD worked in tandem 
to develop policies, programs, and procedures that 
benefit crime victims and cosponsored training for 
the military victim assistance community. Major 
initiatives included a course in 1995 at the Army 
Health Sciences Academy on handling multivictim 
child abuse cases; three training conferences on 
assisting crime victims attended by teams of 
prosecutors, investigators, social and mental health
professionals, and chaplains from the Army, Navy, 
Air Force, and Marines; a series of train-the-trainers 
sessions, cosponsored by the California Youth Academy, 
for 80 military instructors who will teach an 
"Impact of Crime" class to inmates at military
correctional facilities; and a collaboration with 
the Army Criminal Investigative Division (CID) to 
discuss possible OVC-CID victim-witness assistance 
efforts.  

Trainings for Professionals in the Mental Health 
and Medical Fields

Mental Health

Through an OVC grant, the Pennsylvania Coalition 
Against Rape developed and pilot-tested a training 
manual entitled Victim Empowerment: Bridging the 
System--Mental Health and Victim Service Providers. 
Requests for further training opportunities with 
this curriculum has led OVC to support five training 
seminars for mental health and victim service 
providers in FY 1997. The manual consists of a 
trainer's guide and student materials on the trauma 
of victimization, posttraumatic stress disorder, 
rape trauma, integrating awareness of victimization 
into treatment, and the therapy relationship.

Medical

The development of a videotape highlighting best 
medical practices for forensic examinations of child 
victims is currently under way through a grant to 
Los Angeles County-University of Southern California 
Medical Center. Dr. Astrid Heger, executive director 
of the Center for Vulnerable Children, and other
pediatricians and physicians who work with child 
victims are members of the project advisory committee. 
The video will be produced in 1997 and will feature 
use of technology to provide needed medical services 
from urban areas to underserved rural populations. 
The film will be distributed to hospitals and 
medical facilities across the country, as well as 
to children's advocacy centers and other 
organizations at the Federal, tribal, State, and 
local levels to improve investigations and reduce 
trauma to child victims.

Training for Educators and Other School Personnel

At the front end of the continuum of disciplines 
and professionals that interact with crime victims 
and potential crime victims are schools and teachers. 
In FYs 1995 and 1996, OVC funded a number of 
initiatives to better equip schools to teach school 
children about victimization and grief. They include:

o Healing Hearts, Mending Minds, a multipurpose 
curriculum for adolescent victims of violent crime    
for use in middle and high schools and youth group 
settings. 

o Videotapes and a guidebook to help victim assistance
professionals, school counselors, and youth program 
personnel respond to grieving children who have 
survived or witnessed homicide or other violent 
crimes, including domestic and spousal abuse.

o School-based projects to assist preteen and teenage 
victims and witnesses of gang violence and other 
crimes committed by juveniles.

o A compendium of best criminal justice system 
practices for handling cases of adolescent victims 
of sexual assault.

OVC also has sought to enhance the training of
professionals who work with crime victims by 
improving crime-victim-related course work and 
training at graduate schools. With OVC funding, 
the Allegheny-Singer Research Institute (ASRI) and 
Victims Services, Incorporated, of New York (VSNY) 
are collaborating to produce a multidisciplinary 
victim assistance core curriculum that can be adapted 
by graduate and undergraduate schools to integrate 
victim assistance information into existing courses 
or to develop new specialized courses that focus on 
crime victimization. 

Training and Technical Assistance for Special 
Populations Vulnerable to Victimization

In addition to general victim training, OVC funded 
training in FYs 1995 and 1996 for a variety of 
service providers who assist victims of particular 
types of crimes, including victims of sexual assault 
and domestic violence, victims of child abuse and 
child sexual abuse, survivors of homicide victims, 
victims of hate/bias crimes, victims with disabilities, 
victims with HIV/AIDS, victims in rural areas, 
victims and survivors of drunk driving crashes, and 
elderly victims.     

In particular, the passage of VAWA spurred renewed 
commitment to combating gender-based crime in America. 
OVC has devoted considerable discretionary resources 
to help States develop tools and strategies to 
improve services to women who are victimized by 
violence. OVC worked closely with VAWGO and DOJ's 
Violence Against Women Office to develop the programs 
for victimized women described below and to coordinate 
their activities.

The following discussion provides a sampling of 
training made available to agencies and organizations 
that provide services to specific victim populations.
 
Victims of Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence

Victims of Sexual Assault

In FY 1996, OVC funded a project to develop 
comprehensive training for rape crisis counselors 
and victim advocates responsible for providing 
services and securing rights for adult victims of 
sexual assault. The Minneapolis Medical Research 
Foundation will provide a training curriculum that 
presents effective service delivery strategies, 
including crisis counseling, support groups, criminal 
justice advocacy, outreach, and referral services. 
OVC also plans to incorporate the curriculum into 
the training offered at the National Victim Assistance 
Academy. 

Victims of Statutory Rape
         
In FY 1997, OVC sponsored, in conjunction with the 
National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and the DOJ 
Office for Policy Development, a focus group to 
explore key issues in prosecuting cases of statutory 
rape and assisting victims of this crime. The focus 
group comprised prosecutors, policymakers, and victim 
advocates from across the country. Information 
gleaned from the meeting will assist the American 
Bar Association (ABA) in identifying promising 
practices in the enforcement of statutory rape laws, 
and OVC funding is supporting the publication of a 
compendium of statutes, implementation efforts, and 
programs.      

OVC also funded an FY 1997 project to address young 
teenage girls who are sexually victimized by older 
men. With OVC support, ABA's Center on Children and 
the Law will develop a compendium of best criminal 
justice system practices in handling cases of 
adolescent sexual assault. 

Domestic Violence Victims
         
In FY 1995, recognizing the necessity of protection 
for battered women victimized across State lines, 
OVC provided discretionary funding to develop model 
policies, procedures, and tools for implementing the 
full faith and credit provision of VAWA. The Battered 
Women's Justice Project (BWJP) is a training and 
technical assistance initiative that promotes 
consistent enforcement of civil and criminal 
protection orders in State and tribal courts 
throughout the country. BWJP is undertaking an 
indepth, State-by-State analysis of enforcement 
efforts and providing training and technical support 
for State and Federal prosecutors, law enforcement, 
and courts. A pilot project in Kentucky to implement 
the VAWA full faith and credit provisions was funded 
jointly by OVC and the COPS Office. This project is 
an intrastate as well as an interstate enforcement 
effort that will help ensure that domestic violence 
victims in Kentucky receive a consistent level of 
services from trained law enforcement and court 
personnel, even in the event victims travel to or 
relocate in another State. 

Community Responses to Family Violence

In FYs 1996 and 1997, OVC funded ABA and the 
American Medical Association (AMA) to conduct a 
series of regional conferences in FY 1996 involving
multidisciplinary teams to address the issue of 
family violence. These teams included a variety of 
criminal justice and medical professionals, 
including victim advocates and law school clinics.

Victims of Child Abuse

OVC primarily supports direct services to victims 
of child abuse through the formula grants programs 
to States. However, the agency has also supported a 
number of discretionary programs to assist child 
victims.

In FY 1996 OVC funded a conference for spousal 
and child abuse service providers to identify 
recommendations for developing a collaborative 
response to domestic violence and child abuse. The 
conference focused on the impact of domestic violence 
on children and the development of strategies for 
intervention and services. OVC continues to work 
with other DOJ and Federal agencies to fund a focus 
group to identify the unique needs of children who 
have witnessed spousal abuse and to explore ways to 
address those needs collaboratively.

In FY 1996 funding was awarded to establish a 
hospital-based emergency shelter to provide temporary 
housing for victims of spousal assault and their 
children. This groundbreaking pilot program will 
serve as a demonstration site for other communities 
interested in creating collaborative opportunities 
among medical, law enforcement, and victim advocacy 
professionals to address the advocacy and short-term 
shelter needs of domestic violence victims. This type 
of arrangement provides unique opportunities for 
private insurance companies and other third-party 
sources to support services for domestic violence 
victims. Protocols and procedures for documenting 
program development will be produced for replication, 
as well as a detailed report documenting program 
effectiveness.     

OVC and OJJDP also jointly funded a project that 
developed a protocol to improve multijurisdictional 
child exploitation investigations and prosecutions 
and to work toward establishing a victim assistance 
component to child exploitation task forces. The 
project coordinated the provision of victim services 
with investigations and prosecutions of
multijurisdictional child exploitation task forces 
in four sites--Boston, Chicago, Phoenix, and Los 
Angeles. The project included training sessions for
multijurisdictional team members by Search and IBM 
on computer crimes against children.     

In FY 1996 OVC worked with other bureaus within OJP 
to develop the Safe Kids/Safe Streets Project, 
which coordinates Federal, State, and local 
resources into a comprehensive prevention and 
intervention program for child victims and their 
families. This program seeks to: 

o Create system reforms to improve services for 
abused children. 

o Provide training and technical assistance support 
to practitioners who serve child victims and their    
families. 

o Strengthen a continuum of family support services 
to ensure that assessment, counseling, and victim    
assistance services are available.

o Ensure the uniformity of evaluation protocols 
across sites. o  Provide prevention education and 
public information.

Currently OVC is providing training, technical 
assistance, and training materials on improving 
services for child victims in six communities 
serving as demonstration site grantees. Assistance 
is focusing on expanding the availability of medical 
services to sexually and physically abused children 
and mentoring or training programs for communities 
wishing to establish children's advocacy centers. 
New technologies, specially trained nurse 
practitioners, and coordinated forensic examinations 
and other medical services to child victims will be 
used at these sites to improve medical services for 
young victims. 

Victims of Gang Violence

Victims of gang violence and their survivors often 
are afraid to exercise their rights as victims 
because of the retaliation and intimidation that 
commonly accompany such violence. Victims of gang 
violence also face the stigma of blame for the 
violence they experience or are dismissed as 
contributing to the crime. With increased 
legislative and programmatic focus by Federal, 
State, and community agencies to combat gang 
violence, OVC has stepped up its efforts to assist 
victims and survivors of gang violence in the 
following ways.

Working Group and Symposium. In May and August 1996, 
OVC and OJJDP convened a Victims of Gang Violence 
planning group to consider strategies for assisting 
these victims. The planning group included 
representatives of organizations that provide 
services to victims of gang violence, a supervising 
parole agent, a municipal court judge, and actual 
victims of gang-related violence. The group discussed 
and presented a number of recommendations (see 
figure 14), including the following: 

o Establish a national network of professionals and 
volunteers concerned with victims and witnesses  of 
gang violence to provide vision, support, and 
direction to Federal, State, tribal, and local    
initiatives.

o Create comprehensive vertical assistance units for 
victims of gang violence that offer multilingual    
services, emergency crisis response services, 
accompaniment throughout the criminal justice system,    
and training for service providers.

o Support hospital-based counseling and prevention 
programs that provide services to gang violence 
victims. Protocols that address security and safety 
for hospital personnel and victims will be included 
as part of these programs.

o Establish school-based counseling and prevention 
programs addressing gang violence. These programs 
should include antiviolence curriculums, support 
groups, and conflict resolution/peer mediation 
modules.

o Provide Federal funds for training sites that 
showcase promising practices such as comprehensive    
victim assistance programs based in prosecutors' 
offices, hospitals, and schools.  

o Develop training curriculums that include cross-
disciplinary information for professionals who deal    
with victims and witnesses of gang violence. Training 
should be provided for first responders on how to 
deal with survivors at the crime scene; funeral 
directors on how to deal with gangs before, during, 
and after funeral services; all criminal justice 
personnel including police, prosecutors, and judges; 
mental health professionals; compensation providers; 
and teachers. 

o Develop protocols for debriefing all crisis 
responders to victims of gang violence, including    
emergency medical technicians and law enforcement 
personnel, who face serious threats to their physical 
and emotional well-being when not provided with 
ongoing opportunities for debriefing following 
critical incidents.

o Establish policies, protocols, and programs 
including both emergency and short-term relocation    
programs, security measures in courthouses and at 
correctional facilities, and secure transportation 
to ensure safety for victims and witnesses of gang 
violence and those who assist them at the Federal,    
State, tribal, and local levels. Furthermore, 
prosecutors should be encouraged to use every legal    
measure to ensure the safety of such witnesses before, 
during, and after case disposition.  

o Assess the availability of Federal resources for 
victims of gang violence and provide funding to    
encourage the proliferation of promising practices 
that reduce gang violence and assist victims. All    
federally funded gang intervention and suppression 
programs and planning groups should include services 
for victims of gang violence.

o Establish an ongoing working group on victims and 
witnesses of gang violence to provide assistance    
in the development of training curriculums, selection 
of demonstration sites, and implementation of the 
above recommendations.
 
A complete symposium report was published in 1996. 
Copies are available from OVCRC (see appendix D).

In FY 1997 OVC is committed to addressing many of 
the recommendations set forth by the planning group. 
OVC is working with OJJDP and other DOJ components 
to ensure that federally funded gang programs 
include needed services for victims of gang violence. 
OVC also intends to support an expanded planning 
group with diverse representation to identify 
resources needed to assist victims of gang violence 
and those who serve them. In FY 1996, OVC committed 
$175,000 to a field-initiated project that is 
developing technical assistance materials to help 
victim service providers improve assistance to 
victims of gang-related crimes. The funding will 
assist the grantee in identifying and documenting 
the successful ways agencies and communities are 
serving victims of gang violence and their families. 
A package of technical assistance materials will be 
developed and pilot tested in at least two 
jurisdictions.      

In addition, OVC has committed FY 1997 funding to 
establish two demonstration programs in a school or 
community to provide replicable comprehensive 
services to young victims and witnesses of gang 
violence and other juvenile crimes. OVC funds will 
also support the development of a victim service 
component at OJJDP gang demonstration sites.

Survivors of Homicide Victims

In FYs 1995 and 1996, OVC funded several important 
initiatives to help train diverse service providers 
regarding victim-sensitive death notification. 
Those programs are described below. In addition, 
OVC has encouraged States to cover mental health 
counseling costs for survivors of homicide victims 
who live outside the State where the victim was 
killed. The few States that do not currently cover 
these costs are reconsidering their policies.     

To complement VOCA victim assistance funding to 
States that support services to surviving family 
members of homicide victims, OVC is funding the 
Anti-Violence Partnership of Philadelphia program 
in FY 1997 to develop, test, and refine a curriculum 
for mental health clinicians, doctors, prosecutors, 
and others who provide services to homicide victims. 
Many professionals do not have specialized training 
in treating this underserved population of victims. 

Victims and Survivors of Drunk Driving Crashes

In FYs 1995 and 1996, nearly $4 million in VOCA 
victim assistance funded 1,144 drunk driving programs 
across the Nation. OVC is committed to providing 
technical assistance to State VOCA administrators 
so that funds can be used to support victim impact 
panels in trainings of all victim service providers, 
in schools, and in correctional facilities. Studies 
have shown that participation in these panels is 
part of the healing process for many crime victims.      

In FYs 1995 and 1996, OVC provided funding to MADD 
for two important initiatives: train-the-trainer 
courses on death notification and training for 
correctional facilities to establish victim impact 
panels. The death notification curriculum was funded 
in 1995 as a field-initiated project at $100,000. 
Different curriculums were developed for the 
professionals who are first responders or who provide 
services to homicide survivors: law enforcement, 
mental health counselors and victim advocates, 
medical personnel, clergy, and funeral directors. 
These curriculums have resulted in specialized 
training for professionals and improved services 
for crime victims. With the support of OVC's grant, 
437 professionals attended four seminars and 216 
attended an extended train-the-trainer seminar. 
The seminars focused on sensitive and supportive 
techniques for notifying people of the deaths of 
loved ones and included current research on the 
homicide survivor experience, information on 
first-responder stress, and a 19-step notification 
procedure. Each seminar also included a panel of 
homicide survivors who talked about their 
notification experiences.      

After attending one of these trainings, numerous 
agencies, primarily law enforcement, changed their 
policies to become more victim oriented. An 
unanticipated benefit of this very successful 
project was that the International Association of 
Chiefs of Police developed a model policy on death 
notification for police departments around the 
country. This project is continuing in 1997, 
enabling MADD to provide four more regional 
training and train-the-trainer events.      

Another important project in which MADD participated 
was begun as part of the Victim Assistance in
Community Corrections grant. MADD and the California 
Youth Authority (CYA) joined forces to develop a 
national "Victim Impact Classes/Panels for Offenders" 
training seminar. Funded at $32,427, in 1995, the 
seminar combined the information from MADD's Victim 
Impact Panel Program for Drunk Drivers and CYA's 
Victim Impact Classes for Offenders. The training 
was in such demand and so successful that the 
organizations received additional funding in 1997 to 
conduct three train-the-trainer seminars and one 
advanced training seminar on implementing the victim 
impact curriculum. This highly effective curriculum 
integrates classroom instructions about the impact 
of crime with firsthand, personal accounts of
victimization. This project has been jointly funded 
by OVC and BJA.

Also in FY 1997, OVC is continuing to work closely 
with the board of directors for MADD and has 
continued to fund train-the-trainer courses on death 
notification and training for correctional facilities 
to establish victim impact panels.
 
Victims of Hate and Bias Crimes

In FY 1995, OVC published a curriculum to train law 
enforcement professionals about appropriate response 
to victims of hate and bias crimes. The curriculum, 
developed by Education Development Center, Inc. 
(EDC), has been presented at a number of State and 
national conferences and training seminars through 
a regional training seminar series funded by OVC.     

In response to the enthusiastic reception to the 
curriculum in FY 1997, OVC funded a train-the-trainer 
seminar series to expand use of the curriculum. EDC 
is updating the existing training curriculum, 
recruiting a cadre of trainers, and presenting 
three training sessions. Trainers must commit to 
disseminating the information to allied 
professionals in community, State, and national 
arenas as a condition of their participation.

OVC recently began working with the Community 
Relations Service (CRS) at DOJ to explore ways 
CRS field staff can utilize OVC-funded local 
victim-witness programs for victims of hate and 
bias crimes. 

Victims With Disabilities

Individuals with physical and developmental 
disabilities face increased vulnerability to crime 
victimization. This population is often acutely 
underserved by victim assistance and criminal justice 
personnel. In response, OVC has awarded funding for 
a project that will explore issues and challenges in 
responding effectively to victims with disabilities 
and identify practices and strategies for further 
action. A symposium, report, and participant-
developed action plan will be issued in FY 1997.     

OVC is also working to expand services for deaf and 
deaf-blind crime victims. In 1996, Marilyn Smith, 
executive director of Abused Deaf Women's Advocacy 
Services (ADWAS) in Seattle, Washington, received 
the National Crime Victim Service Award--the highest 
Federal honor for victim advocacy. This award ceremony 
is coordinated by OVC. ADWAS is the first and only 
organization in the country dedicated to providing 
victim assistance services to deaf and deaf-blind 
victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. 
The program offers a 24-hour crisis line, counseling, 
shelters, and legal advocacy, as well as training 
for both deaf and hearing crime victim advocates. 
OVC is working closely with ADWAS to develop similar 
programs in other parts of the country.     

In addition, OVC has supported other efforts to serve 
victims with disabilities. In May 1996, OVC provided 
funding to the Delaware Department of Justice through 
the OVC Trainers Bureau to support a statewide forum 
to address the specialized population of 
developmentally and physically disabled crime 
victims. During this event, attendees that included 
attorneys, social workers, educators, private 
counselors, and crisis intervention workers received 
training on better serving disabled crime victims, 
focusing on clinical perspectives, practical 
applications for the criminal justice system, 
screening and assessment, community resources, 
advocacy, and special needs of the disabled. 

Victims' Concerns About HIV/AIDS          

OVC has supported the development and dissemination 
of a comprehensive training manual and trainer's 
guide that includes an overview of the medical, 
legal, and counseling aspects of HIV/AIDS. In the 
next phase of the project OVC will fund six training 
seminars for service providers on addressing victims' 
concerns, developing networks with the health and 
legal communities, and referring victims who are 
concerned about exposure to HIV/AIDS to appropriate 
services. 

Victims in Rural Areas

In FY 1996, OVC funded a program to identify model 
victim assistance programs, practices, and strategies 
for rural communities. This initiative includes an 
examination of criminal justice system policies and 
practices, private nonprofit agency programs and 
services, and financial, medical, and psychological 
assistance available to rural crime victims. Emphasis 
is on multidisciplinary and multisystems approaches 
to serving rural populations, and a compendium of 
promising practices and an OVC Bulletin on the topic 
will be widely disseminated.

Victims of Criminal Transportation Disasters
 
In June 1995, OVC began working with the U.S. 
Department of Transportation (DOT) and the National 
Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to consider 
strategies for better assisting family members of 
victims and survivors of aircraft crashes, including 
crashes caused by criminal acts. OVC, DOT, and NTSB 
later met with representatives of 10 major airlines. 
DOT and NTSB representatives also met with survivors 
and families of victims from four airline crashes to 
listen to their experiences and recommendations. The 
family members expressed outrage at their treatment 
by the airlines and outlined 16 recommendations for 
improving airline and governmental response to 
airline disasters.     

Testimony from family members at congressional 
hearings following the ValuJet crash revealed the 
great need for interagency coordination both in 
investigating airline disasters and in providing 
services to families of victims. In September 1996, 
President Clinton directed NTSB to coordinate the 
roles of the Departments of Justice, Defense, and 
State, and other Federal agencies in providing 
victim services. Subsequently, Congress passed the 
Aviation Disaster Family Assistance Act of 1996, 
establishing the responsibility of NTSB in all 
domestic aviation disasters as "a point of contact 
within the Federal Government for the families of 
passengers involved in the accident and a liaison 
between the air carrier . . . and the families" 
(Title VII of Public Law 104-264, Congressional 
Record H11303).     

Because of its history of advocacy on behalf of 
crime victims and its early work with survivors of 
airline crashes, OVC was designated by the Attorney 
General as the lead agency within DOJ to work with 
NTSB on a coordinated government protocol for 
aviation disasters. In conjunction with other DOJ 
components including the FBI, OVC developed a 
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to ensure that 
the needs of victims and survivors are addressed in 
a sensitive and appropriate manner in the event of 
an aviation disaster resulting from criminal activity. 
The MOU was signed by the Attorney General Reno and 
Chairman Hall of NTSB and became effective on 
January 28, 1997. It is the first step toward 
developing a coordinated Government response to 
aviation disasters.      

In April 1997 OVC was designated to represent DOJ 
on an interagency task force, chaired by DOT, that 
will prepare a Report to Congress with recommendations 
and guidelines to assist air carriers, Federal and 
State agencies, and independent mental health 
agencies in responding to airline disasters. The 
report is due in October 1997.

Victims in Native American Communities

OVC supports a number of training efforts in Indian 
Country to improve the delivery of services to crime 
victims. Initiatives undertaken in FYs 1995 and 1996 
are described in this section. 

Attorney General's Indian Country Initiative

In FY 1996, Attorney General Reno established an 
Indian Country Justice Initiative to address the 
most serious problems hindering vigorous Federal 
enforcement of major crimes in Indian Country. The 
initiative focuses on systematically examining the 
intersection of the Federal and tribal justice 
systems, working with residents of the Laguna Pueblo 
and Northern Cheyenne Reservations. OVC has made 
major contributions to this initiative by providing 
$273,000 in FY 1996 to support comprehensive services 
for the two tribes. OVC funding is supporting 
Children's Justice Act programs, court-appointed 
special advocates, victim-witness coordinators, 
and training and technical assistance at each site. 
OVC will continue funding the program in FY 1997 and 
working closely with the Office of Tribal Justice on 
all Native American initiatives.

Tribal Court Appointed Special Advocate Programs

While there are approximately 550 certified CASA 
programs in all 50 States, very few operate in the 
170 court systems of federally recognized tribal 
governments. In FYs 1995 and 1996, OVC, in cooperation 
with OJJDP and the National Court Appointed Special 
Advocate Association, provided $103,635 to support 
the development of CASA programs in Indian Country 
so that tribal courts could assign advocates to 
represent the best interests of children. This program 
is especially important in Indian Country because a 
tribal court may serve as a Native American child's 
only recourse to protection and justice. Funding 
supported a total of four tribal CASA programs as 
well as a symposium. In FY 1997, the CASA program 
will be expanded to four additional tribes. 

Indian Health Services          

In FY 1996, OVC began working with the Indian Health 
Service (IHS) to convene two training seminars on 
issues relevant to American Indian Child Protection 
Teams (CPTs) and multidisciplinary teams to develop 
strategies for addressing child abuse issues. The 
seminars will provide comprehensive and practical 
information on coordination efforts (such as ensuring 
continuity of care for child victims, developing 
appropriate child protection protocols, communicating 
with law enforcement agencies, and conducting 
effective forensic examinations and interviews) 
between tribes and tribal programs and a host of 
Federal agencies, including OVC, the Bureau of 
Indian Affairs (BIA), and IHS. 

Child Sexual Abuse in Native American Communities
 
In FY 1996, OVC collaborated with the Federal Judicial 
Center and the Department of Justice Partnership 
Project to provide legal education training to 78 
tribal and Federal judges about the handling and 
adjudication of child sexual abuse cases occurring 
in Indian Country. The first training session 
brought together tribal judges from the Phoenix and 
New Mexico areas as well as Federal judges from the 
10th Circuit of the U.S. District Courts. Training 
will also be provided to tribal judges from the 
Northwest and Midwest Plains regions, including 
Federal judges from the Eighth and Ninth Circuits 
in FY 1997.

OVC also sponsored, with BIA, a conference on 
prosecution and investigation of child abuse and 
domestic violence in Indian Country (formally titled 
"One Tipi, One Fire: Protecting Family Traditions") 
in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in September 1995. Federal 
funding for the conference enabled 70 Native 
American service providers to attend and participate 
through scholarships offered by the U.S. Attorneys' 
Offices from the districts in Kansas and Oklahoma. 
The conference featured sessions on effective 
forensics; cognitive/graphic and medical interviewing 
techniques when dealing with child victims of abuse; 
victim assistance strategies in dealing with family 
violence; effective sexual assault protocols through 
the medical nurse examiner programs; and juvenile 
crime and gang activity issues in Indian Country.

Sixth National Indian Nations Conference
 
The Sixth National Indian Nations Justice for 
Victims of Crime Conference was held in San Diego in 
January 1997. The 3-day conference drew approximately 
450 participants, targeting an audience of victim 
service providers, health and mental health 
professionals, law enforcement officials, prosecutors, 
and judges from the tribal, Federal, State, and local 
levels.     

The conference focused on victims' issues within 
the criminal justice system as well as service 
delivery and advocacy strategies. With the goal of 
providing skills-building training to participants, 
the conference offered four tracks of training--one 
for victim advocates, one for criminal justice 
professionals, one for tribal leaders, and one for 
judicial personnel. In addition, the conference 
served as a forum for promoting communication among 
tribal, Federal, and State officials, exchanging 
information on best practices, and showcasing model 
programs. As an extension of the conference, OVC 
hosted a day-long focus group to address the 
emergence of gang violence in Indian Country. 

Children's Justice Act Discretionary Grants for 
Native Americans          

Disclosure of extensive child sexual abuse in 
reservation boarding schools and several multiple-
victim child molestation cases on Indian reservations 
resulted in an amendment authorizing OVC to use 
Children's Justice Act (CJA) funds in Indian Country 
to improve the handling of child sexual abuse cases. 
This amendment (contained in the Anti-Drug Abuse Act 
of 1988) authorized OVC to make grants directly to 
tribes for a 3- to 5-year period to help Native 
American communities improve the investigation, 
prosecution, and handling of cases of child sexual 
and physical abuse in a manner that increases support 
for and reduces trauma to child victims. The CJA 
program is the only Federal program for tribes that 
focuses exclusively on lessening the trauma to Native 
American children who participate in criminal 
justice proceedings.

CJA funds are awarded to federally recognized tribes 
through a competitive grant process. Tribal 
organizations have used this funding to enhance 
investigative and prosecutorial practices, encourage 
more efficient case coordination, and improve 
services. Since its inception in 1988, the program 
has provided $6,629,745 to support 40 tribes and 
tribal organizations, including 12 new programs in 
FY 1996, and supported training to assist tribes 
with program development and implementation. In FY 
1995, approximately $1,038,500 was available to 
support new and continuation CJA programs. In FY 
1996, approximately $1,413,000 supported new and 
continuing CJA programs (see appendix A).     

The following CJA programs are examples of projects 
currently funded by OVC through CJA. The range of 
services they provide, as well as priorities for 
future program development, are described.     

Chugachmiut. The Chugachmiut CJA program is located 
in the Chugach region of Alaska. The Chugach region 
comprises seven Native Alaskan villages along the 
southern coastal area between Icy Bay and Prince 
William Sound to the southwest tip of the Kenai 
Peninsula. Chugachmiut received a grant to implement 
systems for recognizing child abuse, intervening in 
child abuse cases, and protecting children in the 
villages. Many villages are accessible only by air 
or sea travel, and this isolation causes gaps in 
service delivery. The CJA grant allowed project 
staff to assist each village in establishing CPTs, 
offer training to village residents, increase 
community awareness and education, create a 
directory of service referrals, and develop a data 
collection and tracking system for reporting, 
referring, and responding to child sexual abuse. 
This is the first effort made by the grantee and 
the villages in this region to establish clearly 
defined lines of authority and roles for agencies 
responsible for responding to child abuse victims. 
Chugachmiut is focusing on establishing written 
protocols and procedures to formalize a CPT 
established in each community.     

Lac du Flambeau Tribe. The Lac du Flambeau Tribe used 
its grant to increase the quality and scope of services 
provided to child sexual abuse victims. Because the 
tribe is located within a P.L. 280[4] State and the 
State and county have jurisdiction for investigating 
and prosecuting child abuse cases, one of the tribe's 
first priorities was to conduct an assessment of 
the relationship between the local county social 
services, the sheriff's department, the tribal 
police, and the Indian Child Welfare Program in 
providing services to the tribal community. The 
evaluation revealed that many cases were dropping 
through the cracks and that no services were being 
provided to child victims. However, the findings 
have opened the line of communications between the 
tribal council and county and State officials to 
seek concrete actions to improve coordination, 
enforcement, and victims' rights for child abuse 
victims. As a result, the tribal investigator has 
become a member of the County Sexual Assault Team. 
The Indian Child Welfare Program and the County 
Department of Social Services have developed a 
working agreement that defines the responsibilities 
of each department in child abuse and neglect 
investigations, and staff from the tribe's Family 
Resource Center are working with the County Board 
Indian Affairs Committee to develop further 
collaboration efforts between tribal and county 
agencies.

In September 1996, OVC hosted its first postaward 
training conference for Native American CJA grantees 
in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The training provided 
specific information and instructions on the 
implementation of CJA projects and information on 
the investigation and prosecution of child abuse 
cases for representatives from 20 tribes. The 
training was supported through OVC's CJA training 
and technical assistance initiative and will 
continue in 1997. 

Victims of Violence in the Workplace
         
Violence in America has invaded the workplace, 
putting at risk the safety, productivity, and health 
of workers. Research indicates that this type of 
violent crime is on the rise. Identifying major 
issues and challenges involved in responding 
effectively to workplace violence is a program 
priority for OVC. OVC has awarded a grant to the 
National Victim Center to identify promising programs 
and techniques for providing immediate and long-term 
assistance to primary and secondary victims of 
workplace violence. The findings will be highlighted 
in a report containing strategies for further action 
to improve the capacity and preparedness of employers 
and victim service providers to respond to the unique 
needs of these victims. A transfer-of-knowledge 
symposium was held in early 1997 as part of the 
project.

In a related project, OVC is funding a project in FY 
1997 to enhance workplace responses to victims of 
domestic violence. This project will identify, 
describe, and disseminate promising practices and 
protocols for assisting domestic violence victims 
in the workplace. OVC will release a blueprint for 
galvanizing the workplace, a central force in most 
Americans' lives, to ensure that employers and 
unions provide a secure workplace for victims of 
domestic violence and assist them in obtaining the 
services they need to end violent relationships. By 
providing protection and services in the workplace, 
where victims frequently are vulnerable, the project 
fills a gap in the community's response to domestic 
violence.
 
Crimes Against Older Americans


Dotti Burkett, Elder Service Office and TRIAD leader 
in Seminole County, Florida, had an unexpected 
encounter. She was describing her work to some patrons 
while having her hair done at the beauty salon when 
an elderly woman began questioning her about training 
for law enforcement officers on elder issues. The 
woman asked how programs for seniors and law 
enforcement are funded. Dotti explained by describing 
her program's reliance on inkind assistance and 
donations. The woman asked Dotti for a wish list of 
activities she would initiate if she had $1,000, and 
then $2,000. Dotti answered that she would use the 
money to develop professional training materials as 
well as other opportunities for outreach. 

The next day, Dotti's boss, Sheriff Don Eslinger, 
called her into the office and began questioning her 
about who she'd met recently who had been particularly 
interested in her TRIAD activities. The anonymous 
woman in the hair salon turned out to be the wife 
of a very wealthy entrepreneur, and she made a 
$10,000 donation to support TRIAD training. It was 
the first cause to which the woman had made an 
unsolicited donation. She was impressed deeply not 
only with the scope of TRIAD but also with Dotti's 
enthusiasm and commitment.

OVC has been very active in the expansion of the 
TRIAD program throughout the country. TRIAD is a 
multidisciplinary approach to preventing and 
addressing elderly crime victimization by combining 
the efforts and resources of law enforcement, senior 
citizens and organizations that represent them, and 
victim assistance programs. OVC has funded TRIAD 
training conferences and supported a cooperative 
agreement between the National Sheriffs' Association 
(which sponsors the national TRIAD program), the 
Administration on Aging at the Department of Health 
and Human Services, and BJA. VOCA funding has 
supported regional training programs addressing 
crimes against older Americans and training for law 
enforcement agencies on effective responses to crimes 
against older Americans.

Nine regional TRIAD training conferences were held 
in FYs 1995 and 1996 (see figure 15), as well as 
three national TRIAD conferences at which hundreds 
of copies of a law enforcement curriculum, 
"Improving the Police Response to Elder Abuse," 
funded by OVC in FY 1993 were distributed. The 
training conferences brought together law enforcement, 
senior leaders, adult protective services, social 
services, and victim assistance professionals in an 
effort to create an awareness of elderly victim 
issues and to create TRIAD programs across States. 
Since July 1992, when OVC first became involved 
with TRIAD, the program has grown from 56 county 
programs in 20 States to 433 county programs in 46 
States, in addition to programs in Canada and 
England (see appendix B).     

In a related effort to assist older American victims, 
the OVC Director and staff participated in an April 
1996 satellite broadcast sponsored by Radio Shack. 
The broadcast was sent to 140 Radio Shack training 
sites across the Nation, at which law enforcement, 
community professionals, volunteers, and community 
leaders discussed elder abuse and strategies for 
eliminating it.  

------------------------------

Chapter 4

Using OVC's Diverse Resources To Assist Victims
of Terrorism and Mass Violence

The need for coordination in victim services is never 
more apparent than in the wake of horrifying acts of 
terrorism and mass violence that can impact many 
victims and entire communities. Several such incidents 
occurred during the time covered in this report: 
the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah 
Federal Building in Oklahoma City; the bombing of 
Centennial Park during the 1996 Summer Olympic Games 
in Atlanta; and the 1996 bombing of the U.S. 
military barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. OVC's 
experiences in the aftermath of these crimes showed 
the value of interagency collaboration in meeting 
victims' needs, not only immediately following the 
bombings but also in developing long-term strategies 
to respond effectively to future acts of terrorism.
 
OVC staff expended a great deal of time and energy 
in FYs 1995 and 1996 to ensure that victims of 
terrorism receive prompt and effective services from 
the agencies that respond to such incidents. On 
April 24, 1996, President Clinton signed into law 
the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act. 
This new legislation amends the Victims of Crime Act 
of 1984 to (1) provide for a new VOCA eligibility 
requirement that States compensate residents who are 
victims of terrorist attacks in foreign countries 
and (2) provide that, in the event of foreign or 
domestic terrorist acts or mass violence, a State 
may be eligible to receive a supplemental grant 
from OVC's reserve fund. In the wake of prominent 
incidents of terrorism both in the United States and 
elsewhere that have received worldwide attention, 
OVC has worked to coordinate its efforts with other 
Federal, State, and local agencies and to ensure 
that lessons learned from those responses form the 
basis for responses to incidents in the future.
 
OVC Response to the Bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah 
Federal Building in Oklahoma City

Perhaps more than any crime in recent memory, the 
bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in 
Oklahoma City in 1995 forced Americans to experience 
the nightmare of domestic terrorism and crime 
victimization. But the tragedy also reminded us that 
we can meet the needs of crime victims. OVC played 
an important role in responding to this devastating 
crime--a role that continues in close collaboration 
with national and international victim advocates. 
The services offered to victims in the Oklahoma City 
bombing case in many ways demonstrate the range of 
services that OVC provides--crisis response to 
communities; technical assistance to Federal law 
enforcement and prosecutors; assistance for victims 
in obtaining needed services; coordination between 
victim assistance agencies; and funds to help 
victims participate in criminal justice proceedings 
and receive needed counseling.     

Crisis Response. By the end of the day of the bombing,
emergency funding from OVC had put a nine-member 
crisis response team on the ground in Oklahoma City 
to work with victims. Ultimately, OVC provided 
funding for three crisis response teams, sending a 
total of 43 crisis responders trained by the National 
Organization for Victim Assistance to help debrief 
thousands of surviving family members, children, 
and teachers at schools, as well as emergency rescue 
and medical personnel and clergy.

Enhancing Emergency Response Through Collaborative
Partnerships. OVC has worked closely with the U.S. 
Attorney's Office in the Western District of Oklahoma. 
In the weeks following the bombing, OVC staff helped 
the office develop brochures for victims that 
described their rights and services they could 
obtain. In addition, OVC provided funding for 
services for victims taking part in criminal 
justice proceedings, including $200,000 to help 
victims attend the trial of Timothy McVeigh in Denver, 
Colorado.     

Compensation for Victims of the Bombing. Under 
provisions of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death 
Penalty Act passed by Congress in 1996, OVC provided 
$78,000 in supplemental funding to the Oklahoma 
victim compensation program, which had exhausted its 
own funds compensating victims of the bombing and 
other crimes.      

Mental Health Counseling for Bombing Victims. OVC 
worked with the Human Services Division of the 
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the 
Emergency Services and Disaster Relief Branch of the 
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to 
ensure that counseling programs were available to 
bombing victims in Oklahoma as well as in Denver 
during the trial.     

As the first trial got under way, OVC committed 
$566,311 to support four initiatives that responded 
to the U.S. Attorney's Office assessment of likely 
victim and witness needs during the trial:     

Funding for Victim Travel. OVC committed approximately 
$200,000 to supplement the United Way-coordinated 
Victims and Survivors Travel Service Fund. The Fund 
was initiated through a public/private partnership 
at the request of Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating to 
defray victims' travel expenses to attend the trial 
in Denver. OVC helped draft policies and procedures 
to ensure that these funds were used as effectively 
and efficiently as possible.     

Crisis Counseling Services. OVC awarded $234,930 to 
the Oklahoma District Attorney's Council for Project 
Heartland, which supported crisis counseling services 
for victims attending the trial's closed-circuit 
televised broadcast. The grant supports three mental 
health professionals who served victims at safe 
havens in Denver and Oklahoma City. The safe havens 
established in Denver and Oklahoma City provided a 
place for victims to retreat from the trial. Trained 
crisis counselors and therapists, as well as members 
of the clergy, were available to respond to their 
needs. In addition, the victims and surviving family 
members of the victims received trial debriefings 
each day.     

Additional Victim-Witness Advocate Positions in U.S. 
Attorneys' Offices. OVC committed nearly $99,000 to 
support two temporary victim-witness advocate positions 
within the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Western 
District of Oklahoma and one temporary advocate 
position in the U.S. Attorney's Office in the 
District of Colorado. The advocates helped the 
Victim Assistance Unit notify the roughly 2,900 
victims and witnesses regarding the status of the 
case. They also provided criminal justice advocacy 
and coordinated victim participation at the trial 
through closed-circuit televised broadcast.     

Identification and Coordination of Local Resources. 
OVC also provided $32,000 to support two experienced 
victim advocates who were responsible for identifying 
and coordinating local resources for survivors and 
families of the victims who traveled to Denver to 
attend the trial.     

The Oklahoma City bombing focused the attention of 
the Federal Government on the need for a more 
coordinated response to large-scale crises, and 
many agencies worked together to implement 
collaborative response protocols. For example, OVC 
and EOUSA developed a protocol to ensure that Federal 
investigative and DOJ prosecutorial staff afford 
victims of Federal crimes all of the rights and 
services to which they are entitled under Federal 
law. This protocol, a cooperative agreement between 
OVC, EOUSA, and the FBI, outlines actions each agency 
must take to fulfill the requirements of the Attorney 
General's Guidelines on Victim and Witness Assistance.      

The success of the crisis response team that focused 
on addressing the needs of children in Oklahoma City 
schools was the impetus for the Department of 
Education, the Department of Health and Human 
Services, and OVC to award a cooperative agreement 
to NOVA to help school districts around the Nation 
develop a crisis response capacity to major crises 
affecting students within their communities. OVC also 
has sought to establish more formalized relationships 
with non-DOJ emergency responders, such as the 
American Red Cross and FEMA, to develop protocols 
that would direct their response to crime victims.

In FY 1996, OVC, EOUSA, and the American Red Cross 
signed a Letter of Intent that set forth the terms 
of a coordinated crisis response protocol in the 
event of a future catastrophic crime. OVC also 
initiated a similar protocol with the Response and 
Recovery Directorate of FEMA involving the Public 
Safety Officer's Benefit and the Emergency Federal 
Law Enforcement Assistance programs of BJA.

OVC continues to play an active role in ensuring 
that the rights of the victims of the Oklahoma City 
bombing are protected and that victims receive the 
services and support that they require. 

OVC Assistance to the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, 
Georgia

Leadership in preparing for terrorist acts can 
mitigate the harm caused when they occur. OVC's 
efforts prior to the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in 
Atlanta, Georgia, is one example. OVC worked with 
BJA, NIJ, and the coordinator of Olympic Public 
Safety Operations to provide training and funding 
for additional technical assistance in the areas 
of security planning, crime prevention, and 
awareness for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. At the 
request of the Atlanta victim-witness assistance 
program, OVC funded community crisis response 
training for nearly 100 victim advocates across the 
State of Georgia. The training was provided by NOVA 
and focused on crisis intervention techniques, 
posttrauma counseling, group debriefing techniques, 
and cross-cultural issues in crises. In turn, the 
advocates developed a comprehensive crisis response 
plan in conjunction with the Atlanta Committee for 
the Olympic Games.      

OVC, in conjunction with the Olympic Public Safety 
Operations office, also funded the development of a 
short training videotape for law enforcement officers 
on the importance of responding compassionately to 
victims of crime. Shown to law enforcement officers 
during roll calls, the videotape outlined the protocol 
for working with the victim-witness advocates and 
volunteers assigned to different Olympic venues 
throughout the State.      

OVC also funded the creation of brochures that were 
distributed by law enforcement officers and victim 
advocates to people attending the Summer Games. The 
brochures described the criminal justice system 
process and how to access local victim assistance 
services.      

As a result of OVC's efforts, crime victim services 
were incorporated into the law enforcement and 
administrative protocols adopted by the Olympic Games 
Committee. These preparations proved to be crucial 
following the bombing of Centennial Park during the 
Games. OVC-trained victim advocates were quickly 
dispatched to local hospitals, providing information 
about compensation benefits and services to victims 
and their families in the hours and days following 
the blast. 

OVC Support for the Families of Victims Killed 
Abroad by Terrorists

Crime and victimization are increasingly recognized 
as international issues. Citizens of the United 
States work and travel abroad, and the United States 
is a popular destination for foreign visitors. With 
new technologies such as the Internet, communicating 
across the globe is as simple as communicating 
across town, giving OVC the ability to respond more 
quickly to the needs of citizens victimized abroad. 

After President Clinton signed the Antiterrorism 
and Effective Death Penalty Act on April 24, 1996, 
OVC Director Adams met with more than a dozen 
victims who attended the signing ceremony at the 
White House. Victims of terrorism and family members 
whose loved ones were killed abroad by terrorists 
expressed several concerns regarding their treatment 
by Federal agencies and their efforts to gain more 
information about the incidents in which they or 
their family members were involved. They expressed 
dissatisfaction with notification procedures about 
the death of their loved ones, the red tape they 
must contend with when trying to find out information 
about their cases, the lack of regular communication 
about case status from responsible government 
officials, and the lack of coordination between 
governmental agencies involved in these cases. 
They also expressed great appreciation for the 
opportunity to meet one another and to discuss 
their cases and their concerns, which helped 
diminish their sense of isolation. Following the 
meeting, OVC provided information to each participant 
regarding services available for them in their 
States. In addition, OVC's 1997 Program Plan contains 
a grant that provides funding for these victims to 
meet in Washington, D.C., to advise OVC and the State 
Department on how to improve services.
 
Legislative Reforms

Two OVC legislative recommendations that were enacted 
in 1996 have been crucial in facilitating OVC's 
comprehensive response to victims of terrorism. 
Congress amended VOCA to provide $500,000 in 
additional funding to assist the victims of the 
Oklahoma City bombing in attending trial proceedings 
in Denver. In addition, the Antiterrorism Act permits 
the OVC Director to access the reserve fund authorized 
by Section 1402(d)(4) to assist victims of terrorism 
and mass violence. This new authority has enabled 
OVC to provide the wide range of needed services 
described in this chapter.

------------------------------
 
Chapter 5

OVC's International Efforts on Behalf of Victims: 
Facing New Frontiers

Issues of victimization are becoming increasingly 
global as society becomes more mobile and as Internet 
access provides new opportunities for communication 
and, unfortunately, crime across national borders. 
OVC has recognized a growing need for improvement of 
victim services internationally, as well as better 
coordination and information sharing around the world. 
Accordingly, a number of initiatives were begun in 
FY 1996 to improve international awareness of and 
responsiveness to victims' issues. 

International Victim Assistance Training Manual
         
In May 1996, OVC staff served as technical advisers 
on victims' issues at the Fifth Session of the United 
Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal 
Justice in Vienna, Austria. OVC's participation in 
the meeting provided a unique opportunity to advance 
the American mission on behalf of crime victims in 
the international arena. Through OVC's efforts, the 
U.S. delegation cosponsored, with six other countries, 
a resolution to help implement the 1985 United Nations 
Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims 
of Crime and Abuse of Power (see appendix C).     

The Declaration, considered the Magna Carta for crime 
victims around the world, includes fundamental victims' 
rights such as the right to justice and fair treatment,
restitution, compensation, and assistance, as well 
as various rights for victims of abuse of power. 
While these rights have been adopted in many countries, 
other countries have done little to support victims' 
rights or respond to their needs. The purpose of the 
resolution was to provide a mechanism through which 
the United Nations could promote full implementation 
of the Declaration. The resolution called for the 
United Nations to develop an International Victim 
Assistance Training Manual that could be used by 
all countries. 
    
The resolution directed that two meetings of 
international experts be convened to develop such a 
manual, and on August 10-12, 1996, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, 
OVC hosted the second Expert Group Meeting on Victims 
of Crime and Abuse of Power in the International 
Setting. The meeting was organized with the support 
of the U.N. Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice 
Division and held in conjunction with the 22d Annual 
North American Victim Assistance Conference sponsored 
by NOVA. Participants included a distinguished group 
of leaders in the victims movement from 14 countries. 
OVC Director Adams served as chairperson of the 
meeting, which focused on building on earlier work 
to prepare a draft of the International Victim 
Assistance Training Manual. A draft of the manual 
was submitted to the Sixth Session of the U.N. Crime 
Commission in 1997, and a final draft will be 
submitted for consideration at the Seventh Session 
in 1998.      

The 3-day meeting in Oklahoma not only provided the 
opportunity for OVC to take a leadership role in the 
development of the International Victim Assistance 
Training Manual, but also served as a forum for OVC 
to begin discussions regarding international 
coordination and reciprocal training and technical 
assistance.

International Victim Compensation Program Directory
 
An increasing number of countries provide victim
compensation to foreign nationals; however, 
international victimization poses administrative 
obstacles both for victims seeking compensation and 
for programs providing financial assistance. In 
response, OVC developed an International Victim 
Compensation Program Directory in FYs 1995 and 1996 
to identify the scope of compensation programs in 
other countries and to complement the National 
Association of Crime Victim Compensation Boards' 
directory of U.S. compensation programs, which was 
developed using OVC funding. The directory provides 
basic eligibility and application information about 
compensation programs worldwide. Working with the 
State Department through consular staff, OVC is in 
the process of updating and expanding the directory 
(see figure 16).

OVC Resource Center Response to International Crime 
Victim Issues

OVCRC is a dynamic information resource that responds 
to queries on a variety of victim issues from victim 
service agencies, researchers, policymakers, and 
practitioners from around the world. OVCRC receives 
requests by telephone, fax, written correspondence, 
and e-mail, as well as from visitors to OVCRC's main 
facilities in Rockville, Maryland. In FYs 1995 and 
1996, OVCRC responded to requests from Australia, 
Cambodia, Canada, Great Britain, Israel, Korea, 
Mexico, and other countries on a variety of subjects 
including child abuse, domestic violence, rape and 
sexual assault, victim compensation, and victim-
offender mediation. OVCRC has recently expanded 
its international outreach by establishing an 
International Victims Resources section on the 
National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) 
home page (http://www.ncjrs.gov) on the World Wide 
Web.

Assistance for Kidnaped Children Taken Across
International Borders

Since 1985 DOJ and the State Department have had a 
cooperative agreement with OJJDP's National Center 
for Missing and Exploited Children to track kidnaped 
children taken across international borders and to 
help their parents obtain lawful custody  under the 
Hague Convention's treaty on international child 
abductions. This joint initiative recently was 
renewed with a new service that greatly aids parents 
seeking to recover abducted children: OVC will absorb 
travel-related reunification costs for American 
parents who can prove that substantial economic 
hardship prevents them from recovering their children 
from overseas.      

Parental abduction cases often involve international 
marriages that are dissolving, with one parent 
returning to the native country with offspring who 
are too young to give legal consent. Many parents 
exhaust their life savings on telephone calls, 
attorneys, and private investigators in the search 
for their children. OVC established a fund to help 
parents accompany their children back to the United 
States when they do not have adequate resources to 
reunite with them abroad.  

Support for the World Congress Against the Commercial 
Exploitation of Children

OVC staff helped prepare the U.S. Delegation to the 
World Congress Against the Commercial Exploitation 
of Children held in Stockholm, Sweden, on August 
27-31, 1996. OVC provided funds for the development 
of an important new publication, Child Sexual 
Exploitation: Improving Investigations and 
Protecting Victims--A Blueprint for Action, which 
was distributed at the conference. Since the World 
Congress, OVC has participated in a working group 
comprising representatives from the President's 
Interagency Council on Women, the State Department, 
the Department of Labor, DOD, the U.S. Customs 
Service, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the 
Department of Education, and various DOJ agencies to 
develop a coordinated Federal strategy for prevention 
of, investigation, and intervention in cases of 
commercial exploitation of children. 

Assistance for Americans Victimized Abroad: OVC's 
Plan of Action on International Issues for FY 1997

OVC staff worked with the State Department to develop 
detailed informational materials on OVC's services 
and on existing State-level victim compensation and 
assistance programs. The State Department sent an 
"ALLDAC" cable with this information to all embassies 
and consulates overseas. This material provides a 
ready reference for embassy and consular staff members 
to use when they are contacted by Americans who have 
been victimized abroad and are looking for information 
about the services and compensation available upon 
their return to the United States.     

Recent terrorist attacks and the adoption of the 
Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 
focused attention on the globalization of crime and 
the internationalization of victimization. Many 
Americans subject themselves to the jurisdiction of 
foreign criminal justice systems when traveling, as 
do millions of visitors to the United States. 
Consistent with the mandates set forth in Section 
1411 of VOCA, OVC continues to collaborate with the 
State Department and the United Nations to provide 
services to Americans victimized abroad and to help 
other countries develop victim assistance programs. 
OVC's action plan for FY 1997 includes: 

o Coordinating with the State Department, relevant 
DOJ components, and other interested agencies to    
improve governmental response to victims of 
terrorism abroad. 

o Continuing to play a leadership role in drafting 
the International Victim Assistance Training Manual    
to help countries around the world implement the U.N. 
Declaration on victims' rights.  

o Coordinating with the State Department and other 
DOJ components with international responsibilities 
to develop a training and technical assistance 
program to provide more effective and sensitive 
responses to Americans victimized abroad.

o Coordinating with the State Department to provide 
training for foreign countries in developing crime 
victim assistance programs.

o Working with the State Department, the United 
Nations, and the "P-8" (Canada, France, Germany,    
Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the 
United States) to extend the integration of crime    
victim issues into international discussions of crime.

OVC has established itself in a short time as a leader 
in international victims' issues. Activities in this 
area provide valuable opportunities for cooperation 
with other nations on crucial areas of victim 
assistance and participation in the criminal justice 
system. The United States has much to learn from other 
countries and cultures, and an equal amount to offer. 
As the U.S. economy becomes more global, it is 
increasingly important that OVC be able to provide 
information, assistance, and training that will help 
Americans victimized overseas obtain the support and 
assistance they need. 

------------------------------

Chapter 6

Making Government Work for Victims of Crime:
Disseminating Information and Responding to 
Constituent Requests

OVC's commitment to making sure that victims of crime 
have access to the best services available includes 
improving systems that interact with crime victims 
and providing timely information and diverse materials 
on issues that make a real difference in their lives. 

OVC uses an array of resources to respond to requests 
from victims, victim advocates, service providers, 
grant recipients, and policymakers for publications 
and videotapes, referrals to sources of advocacy and 
services, and specialized training and curriculums. 
OVC is also committed to using technology to improve 
the response to victims and their advocates in a 
variety of ways, including improving the delivery of 
training, simplifying and speeding up the application 
process for victim assistance and compensation grants, 
and ensuring that victims are informed of their 
rights and the services available to them.
 
Enhancing Communication With the Victim Service 
Field

OVC Resource Center

Dissemination of this information is usually 
accomplished through the OVC Resource Center (OVCRC) 
in Rockville, Maryland. Other information is 
disseminated through training programs and in 
response to direct requests to OVC.

OVC provided $261,000 in FY 1995 and $350,000 in FY 
1996 to support OVCRC activities. OVCRC serves as a 
national clearinghouse of information concerning 
victim and witness assistance programs, victim 
compensation programs, and private-sector organizations 
that assist victims. OVCRC establishes liaisons with 
national, State, local, and private sector 
organizations whose activities are directed toward 
improving services for victims and maintains 
directories of State, local, and private sector 
programs, resources, and experts.

OVCRC provides timely and relevant information for 
research, advocacy, policy, program, and legislative 
support, including statistics, descriptions of 
promising practices, grant-funding sources, and 
referrals to appropriate service organizations 
(see figure 17). OVCRC also provides information at 
professional conferences, training programs, and 
commemorative events such as National Crime Victims' 
Rights Week (NCVRW).

As a component of NCJRS, OVCRC shares information 
resources with all OJP clearinghouse programs, 
including the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Bureau 
of Justice Statistics (BJS), National Institute of 
Justice, and Office of Juvenile Justice and 
Delinquency Prevention. In addition, NCJRS offers a 
clearinghouse for the Office of National Drug Control 
Policy. The combined NCJRS clearinghouse program 
houses the largest criminal justice reference 
collection in the world, including more than 9,000 
victim-related documents and audiovisual materials. 
The entire collection can be abstracted and searched 
electronically as needed. OVCRC users can also obtain 
information through the NCJRS World Wide Web home 
page and other Internet-based sources; these sources 
make victim-related information available 24 hours 
a day.

OVCRC can be reached at (800) 627-6872. Internet access is
available through http://www.ncjrs.gov/ovchome.htm and 
the e-mail address is askncjrs@ aspensys.com.

OVC World Wide Web Home Page 
         
In FY 1997, OVC designed and unveiled its own World 
Wide Web home page (see figure 18). A variety of 
information regarding OVC, its programs, funding, 
and other activities is updated regularly and made 
available to the public. The OVC home page is 
available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc.  

OVC Publications and Products

In FYs 1995 and 1996, OVC produced and disseminated 
a wide range of materials for victims of crime and 
the individuals who provide services to them. These 
products included curriculums, videotapes, brochures, 
fact sheets, bulletins, monographs, and other 
materials. For a full list of OVC publications 
available, see appendix D.

In FYs 1995 and 1996, OVC distributed 94 resource 
packages to U.S. Attorneys' Offices with state-of-
the-art information on HIV/AIDS, victims of bank 
robbery, and victims of white-collar crime. OVC 
produced and disseminated monographs on issues 
affecting victims in Indian Country as well as 
information on crime victims for military personnel. 
OVC developed conference planning guides, program 
standards, and videotapes highlighting resources and 
assistance available to crime victims. 

Topic-Specific Videotapes          

OVC funds the development of topic-specific 
videotapes that bring innovative training and 
technical assistance to the State and local 
levels. In FY 1997, for example, OVC is funding the 
development of a videotape that captures the most 
promising comprehensive approaches to serving crime 
victims. This videotape will illustrate the 
importance of inclusive, collaborative, and 
coordinated approaches to serving victims, and will 
provide visual examples of creative practices at 
work. Most videotapes supported by OVC funds are 
available to the public through OVCRC. 

OVC Newsletter 

In FY 1997, OVC began publishing the OVC Advocate, 
a newsletter that will be produced twice a year and 
distributed throughout the country. The newsletter 
summarizes news affecting the crime victims field, 
OVC efforts, grants programs, innovative programs 
in the States, legislative updates, training and 
technical assistance opportunities, and human 
interest stories. It has become an important means 
of quickly getting information out to the field on a 
variety of topics. 

Using Technology for Victims and Grantees          

The application of emerging technologies to assist 
in organizational management, enhance case management 
and tracking information, and improve communications 
holds great promise to assist crime victims and to 
improve all systems that provide services to them. 
OVC is funding projects to examine different facets 
of these technologies to assist crime victims. At 
the same time, OVC has integrated new technologies 
into its efforts to disseminate information to the 
field. 

Technology Grants

As part of this commitment to support technological 
innovation, OVC is funding a project to give victim 
service providers opportunities to identify, utilize, 
and exchange information about promising technologies 
that can help them and the constituents they serve. 
Summary descriptions of the most promising strategies 
and practices using technology for victims will be 
developed. In addition, a 2-day symposium for a 
limited group of crime victim advocates, assistance 
providers, and experts in technology will be convened.

In addition, OVC is supporting a project to implement
customized victim notification technologies in FY 
1997. Victim notification of key criminal justice 
proceedings is a crime victim's basic right and a 
cornerstone of victim participation. It is also an 
area in which emerging technologies can benefit 
victims. A number of States have implemented automated 
systems that give victims timely notification of court 
dates, case decisions, and information regarding any 
change in their offenders' status. These systems 
replace absent or inconsistent victim notification
procedures that, in some cases, have resulted in 
tragedy. The purpose of this project is to assist 
jurisdictions in implementing customized, automated 
victim notification systems. A grantee will develop 
a resource package that outlines the various options 
available for victim notification. Using that 
resource package, the grantee will then provide 
intensive technical assistance to three to five 
jurisdictions that are legislatively mandated to 
provide victim notification.

Victim Assistance Case Automated Tracking/
Notification System
         
OVC is supporting the development, testing, and use 
of a specialized computer program that will track 
victim, defendant, case, and service agency 
information within the Federal system. The system 
will: (1) send victims timely notifications regarding 
the status of investigations; (2) track services 
provided to victims; (3) analyze data and collect 
information; and (4) transfer information available 
to each agency with victim-witness responsibilities 
along the criminal justice continuum. 

Simplifying the Grant Process for Victim Assistance 
in Indian Country

OVC has also made a commitment in FY 1997 to 
collaborate with VAWGO to simplify the grant process 
for victim assistance in Indian Country. Specifically, 
the two funding agencies will pilot test an 
administrative initiative which will allow tribes 
eligible to receive Victim Assistance in Indian Country 
and Violence Against Women grant funds to submit a 
single application for Federal funding. Further, OVC 
and VAWGO will combine Federal grant monitoring and 
training and technical assistance efforts. This 
initiative is being undertaken not only to streamline 
the grant application process but to provide a central 
point of contact for Native American representatives 
interested in Federal funding to assist crime victims. 
If successful, this administrative mechanism will 
maximize resources, minimize duplicative grantmaking 
and oversight efforts, and improve overall customer 
service.
 
Responding to Constituent Training Requests 

OVC Training and Technical Assistance Center

OVC is in the process of consolidating a number of 
State and local training and technical assistance 
services into one comprehensive Training and 
Technical Assistance Center. As a result of this 
effort, OVC's Trainers Bureau, Community Crisis 
Response program, conference support initiatives, 
and information and product development will be 
managed through one contract. Four current ongoing 
programs are highlighted in this section.

Community Crisis Response

Despite the best prevention efforts by schools,
communities, and law enforcement, crime occurs. When 
it does, immediate crisis response services help 
address the trauma of victimization. Crisis response 
can take many forms, from victim advocates who 
respond to crime scenes with law enforcement to full 
crisis response teams. VOCA-funded victim assistance 
programs often offer crisis counseling services for 
victims as well.

The Community Crisis Response program was established 
to improve services to victims of violent crime in 
communities that have experienced crimes resulting 
in multiple victimizations. The program seeks to 
improve services to multiple victims of violent crime 
by providing training and short-term technical 
assistance in communities; responding to the specific 
needs of agencies and communities in crisis situations 
in a timely manner; increasing coordination among 
Federal, tribal, State, and local agencies to provide 
effective victim assistance services; and maximizing 
available resources and reducing duplication of 
effort. The program funds individuals or teams of 
trained responders to assist victims through 
debriefings and training in the aftermath of 
significant criminal incidents, and through it OVC 
can provide rapid response victim assistance training 
and technical assistance previously unavailable to 
communities. During the reporting period, four crisis 
response teams were deployed to assist victims in 
the aftermath of an incident of mass victimization 
involving a drunk driving crash, a shooting spree 
on a reservation, the Oklahoma City bombing, and 
the murder of two high school students. OVC 
allocated $33,884 to these four crisis response 
requests, and more than 15,000 victims were served.

In addition, to develop a stronger crisis response 
capacity in communities around the country, OVC 
supported a series of four regional community crisis 
response training conferences in FY 1996. The 
conferences were held in Arizona, Arkansas, New York, 
and Oregon. Training at each site was provided to 
approximately 100 law enforcement officials, victim 
service providers, and local community organizers who 
demonstrated interest in establishing crisis response 
teams in their communities and States. To be selected 
to receive the training, participants provided 
letters of recommendations from appropriate community 
officials indicating their support of and willingness 
to establish and maintain a community crisis response 
team. The training series has been extended in FY 1997.

Trainers Bureau

The OVC Trainers Bureau supports a cadre of trainers 
and speakers capable of providing services and 
expertise at training conferences and other training 
and technical assistance opportunities around the 
country. The Trainers Bureau was established to 
stimulate the development of professional expertise 
in the field of victim services by identifying 
outstanding experts and model programs, policies, 
and practices; to make this expertise available to 
agencies through high-quality training, short-term 
technical assistance, and mentoring opportunities; 
and to cost effectively deliver assistance by 
targeting specific, priority needs. The Trainers 
Bureau offers expertise on a wide range of general 
and specific victim-related topics such as the legal 
rights of victims, the trauma of victimization, and 
criminal justice advocacy (see figure 19). The 
Trainers Bureau has provided funding for 186 
short-term technical assistance projects in 33 States 
since its inception in 1994.     

The consultants used by the Trainers Bureau conduct 
workshops and provide effective onsite technical 
assistance to address a range of needs. The 
following list provides a brief sampling of some 
activities supported during the reporting period:

o The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern 
District of Indiana hosted a statewide victim 
assistance training seminar for clergy to mobilize 
religious organizations on behalf of crime victims. 
The goal of the training was to add clergy and 
congregations to the list of service organizations 
and individuals responding to the needs of crime 
victims. OVC provided funding for a trainer and    
training materials for 105 clergy advocates, 
volunteers, and other professionals affiliated 
with churches.

o In Orange County, California, the California Center 
for Judicial Education and Training presented a 
judicial education program on understanding sexual 
violence. Judges, commissioners, and referees from 
throughout California received the most current 
information on a range of topics: victims' reactions 
to sexual assault, rape-related posttraumatic stress 
disorder; sanctions for sex offenders; and societal 
attitudes toward rape. Two lead trainers for this 
session were supported by the Trainers Bureau.

o The Trainers Bureau provided specialized training 
for the Southern Ute Indian tribe, which brought    
together all tribal staff responsible for addressing 
family violence. The training focused on the law    
enforcement response to victims of domestic violence 
and establishment of a multidisciplinary tribal 
effort. The Southern Ute Victim Service Program 
believes that the training will produce more    
effective responses to victims of child abuse, child 
neglect, and spousal abuse on the reservation. 

o The Texas Crime Victims' Compensation Division, in 
coordination with several local and State agencies, 
hosted the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault 
Conference. Trainers Bureau support provided a 1-day 
workshop on issues of gang violence, in particular, 
sexual assault by gang members and against gang 
members as a "rite of passage" into a gang. 

o The Trainers Bureau supported consultants from the 
Westchester County, New York, Department of Probation 
to present a workshop on ensuring that the criminal 
justice system works for victims at the 23d National 
Conference on Juvenile Justice. The consultants 
provided information on several innovative 
programmatic approaches supported by victim-oriented 
policies and training models. The conference was 
jointly sponsored by the National Council of Juvenile 
and Family Court Judges and the National District 
Attorneys Association.

Other Trainers Bureau-supported technical assistance 
projects have addressed development of protocols for
multidisciplinary response to domestic violence, 
sexual abuse of children, and incidents involving 
multiple victims; white-collar crime; elder abuse 
investigation and prosecution; workplace violence 
and staff victimization; victim issues for clergy; 
and cross-cultural issues in victim services. 

Regional Coordination Initiative
         
In FY 1996, OVC launched the Regional Coordination 
Initiative (RCI), a project that seeks to create a 
network of trainers and technical assistance 
providers who will enhance victim services by 
planning, managing, and conducting innovative regional 
training events. The initiative, which was modeled 
after the National Institute of Corrections' 
successful Regionalization Initiative, expands State 
and local training opportunities and identifies 
training and technical assistance needs in each of 
four regions working with VOCA victim assistance and 
compensation administrators, victim-witness staff of 
U.S. Attorneys' Offices, and statewide victim 
coalition representatives. Working with a cadre of 
regional field coordinators, OVC developed a detailed 
action plan to identify training needs, recruit 
trainers, and establish regional training 
opportunities.

Mentoring Program for VOCA Administrators
         
In FY 1996, OVC embarked on an ambitious effort to 
provide technical assistance to improve the delivery 
of services and administration of VOCA-funded victim 
services programs at State and local levels. The 
Mentoring Program for VOCA Administrators provides 
peer counseling training and technical assistance 
to States--an effort which permits an administrator 
from one State to offer assistance to an administrator 
in another State on a diverse range of topics. One 
example of how the program has been used is a 
collaborative effort of the Iowa Crime Victim 
Assistance Program, the Iowa Department of Justice, 
and the Iowa Office of the Attorney General to 
provide onsite technical assistance to the Kansas 
Crime Victims Compensation Board on automating their 
compensation processing and tracking system.

Putting It All Together To Serve Crime Victims Better:
Washington, D.C., Case Study

OVC has applied an array of VOCA training and 
technical assistance resources to address the service 
delivery and programmatic and budgetary crises that 
occurred when the District of Columbia's victim 
compensation program was shut down in FY 1995. By 
working with local officials and using the training 
and technical assistance programs described in this 
chapter, OVC provided critical technical support to 
help city officials reinstate the program.     

OVC's victim assistance mentoring program allowed 
the Iowa Department of Justice and the Iowa Attorney 
General's Office to provide assistance to Washington, 
D.C., government officials. The technical assistance 
included (1) modifying and installing Iowa's automated 
compensation claims processing and tracking system; 
(2) reviewing the compensation program statute, 
current practices, and operational policies; (3) 
recommending changes in the program's 
organizational structure; and (4) preparing a final 
report of the technical assistance visit with 
findings and recommendations. OVC staff also worked 
with the Washington, D.C., Crime Victim Compensation 
Working Group, a public-private partnership composed 
of representatives from the District of Columbia's 
Department of Human Services; Washington, D.C., City 
Council representatives; the Victim/Witness Unit of 
the U.S. Attorney's Office, Catholic University's 
Columbus School of Law, Washington Hospital Center, 
and the National Association of Crime Victim 
Compensation Boards. The partnership assisted the 
District of Columbia in reestablishing a viable, 
efficient, and responsive compensation program.      

In addition, OVC worked with representatives from 
the mayor's office and a cadre of local victim 
advocates and service providers to improve the 
delivery of victim services and administration of 
VOCA victim assistance funding. Through this 
collaborative effort the administration of the VOCA 
victim assistance grant program was transferred to 
the D.C. Office of Grants Management. Through this 
effort, for the first time since the inception of 
the VOCA victim assistance program, VOCA victim 
assistance grants are being awarded to local victim 
service organizations.  

District-Specific Training
         
OVC's district-specific training program assists U.S. 
Attorney's Offices and other Federal agencies to 
comply with Federal crime victims' legislation and 
to improve services to Federal crime victims. The 
training supported by this funding provides 
discipline-specific, day-long workshops, as well as 
full conference support for regional, multidisciplinary 
programs and scholarships for conference participants 
who otherwise might not be able to attend.     

Illustrations of district-specific training sessions 
involving Native American tribes in FYs 1995 and 
1996 are given below.

Durango, Colorado, August 1995. The Four Corners 
Indian Country Conference is a collaborative effort 
sponsored by OVC, BIA Law Enforcement Services, and 
the U.S. Attorneys' Offices for the Districts of 
Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. The 
conference focused on stopping the cycle of violence 
and featured multidisciplinary training about issues 
of juvenile justice, child abuse, domestic violence, 
gangs, cultural awareness, and victim assistance. OVC 
awarded $15,000 in funding to allow 70 Native 
American service providers to attend the conference.      

Phoenix, Arizona, June 1996. OVC provided district-
specific funding to EOUSA to help the Office of Legal 
Education conduct its annual Native American Issues 
Seminar for Assistant U.S. Attorneys who prosecute 
cases in Indian Country. A significant portion of 
the agenda was devoted to complex issues relating to 
Native American victims of crime.

Sioux Falls, South Dakota, July 1996. With BIA, the 
South Dakota Department of Social Services, and the 
U.S. Attorney's Offices for the Districts of Nebraska, 
North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming, OVC sponsored 
the Building Partnerships to Protect Children 
Conference. The conference offered culturally 
sensitive, skills-building workshops on such topics 
as interdisciplinary investigations, interviewing 
techniques, medical evaluations, court preparation,
multijurisdictional issues, and victim compensation. 
OVC provided scholarships for 80 Native American 
participants. 

State Needs Assessment
         
OVC, along with representatives from BJA, NIJ, BJS, 
and the Census Bureau, is working with the Nebraska 
Victims Compensation and Assistance programs to 
jointly fund the development of a comprehensive 
victim services needs assessment instrument. Once 
finalized, the instrument will be disseminated to 
help other States identify gaps in victim services, 
as well as measure the effectiveness of current 
victim service delivery. 

National Crime Victims' Rights Week

Each year since 1982, National Crime Victims' Rights 
Week has been formally designated and commemorated 
at the Federal level during the month of April. 
NCVRW gives the nation the opportunity to acknowledge 
the pain and suffering of crime victims and to 
applaud the numerous reforms that have been instituted 
to advance their rights and respond to their unique 
needs.     

OVC, DOJ, and the White House, working in conjunction 
with State, local, and private agencies, help to 
develop NCVRW events, including the National Crime 
Victim Service Award for which OVC annually solicits 
nominations from nearly 3,000 victim advocates and 
service providers in the field. Similarly, OVC sends 
out numerous letters soliciting nominations for Crime 
Victims Fund Awards. These awards honor individual 
Federal employees or teams whose work within DOJ and 
the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts has 
substantially increased Crime Victims Fund collections. 
Selections are based on individual dedication, 
achievement, and innovative or creative methods for 
increasing Fund deposits. Both awards are given 
during NCVRW. The recipients for FYs 1995 and 1996 
are listed in appendix E.

Ceremonies commemorating the 1995 National Crime 
Victims' Rights Week took place April 23-29. 
President Clinton met with the 1995 Crime Victim 
Service Award winners in the Oval Office prior to a 
ceremony in the White House's famous Roosevelt Room. 
Attorney General Janet Reno presented the Crime 
Victims Fund Awards and signed the revised Attorney 
General's Guidelines on Victim and Witness Assistance 
on April 26.
 
Ceremonies commemorating the 1996 National Crime 
Victims' Rights Week took place on April 24-30. On 
April 24, Crime Victim Service award recipients met 
with the President and the Vice President at the 
White House and attended the signing of the 
Antiterrorism Law. Presentation of the Victim Service 
Awards took place on April 25 at a ceremony in the 
Great Hall of the Department of Justice, and the 
Attorney General presented 17 Crime Victims Fund 
Awards during a ceremony at DOJ on April 29.

To assist local communities in planning NCVRW 
activities, OVC funds the development of an annual 
NCVRW Resource Guide, which is distributed to more 
than 3,000 national victims organizations, local 
victim assistance programs, U.S. Attorneys' Offices,
governors, State attorneys general, and others who 
work with crime victims. In FYs 1995 and 1996, the 
NCVRW Resource Guide was developed by the Victims' 
Assistance Legal Organization (VALOR), with support 
from OVC. OVCRC in Rockville, Maryland, distributed 
copies of the Guide as well as Guide materials on 
computer disks. Artwork for the Guide was provided 
by students from the Corcoran School of Art in 
Washington, D.C.

------------------------------

Chapter 7

Future Directions

OVC now has more than 10 years of experience 
developing and implementing policies and programs. 
That experience and an enhanced effort by OVC during 
the past 3 years to listen to input from the field 
has proven that government, now more than ever, must 
listen and respond to the voices of victims and 
those who serve them. Although appreciative for what 
VOCA has allowed them to achieve, crime victims and 
their advocates have identified gaps not only in the 
system of victim services, but also in the criminal 
justice response to victims.
 
Some of these major gaps in victim services and rights 
are reflected below, along with recommendations for 
legislative and policy reforms to address them. OVC's 
1997 goals, which reflect its priorities for the 
future (see figure 20), are also set forth. In 
addition, many OVC strategies for the future are 
described in the July 1996 Report to Congress. 
These strategies, which are not recounted in detail 
here, include OVC's support for expanded rights for 
victims, particularly victims of juvenile offenders; 
innovative ways of providing medical examinations for 
victims; use of technology in serving victims; 
professionalization of the field; culturally 
appropriate services for victims; and improved 
services for Federal crime victims and other 
specialized victim populations.      

This chapter sets forth five of OVC's most significant 
goals for the future, as well as strategies for 
accomplishing them. The goals include:

o Comprehensive, quality services for all crime 
victims.

o Enactment and enforcement of consistent, fundamental 
rights for crime victims. 

o Enhancing the Federal response to victims of 
Federal crime. 

o Publication of Victims' Rights and Services for 
the 21st Century: An Action Plan From the Field. 

o Enhancing the Victims of Crime Act.
 
Comprehensive, Quality Services for All Crime Victims

While enormous strides have been made during the past 
two decades to establish comprehensive services and 
rights for crime victims, only a fraction of the 
Nation's nearly 39 million crime victims have access 
to services such as emergency financial assistance, 
crisis and mental health counseling, shelter, victim 
compensation, and information and advocacy within 
the criminal justice system. Despite major increases 
in the Crime Victims Fund, many of America's crime 
victims remain either unserved or underserved:
 
o In many rural areas there are no services for crime 
victims who must travel hundreds of miles to find a 
safe shelter, counseling, or other specialized 
services. 

o Because a substantial number of crime victims, 
particularly victims of domestic violence, sexual    
assault, and child abuse, often do not report the 
crime, countless victims never access victim    
assistance and compensation programs.

o Certain victims, such as many burglary and 
white-collar crime victims, do not receive needed    
assistance, such as counseling services, because 
most services are focused on victims of violent    
crime. For example, despite the fact that thousands 
of elderly crime victims lose their life savings to   
telemarketing fraud, few programs have been developed 
to help these victims. 

o Disabled crime victims, who are victimized at an 
unusually high rate, have great difficulty in    
accessing services to meet their needs. For example, 
most victim assistance programs are unable to 
communicate effectively with deaf victims.
 
o Victim service providers are often not equipped to 
meet the needs of victims from diverse cultures and 
victims who speak foreign languages. As a result, 
these victims are not adequately informed of the 
services available to them or of their rights in 
the criminal justice system.  

o Many domestic violence shelters turn away countless 
battered women and their children because of a lack 
of space. New York's largest victim service provider, 
Victim Services, estimates that each day about 70 
domestic violence survivors in New York cannot be 
provided with the shelter they need.

o Even when services are available, many victims are 
afraid to access them because they fear retaliation 
by the offender or revictimization by the system. 
This group includes many victims of domestic violence 
and child abuse, as well as victims of gang violence 
who must continue to live in neighborhoods with 
ongoing gang activity.

As the Nation prepares for the year 2000 and beyond, 
it is especially important that all programs and 
agencies work to reduce barriers to accessibility, 
including those related to physical and mental 
disabilities, language and communication, age, 
competence, and geographic location. Victims' advocacy
organizations must define a comprehensive system 
of victim services. It should include immediate trauma 
and emergency response, short- and long-term 
psychological counseling, and shelter, as well as 
advocacy throughout the criminal, tribal, military, 
and juvenile justice systems. Crime victims should 
also have access to diverse sources of financial 
recovery including emergency financial assistance, 
crime victim compensation, restitution, and civil 
legal remedies.     

A system of comprehensive services requires dedicated 
resources. A step toward that goal was the enactment 
of the Victims of Crime Act in 1984, which established 
a creative, nontraditional funding mechanism, 
relying on the collection of fines and penalties 
from convicted Federal offenders, rather than 
Federal tax-based appropriations. However, many 
criminal justice officials and victim advocates 
continue to assert that the lack of comprehensive 
services in every community for victims of crime is 
primarily due to inadequate funding. New and creative 
sources of funding must be found to ensure quality 
services to all crime victims.

OVC continues to work to address the issues of 
unserved and underserved victims and will continue 
to do so in many different ways, including encouraging 
States to use increased Federal formula monies to 
expand services into underserved and unserved areas 
and highlighting successful local initiatives that 
can be replicated; publishing a "promising practices" 
compendium on victim services in rural areas; funding 
a focus group to develop strategies and an action 
plan for improving services to victims with 
disabilities, as well as additional projects to 
expand these services; and funding trainings, 
materials, and a film regarding sensitive services 
to victims from diverse cultures, including topic-
specific monographs for serving Native Americans. 
In addition, OVC funding of an evaluation of VOCA 
programs will provide important information about 
underserved victim populations upon which to base 
future funding decisions. 

OVC, through its discretionary and formula grants, 
has helped to build an important base of programs 
that provide comprehensive services: 

o Community Crisis Response. OVC has funded regional 
trainings to help communities make available trained 
crisis responders to provide services when incidents 
of mass violence occur.  

o Education and Training. OVC has funded curriculums 
for grade schools regarding victim services and 
prevention strategies, curriculums for colleges and 
graduate schools for professionals who interact with 
crime victims, and trainings for thousands of 
professionals across the country on how to provide
comprehensive, collaborative services for victims.  

o Multidisciplinary Services. OVC has provided 
funding for many children's advocacy centers and 
other comprehensive victim service centers where 
diverse professionals work together so that services 
are coordinated and victims are not revictimized by 
the system.  

o Promising Practices To Provide Victim Services. 
OVC is in the process of identifying promising    
practices from around the country to inform diverse 
professionals of effective ways of ensuring that    
victims' rights are protected and that they receive 
needed services. These services will include    
promising practices for medical, mental health, 
spiritual, and criminal justice personnel, as well 
as service providers who work in rural areas, with 
victims with disabilities, and with culturally 
diverse victims.
 
o Victim-Oriented Community Policing. OVC is funding 
regional trainings for community police officers on 
providing comprehensive victim services.
 
o Community-Based Prosecutors. OVC has provided funds 
to a number of prosecutors' offices that are community 
based and are working closely with communities to 
develop more effective prosecutorial strategies, 
including community impact statements as part of 
their prosecutions.  

o Victim-Sensitive Judges. OVC has provided numerous 
trainings and is developing a bulletin to increase 
the sensitivity of judges to the rights and needs 
of crime victims.  

o Victim-Oriented Corrections. OVC has funded 
numerous trainings to ensure that correction 
agencies across the country view victims as their 
"customers" and integrate victim input into 
their programs and policies, as well as into 
probation and parole hearings.           

One of OVC's major challenges for the future is to 
work with victim service providers across the country 
and national victim organizations to integrate into 
every community all of the victim-centered programs 
that OVC has launched with its grantees, as well as 
other "promising practices." To help accomplish its 
goal of comprehensive, quality services for all crime 
victims, OVC this year initiated its Victim Services 
2000 program which will fund several urban and rural 
training sites that provide the comprehensive, 
promising victim practices described in our 
publications and funded through our grants. These 
sites will help diverse communities replicate 
victim-centered programs. 

Enactment and Enforcement of Consistent, Fundamental 
Rights for Crime Victims
         
Tremendous strides have been made to enact victims' 
rights laws across the country to ensure that victims 
can be present at, are informed about, and can be 
heard during relevant criminal justice proceedings. 
Serious deficiencies nonetheless remain in the Nation's 
system of victims' rights. The rights of victims vary 
significantly among States and at the Federal level; 
there are few rights for victims in many juvenile 
justice systems; victims of nonviolent crimes are 
often treated like second-class citizens; and a recent 
national study indicates that State victims' rights 
frequently are not enforced.
 
Securing a Victims' Rights Constitutional Amendment and
Other Legislative Protections for Crime Victims

In the years ahead, OVC will continue to work to 
secure sound legislative protections that would 
ensure the provision of fundamental rights of 
participation for crime victims in the criminal 
justice system. Chief among these efforts is OVC's 
support of an amendment to the United States 
Constitution that would secure for victims the 
rights to be informed, present, and heard during 
the criminal case that affects them; the right to 
restitution; and the right to reasonable protection 
from the offender. In June 1996, President Clinton 
endorsed efforts to anchor these rights in the 
Federal Constitution, noting:
 
When someone is a victim, he or she should be at the 
center of the criminal justice system, not on the 
outside looking in. Participation in all forms of 
government is the essence of democracy. Victims 
should be guaranteed the right to participate in 
proceedings related to crimes committed against them.          

OVC has been working within the Justice Department 
and through it with sponsors and supporters of the 
victims' rights amendment proposals in Congress. In 
keeping with the President's goal that the
amendment be self-executing, we are working to 
ensure that it contains language to secure the 
following rights, all of which were specifically 
identified by the President as necessary for an 
effective amendment:

o The right to notice of public court proceedings and 
the right to not be excluded from them. 

o The right to make a statement to the court, if 
present, about bail, plea acceptance, and sentencing. 

o Rights relating to parole proceedings.

o The right to notice of the offender's release or 
escape. 

o The right to appropriate restitution.

o The right to reasonable conditions of confinement 
and release to protect the victim from the defendant.

o The right to notice of these rights.

Attorney General Janet Reno noted the importance of 
extending constitutional rights to crime victims in 
her speech at the annual conference of the National 
Organization for Victim Assistance in August 1996:

Some have questioned the need for a victims' rights 
constitutional amendment. I certainly do not support 
amending the Constitution lightly, but I have long 
been an advocate for treating victims with dignity 
and respect. Now, after carefully reviewing the 
issue of a Federal constitutional amendment with all 
the lawyers in the Department of Justice, it is clear 
to me that the best way to secure consistent and 
comprehensive rights for victims is by including 
those fundamental rights within the U.S. Constitution. 
In the constitutional amendment, crime victims should 
have the right to be informed of, and to not be 
excluded from, public court proceedings; the right 
to be heard, if present, by the court about release 
from custody, sentencing, and pleas; the right to 
be heard by the parole board when it considers an 
offender's release; and the right to appropriate 
restitution. What victims want is a voice, not a veto, 
in our criminal justice system. Today victims' rights 
vary significantly from State to State. The Federal 
Government, adult and juvenile justice systems, and 
the military all provide different rights for victims. 
Victims' rights should not depend upon the State in 
which they live, whether the crime is Federal or 
State, or whether it occurs on a military base or 
in Indian country. Fundamental rights for victims 
should apply in every forum.          

The Attorney General reiterated these points in 
testimony supporting a Federal constitutional 
amendment before the Senate Judiciary Committee on 
April 16, 1997, and the House Judiciary Committee 
on June 25, 1997.

While State victim statutes and constitutional 
amendments have led to positive reforms, a recent 
study conducted by the National Victim Center (NVC) 
revealed that the States have failed to implement 
their statutory and constitutional rights for victims 
in a significant number of cases. Under a grant from 
NIJ, NVC studied implementation of victims' rights 
laws in four States. Two States were selected because 
they had strong statutory protection of victims' 
rights, and the other two because they had weaker
protections. The survey of over 1,300 crime victims, 
the largest of its kind ever conducted, found that 
many victims are denied their rights, even in States 
with stronger legal protections. The survey concluded 
that State protections alone appear to be insufficient 
to guarantee the provision of victims' rights.

Key findings included:

o Nearly half of all victims, even in the two strong 
protection States, did not receive notice of the    
sentencing hearing--notice that is essential to 
enable victims to exercise their right to make a    
statement at sentencing.

o Although both of the strong protection States had 
laws requiring that victims be notified of plea    
negotiations, and neither of the weak protection 
States had such statutes, victims in both groups of    
States were equally unlikely to be informed of such 
negotiations. The laws requiring notification of plea
negotiations were simply not being enforced in nearly 
half of all violent crime cases. 

o Substantial numbers of victims in both strong and 
weak protection States were not notified of other    
important rights and services, including the right 
to be heard at the bond hearing, be informed about    
protection, and discuss the case with the prosecutor.
         
Further, although many victims today do not report 
crime or participate in the criminal justice system, 
the passage of Federal constitutional rights for 
victims may well encourage increased participation 
in and satisfaction with the system.     

A Federal constitutional amendment is needed to:

o Establish a consistent floor of fundamental rights 
for crime victims in all justice systems. 

o Correct the existing imbalance between defendants' 
constitutional rights and the current haphazard    
patchwork of victims' rights.

o Secure for victims the same kind of participatory 
rights guaranteed others elsewhere in the 
Constitution.

o Encourage victims' participation in the criminal 
justice system.          

Passage and ratification of a victims' rights
constitutional amendment would eliminate the current 
patchwork of victims' rights that exists across the 
States and would help ensure that officials within 
the criminal justice system protect victims' rights 
and treat victims with the dignity and respect they 
deserve.     

While pursuing a victims' rights amendment, OVC has 
worked with other DOJ components to develop important 
legislation that would better protect the rights of 
crime victims. Consistent efforts throughout 1996 
culminated in June 1997, when the Department of 
Justice transmitted to Congress a comprehensive 
legislative package containing needed criminal 
justice reforms. The proposed legislation would:

o Improve victims' participation in all phases of 
the criminal justice process. 

o Provide a mechanism for appellate review of 
decisions excluding victims from the courtroom or    
denying them their right of allocution.

o Give victims who miss work to attend proceedings 
the same protection accorded to jurors against 
adverse action by employers.

o Authorize pretrial detention of defendants who 
seriously threaten victims, regardless of the nature 
of the charge. 

o Strengthen victims' rights to restitution and 
compensation and the remedies for collecting and    
enforcing restitution.

o Effect important changes in the Victims of Crime 
Act, the statute governing OVC, and the administration 
of the Crime Victims Fund.
 
Passage of such changes is essential to maintaining 
a vital and responsive criminal justice system.

Enhancing the Federal Response to Victims of Federal 
Crime
         
In 1996, the President directed DOJ to take a number 
of important steps to improve the treatment of 
victims in the Federal system and "to hold the 
Federal system to a higher standard of victims' 
rights than ever before." He directed DOJ to (1) 
undertake a systemwide review and to take all 
necessary steps to provide for full victim 
participation in Federal criminal justice system 
proceedings, including the establishment of a 
nationwide automated information and notification 
system; (2) work with other Federal agencies whose 
missions involve them with crime victims to ensure 
that a common and comprehensive baseline of 
participation for victims can be achieved; (3) 
review existing Federal statutes to see what further 
changes ought to be made; and (4) work with State 
officials and victim advocates to identify best 
practices and resources necessary to help achieve 
a uniform national baseline of protections for 
victims.
 
OVC is responding to this directive in a number of 
ways, and the implementation of the Presidential 
directive remains a top priority. Among OVC's 
efforts are: 

o Helping to review existing Federal statutes. The 
legislative proposals in response to the President's    
directive are described in the previous section of 
this report.  

o Suggesting legislation, which DOJ is supporting, 
to use the $21 million returned to the Crime    
Victims Fund from the defunct National Fine Center 
for enhancements of the Federal system, including 
paying for the implementation of a computerized 
information and notification system.  

o Developing general victims' rights training for 
all employees and assisting other DOJ agencies in    
developing specialized training. OVC developed a 
10-minute training video regarding victim-witness    
issues for all DOJ employees and sponsored the 
first-ever National Symposium on Victims of Federal 
Crime in February 1997 for more than 1,000 Federal 
criminal justice personnel.  

o Providing substantial technical assistance to all 
relevant DOJ components to ensure that each has a    
comprehensive plan to comply with all Federal 
victims' rights statutes, as well as informational    
materials for victims that are comprehensive and 
reflect the status of the current law.  

o Providing increased funding to many DOJ components, 
such as the FBI, to expand their victim-witness 
programs by providing additional high-level staff, 
increased trainings on victim-witness issues, and 
victim assistance funds that can be used to provide 
emergency assistance to meet the needs of Federal 
crime victims.

o Developing a plan for identifying and disseminating 
promising practices that includes diverse grants for 
these purposes, as well as the publication of Victims' 
Rights and Services for the 21st Century: An Action 
Plan From the Field (Action Plan) described in the 
next section. 

o Producing an annual Best Efforts Report, which has 
provided crucial information to components about 
needed enhancements in services to crime victims. 
This year's report highlights many promising practices 
utilized by some components and their field offices. 
The purpose of providing this information is to help 
other components replicate effective practices.  

o Providing funding for several FBI field offices 
and U.S. Attorneys' Offices to establish model    
programs that can be replicated, such as a crisis 
response team that provides assistance to victims of    
bank robberies and community-based personnel who 
notify the community of drug cases and solicit    
"community impact statements."

o Working closely with many other Federal agencies, 
including the State Department, the United States 
Information Agency, and the Departments of Defense, 
Health and Human Services, Transportation, and 
Treasury to help improve victim services.  

Victims' Rights and Services for the 21st Century: 
An Action Plan From the Field

For the past 3 years, OVC has been working closely 
with the field to assist in the development of 
Victims' Rights and Services for the 21st Century: 
An Action Plan From the Field. This document, which 
OVC hopes to publish before the end of the year, 
will provide several hundred recommendations to 
improve the criminal justice and community response 
to victims' needs. It is being written to update the 
landmark 1982 Final Report of the President's Task 
Force on Victims of Crime (Final Report), which set 
forth 68 recommendations to improve treatment of 
crime victims in America. The Action Plan will also 
contain examples of promising practices designed to 
assist crime victims, criminal justice and allied 
professionals, and policymakers. It is our hope that 
the Action Plan will serve as a guide to providing 
comprehensive victims' rights and services well into 
the next century.
 
Recommendations will include proposals for improving 
victims' rights, including juvenile justice system 
reforms, and new directions for criminal justice 
system agencies, including law enforcement, 
prosecutors, the judiciary, and corrections. The 
Action Plan will also provide new directions for 
victim service providers and allied professionals, 
including the victim service community, the medical 
community, the mental health community, the religious 
and spiritual community, the education community, 
the business community, the media, and the bar. In 
addition, it will contain recommendations regarding 
needed reforms in financial recovery for crime 
victims. This significant document will incorporate 
the collective wisdom, experience, and research 
contributed by literally hundreds of individuals 
throughout the past 3 years.
 
Enhancing the Victims of Crime Act

OVC has recommended, with DOJ concurrence, the 
proposed amendments to the Victims of Crime Act set 
forth in this section. 

Utilizing Defunct National Fine Center Funds To 
Improve the Federal System
 
In FY 1996, Congress moved to halt continuing efforts 
to establish the National Fine Center (NFC), including 
a centralized Federal criminal debt collection 
tracking system. In time, it was believed that the 
project would increase deposits to the Crime Victims 
Fund. Since 1989, the Administrative Office for the 
United States Courts (AOUSC) has received $25.2 
million from the Crime Victims Fund to support the 
implementation of the NFC. The project, however, 
came under intense scrutiny by DOJ, the General 
Accounting Office, Congress, and national victims' 
organizations due to problems and delays associated 
with the program's implementation and feasibility.     

When Congress terminated the NFC project in early 
1997, the provision in VOCA requiring the transfer 
of money from the Crime Victims Fund was not repealed. 
Hence, OVC, by statute, must continue to transfer 
or hold in abeyance $3 million each year for a 
defunct project. In addition, OVC is unable to 
obligate and expend $21 million returned from AOUSC 
for crime victims' programs without specific statutory 
language authorizing the Director of OVC to do so.       

OVC has received proposals from the FBI, EOUSA, the 
U.S. Marshals Service, and DOD in response to a 1996 
Presidential Directive calling for the Attorney 
General to take action to improve the Federal 
criminal justice system's response to crime victims. 
Working in close collaboration with national victim 
advocacy organizations and other Department of Justice 
components, OVC plans to use this money to support 
a comprehensive victim notification system, develop 
model victim-witness programs, and support an 
internal victim-witness tracking system. To do so, 
however, OVC requires statutory authority. 

Expanding National-Scope Training and Technical 
Assistance and Services to Federal Crime Victims

OVC is recommending that the allocation of Fund 
monies for national-scope training and technical 
assistance be increased from 3 percent to 5 percent. 
When VOCA was enacted, 5 percent of the Crime Victims 
Fund was allocated for national-scope training and 
technical assistance and services for victims of 
Federal crime. However, amendments to VOCA decreased 
the amount of funds set aside for discretionary 
training projects. Today, a minuscule 3 percent of 
the Fund is available to train and provide technical 
assistance to victim advocates and allied professionals 
and to support services to victims of Federal crimes 
across the Nation. Justification for increasing the 
discretionary allocation is supported by (1) 
congressional actions that have Federalized violent 
crimes and increased the victim-witness 
responsibilities of Federal law enforcement and 
prosecutors; (2) an increase in white collar crime 
in recent years; (3) VOCA's recently enacted
demonstration authority; (4) an increase in the types 
and the scope of services provided to victims by 
State and local criminal justice agencies, as a 
result of both recently passed State legislation 
mandating victim services and increasing victims' 
rights and a desire of these agencies to become more 
responsive to individuals and communities suffering 
from crime; and (5) an increase in deposits to the 
Crime Victims Fund.     

Further, efforts to provide funding support for 
crime victim training at the State and local levels, 
as well as the proposed amendment to provide program 
evaluation authority in VOCA, necessitate an increase 
in discretionary funding.
 
Establishing Fellowships and Clinical Internships

As OVC expands its outreach to the field and seeks 
to develop innovative national-scope programs, 
authority is needed to allow the Director of OVC to 
utilize the expertise of State and local policymakers 
and practitioners. This new authority would greatly 
aid OVC's ability to identify promising practices 
through the knowledge and expertise gleaned from 
fellows and interns. Without specific statutory 
authority, however, OVC is unable to recruit 
policymakers and practitioners in the victims field 
using VOCA discretionary program dollars. OVC has 
benefited from expertise in specific victim areas 
through short-term contract employees. Unfortunately, 
this mechanism is inefficient and does not allow OVC 
to secure ongoing input from the field.

Expanding Definitions and Duties and Authority of 
the OVC Director
         
The definition of "State" should be broadened to 
include Federal law enforcement agencies in the 
District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. 
This amendment would give the OVC Director flexibility 
to authorize formula and discretionary funding to 
the U.S. Attorneys' Office to support services, and 
training and technical assistance for victims whose 
crimes are prosecuted in Superior Court under the 
laws of the District of Columbia and local crimes 
prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney for the Virgin 
Islands.     

In 1996 Congress amended VOCA to ensure that people 
victimized by crime would not, as part of an 
eligibility determination, be denied public assistance 
because they received compensation benefits. Since 
then, however, victims and victim advocates have 
complained that public assistance has been denied to 
victims in cases in which a personal asset was 
enhanced to assist a victim in functioning after a 
disabling crime. For example, State compensation 
programs award benefits to construct ramps or convert 
automobiles to accommodate a victim who has lost a 
limb or been disabled as a result of a crime. In 
these cases, public assistance guidelines value these 
structural and technical modifications as "assets," 
causing victims to be disqualified for public 
assistance and other benefits. Legislation is needed 
to clarify that compensation should not be treated 
as "income" or as assets or resources in eligibility 
determinations in any Federal, State, or local 
government program. Taking this step would ensure 
that victims are no longer disqualified for public 
assistance by Federal or federally supported benefit 
programs because they received crime victim 
compensation benefits. 

Return of Funds to the Crime Victims Fund
         
An amendment to VOCA is needed to require States 
to reimburse the Crime Victims Fund for any payments 
made to victims with Federal Antiterrorism Act 
dollars awarded from the Fund when victims or the 
State later receive additional funds to cover these 
expenses from other sources, such as insurance 
companies. Nationwide, State compensation programs 
are reimbursed for some of their expenses as a result 
of payments they receive through insurance, civil 
action, or restitution from defendants. When dollars 
specifically drawn from the Crime Victims Fund are 
returned to the State, the State should in turn 
reimburse the Fund so that limited resources are 
available to assist other victims of crime. This 
money could then be recycled by OVC to assist other 
States in responding to terrorism or mass 
victimization.

Authorization of Deposits to the Fund From Private 
Sources           

In this time of government cutbacks and growing 
interest in meeting the needs of crime victims by 
tapping public, private, and individual resources, 
OVC needs the authority to accept deposits into the 
Crime Victims Fund from the private sector. Private 
sources provide another avenue to support victim 
services and victim rights without relying upon 
taxpayer dollars. For example, a consortium of 
mental health clinicians who interviewed mass 
murderer Jeffrey Dahmer developed a training video 
for other clinicians on how to diagnose personality-
type disorders. The consortium did not want to profit 
from the sale of the tapes, but instead wanted to 
donate the proceeds, above cost, to the Fund. Because 
VOCA does not authorize deposits into the Fund from 
sources other than fines, penalties, and bond 
forfeitures, OVC could not accept the donation, 
and an important opportunity to supplement the Fund 
was missed.

Conclusion

Congress' vision in enacting the 1984 Victims of 
Crime Act was the catalyst for many significant 
reforms in victim rights and services. Much has been 
accomplished for crime victims in the past 13 years--
but much remains to be done. Nearly 39 million 
Americans are victimized by crime each year, and 
even with the recent, unprecedented growth of the 
Crime Victims Fund, OVC is able to reach and provide 
services to only a fraction. OVC has a continuing 
responsibility to ensure that services are available 
for all these individuals and that their rights are 
both meaningful and secure. To discharge this 
responsibility, Congress, the Administration, and 
OVC must make the issues identified in this chapter 
a top priority--including securing the provision of 
comprehensive quality services and consistent 
fundamental rights for all crime victims. OVC looks 
forward to continuing its close work with Congress 
over the coming years to accomplish our common goals. 

------------------------------

Appendix D
Office for Victims of Crime Publications and 
Products
         
The U.S. Department of Justice, Office for Victims 
of Crime (OVC) operates the Office for Victims of 
Crime Resource Center (OVCRC). OVCRC provides 
victim-related information to individuals and 
organizations interested in the welfare of crime 
victims. OVCRC also collects, maintains, and 
disseminates information about national, State, and 
local victim-related organizations, and about State 
programs that receive funds authorized by the 
Victims of Crime Act (VOCA).     

To place an order or for additional information on 
the publications and products in this list, please 
call OVCRC at 1-800-627-6872. In addition, many of 
the publications on this list are available on the 
World Wide Web at http://www.ojp.usdoj/ovc/ or
http://www.ncjrs.gov. 

Fact Sheets

Community Crisis Response Fact Sheet
         
This fact sheet describes the Community Crisis 
Response (CCR) program to improve services to victims 
of violent crime in communities that have experienced 
crimes resulting in multiple victimizations. It 
describes CCR's goals, objectives, program strategy, 
and selection criteria. 
(FS000148) Free

The Office for Victims of Crime Fact Sheet

This fact sheet describes the mission and major
responsibilities of the Office for Victims of 
Crime. 
(FS000181) Free

State Crime Victims Compensation and Assistance 
Grant Programs Fact Sheet

This fact sheet describes two major formula grant
programs, victim compensation and victim assistance, 
which are administered by the Office for Victims of 
Crime in the U.S. Department of Justice. This fact 
sheet also includes a listing of phone numbers for 
all compensation and assistance programs in the 
United States and U.S. territories. 
(FS000178) Free

Trainers Bureau Fact Sheet

This fact sheet provides an overview of the Office 
for Victims of Crime Trainer's Bureau, including 
program goals, services provided, topics covered, 
application information, and selection criteria.
(FS000077) Free

Victims of Crime Act: Crime Act Victims Fund Fact 
Sheet

This fact sheet provides an overview of how monies 
are deposited into and dispersed from the Crime 
Victims Fund authorized by the Victims of Crime Act 
of 1984 and administered by the Office for Victims 
of Crime.
(FS000082) Free

What You Can Do If You Are A Crime Victim

This fact sheet describes the rights of crime 
victims, how victims can obtain help, and how 
victims may work for positive change. It also 
contains a list of suggested toll-free resources 
that can assist victims of crime.
(FS000176) Free

Special Reports

1982 President's Task Force on Victims of Crime: 
Final Report

The President's Task Force devised this list of
recommendations (with commentary) to help crime 
victims receive the financial, medical, and legal 
help they need. The recommendations are directed 
toward Federal and State governments, criminal 
justice agencies, and private agencies (hospitals, 
schools, mental health agencies, etc.).
(NCJ 087299) Free

Child Sexual Exploitation: Improving Investigations 
and Protecting Victims: A Blueprint for Action

Guidelines presented in this document are designed 
to guide collaboration among Federal, State, and 
local agencies involved in the investigation and 
prosecution of child pornography and prostitution 
cases and in the provision of services to young 
victims of these crimes. 
(NCJ 153527) Free

Office for Victims of Crime: Report to Congress 
1996

This document contains a complete description of 
grants, programs, and initiatives funded by the 
Office for Victims of Crime using monies deposited 
in the Crime Victims Fund. This statutorily required 
document contains information regarding activities 
funded during Fiscal Years 1993 and 1994.
(NCJ 161869) Free

President's Child Safety Partnership--Final Report 
1987

This final report by the President's Child Safety
Partnership identifies and addresses issues in child 
victimization throughout the United States, offering
recommendations for how the private sector, the 
community, parents, concerned citizens, and every 
level of government can increase child safety. 
(NCJ 106484) Free

Victims of Gang Violence: A New Frontier in Victim
Services (OVC Special Report)

This report describes State efforts to develop and 
provide crime victim compensation services and to 
comply with the mandates of the 1984 Victims of 
Crime Act. 
(NCJ 163389) Free

Training Curriculums/Manuals

Death Notification: Breaking the Bad News with 
Concern for the Professional and Compassion for 
the Survivor--A Seminar for Clergy and Funeral 
Directors

This training curriculum, developed by Mothers 
Against Drunk Driving, provides tips for training 
adults, an annotated literature review, and overhead 
and handout templates geared toward training clergy 
and funeral directors about how to deliver a thorough 
and compassionate death notification.
(NCJ 162362) Free

Death Notification: Breaking the Bad News with 
Concern for the Professional and Compassion for 
the Survivor--A Seminar for Crime Victim Advocates

This training curriculum, developed by Mothers Against 
Drunk Driving, provides tips for training adults, an 
annotated literature review, and overhead and handout 
templates for training counselors and victim advocates 
about trauma, death, and death notification. 
(NCJ 162360) Free

Death Notification: Breaking the Bad News with 
Concern for the Professional and Compassion for 
the Survivor--A Seminar for Law Enforcement

This training curriculum, developed by Mothers 
Against Drunk Driving, provides tips for training 
adults, an annotated literature review, and overhead 
and handout templates geared toward enhancing the 
awareness of law enforcement to the emotional hazards 
of the work they do and how to provide compassionate 
and thorough death notifications.
(NCJ 162363) Free

Death Notification: Breaking the Bad News with 
Concern for the Professional and Compassion for the 
Survivor--A Seminar for Medical Professionals

This training curriculum, developed by Mothers 
Against Drunk Driving, provides tips for training 
adults, an annotated literature review, overhead, 
and handout templates geared toward training medical 
professionals about death notification.
(NCJ 162361) Free

HIV/AIDS and Victim Services: A Critical Concern for 
the 90's

This manual provides information about HIV/AIDS, 
its impact on victims of crime, its impact on the 
workplace, and how victim assistance professionals 
can respond. (NCJ 161415) Free 

Improving the Police Response to Domestic Elder 
Abuse: Participant Training Manual

This training manual for improving the police 
response to domestic elder abuse is designed to 
increase student's understanding of police officers' 
relevant legal mandates, the process of aging, and 
the aspects of domestic elder abuse that police are 
likely to encounter. 
(NCJ 148831) Free

National Bias Crimes Training for Law Enforcement 
and Victim Assistance Professionals: Participants 
Handbook
         
The purpose of this curriculum is to familiarize law 
enforcement and other victim services personnel with 
the nature of bias crimes, appropriate actions to 
deter and respond to such crimes, and effective ways 
of assisting victims.
(NCJ 155179) Free

National Victim Assistance Academy Text

The National Victim Assistance Academy is a 
university-based foundation-level course of study 
in victim assistance and victimology. The 45-hour, 
academic-based, rigorous course curriculum emphasizes 
foundations in victimology and victims' rights and 
services, as well as new developments in the field 
of victim assistance. The comprehensive Academy Text 
covers 32 different subject areas and serves as the 
course curriculum.
(NCJ 164870) Available through OVCRC Document Loan 
Program or Photocopying Service 

Victim Empowerment: Bridging the Systems--Mental 
Health and Victim Service Providers

This resource manual for a curriculum on victim
empowerment, with attention to rape victims, 
contains a collection of articles and information 
written from either mental health or victim-services 
perspective.
(NCJ 161862) Free

Training Guidebooks

Looking Back, Moving Forward: A Program for 
Communities Responding to Sexual Assault

This training guide is designed to help communities 
develop a training program for responding to sexual 
assault and write a protocol based on community 
needs and resources. 
(NCJ 153768)

Improving the Police Response to Domestic Elder Abuse:
Instructor Training Manual

This training manual provides general information 
to promote a prompt and thorough law enforcement 
response to incidents of suspected abuse of elderly 
persons. 
(NCJ 147558) Free

National Bias Crimes Training for Law Enforcement 
and Victim Assistance Professionals: A Guide for 
Training Instructors

This guide trains instructors in teaching a 21/2-day 
curriculum designed to enhance the services that 
police and victim-assistance professionals provide 
to victims of bias crimes. 
(NCJ 155130) Free

Working With Grieving Children After Violent Death: 
A Guidebook for Crime Victim Assistance Professionals

The guidebook is a companion piece to the Working 
With Grieving Children video. It is designed to 
serve as a quick reference for victim-assistance 
professionals in their work with children, parents, 
schoolteachers and counselors, clergy members, and 
others as they address the needs of grieving children.
(NCJ 165814) Free

Videos

After the Robbery: Crisis to Resolution
 
In tracing robbery from crisis to resolution, this 
video is designed to help bank robbery victims cope 
with the emotional trauma of victimization and to 
inform victims about the criminal justice process.
(NCJ 162842) Free

Bitter Earth: Child Sexual Abuse in Indian Country

This video examines the incidences, patterns, and
responses to child sexual abuse in Native American 
communities. 
(NCJ 144998)

B.J. Learns About Federal and Tribal Court

This video instructs Native American children in 
the jobs performed by tribal and Federal Court 
personnel and answers questions about court 
procedures likely to be asked by child witnesses. 
(NCJ 139730) Free

Crime Victim Compensation: A Good Place to Start

Directed mainly toward criminal justice personnel, 
this video provides basic information about crime 
victim compensation programs, eligibility requirements, 
benefits, and procedures. 
(NCJ 162359) Free

Financial Assistance for Victims of Crime in Indian 
Country       

This video provides information to Native Americans 
on the nature of victim compensation benefits 
available to victims of violent crime, eligibility 
criteria, and how to apply for the benefits. 
(NCJ 146081) Free

In Crime's Wake 

This documentary training video and accompanying 
guidebook cover a series of five topics designed to 
help law enforcement personnel incorporate victim 
assistance into their everyday work. The topics 
covered include domestic violence, sexual assault, 
and elder abuse. 
(NCJ 144523) $13.00

Justice for Victims
 
This video describes the services offered by the
Department of Justice agencies to Federal crime 
victims. It explains the role of Federal agencies 
to enhance and protect the rights of victims and 
witnesses in the criminal justice process. 
(NCJ 165039) Free

Looking Towards the Future: A National 
Teleconference on Promising Practices for Crime 
Victims
         
This video is a teleconference broadcast from 
the National Organization for Victim Assistance 23d 
Annual North American Victim Assistance Conference 
in Houston, Texas, on August 18, 1997. The historic 
broadcast focused on many of the "promising practices" 
that benefit crime victims--new, effective ways to 
ensure that victims' rights are enforced and that 
needed services are provided. 
(NCJ 166817) Free 

Sworn to Protect 

This six-part series contains information on 
conducting sensitive child abuse investigations for 
law enforcement agencies. Included are the role of 
the law enforcement in child maltreatment 
investigation; issues of sensitivity and victim 
trauma; and indicators of physical, emotional, and 
sexual child maltreatment. The series also contains 
information on conducting investigations, interviewing 
the child, interviewing the suspect, and making a 
successful case in child abuse investigations. 
(NCJ 161411) Free 

Working With Grieving Children
 
This 27-minute video discusses the effects on 
children of a loved one's violent death. This video 
contains interviews of children who have lost a 
loved one through violence and offers explanations 
on coping with loss. 
(NCJ 165927) Free

Young Once, Indian Forever
 
This video presents the perspective of Native 
American Indians who were abused as adults. It 
addresses tribal leaders, tribal justice personnel, 
and social service providers regarding the problems 
of domestic violence and child abuse on Indian 
reservations, the measures needed to address the 
problem and prevent the abuse of children in the 
future, and exemplary programs and services. 
(NCJ 164621) Free

Other Materials

1996 Victims' Rights Sourcebook: A Compilation and
Comparison of Victims' Rights Legislation

This document, developed by the National Victim Center, 
provides information about more than a dozen 
legislative rights in each State and can be used to 
compare the basic legal protections that exist for 
crime victims. Current through 1995.
(NCJ 165359) Free

Attorney General's Guidelines for Victim and Witness
Assistance
         
These guidelines establish procedures to be followed 
by the Federal criminal justice system in responding 
to the needs of crime victims and witnesses.
(NCJ 156278) Free

Civil Legal Remedies for Crime Victims

Crime victims are increasingly pursuing civil 
remedies to redress their physical, psychological, 
and financial injuries by recovering lost wages, 
hospital costs, counseling expenses, property 
damages, and other costs associated with 
victimization.     
(NCJ 156985) Available through OVCRC Document Loan 
Program or Photocopying Service 

Office for Victims of Crime Conference Planning 
Guide
         
The conference planning guide was developed for 
persons who are interested in providing education 
and training to professionals serving victims of 
crime. The guide is intended to help develop 
conference planning skills and give an overview of 
the elements of a successful conference and common 
practices accepted by meeting planners and the 
convention industry. 
(NCJ 166593) Free 

------------------------------

Appendix E

1995 Crime Victim Service 
Award Recipients

Augustus A. "Dick" Adams
         
Dick Adams has been an effective champion of crime 
victims' rights since 1982, when a repeat offender 
shot and killed his only son, Richard, execution 
style, during a robbery. Despite the ordeal of the 
criminal court case, Dick quickly became a visible 
and involved activist for systemic change in his 
State. In 1984, he co-founded the North Carolina 
Victim Assistance Network (NC/VAN), an umbrella 
organization that provides hands-on aid to thousands 
of crime victims through its network of victim 
service providers and criminal justice professionals. 
In 1985, he retired from the Dupont Corporation to 
work full time and without compensation for NC/VAN. 
Under Dick's leadership, NC/VAN has worked closely 
with state legislators to draft legislation that 
created a statewide Crime Victims Compensation Fund; 
established a Fair Treatment for Victims and 
Witnesses Act; and provided for a vast increase in 
the number of victim-witness positions throughout 
the State.      

Sensitive to the financial burden of crime on 
victims, Dick has consistently pressured the State 
legislature for a steady increase in the 
appropriations for the State's Victims Compensation 
Fund. In recognition of his outstanding leadership 
on this issue, Dick was appointed to Chairman of 
the Victims Compensation Board in 1988, a position 
to which he has been reappointed several times.      

As the sole victim representative on North Carolina's 
Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission, Dick 
ensures that its policies and laws are formulated 
with victims' concerns in mind--such as preventing 
the early release of violent criminals back into 
the community. Finally, in 1989, Dick spearheaded 
a statewide movement to formulate and win support 
for a victims' amendment to the State's Constitution. 
Due in large part to his efforts, the General Assembly 
approved the amendment for ratification by the 
electorate. A crime victim wrote in support of Dick, 
"I marvel at his compassion, honesty, humility, and 
human touch. He has enabled all of us crime victims 
to stand tall and to persevere. We are in his debt."

Lucy Berliner, M.S.W.

Lucy Berliner is a nationally known expert on child 
physical and sexual abuse. In 20 years of 
extraordinary service, she has made unparalleled 
contributions to child abuse research, training, 
and treatment, and has earned widespread recognition 
for her tireless child advocacy. She currently serves 
as Director of the Harborview Sexual Assault Center 
in Seattle and as a clinical social work professor 
at the University of Washington.

In her work as a researcher, Lucy has conducted some 
of the most important research studies on child 
victimization to date. These studies, which address 
the effects of child victimization and the 
effectiveness of interventions, have set a standard 
for treatment in countless clinical settings across 
the Nation. Her scholarly accomplishments are found 
in more than 40 articles and book chapters, as well 
as in the journals she co-edits, including the 
Journal of Interpersonal Violence and Child 
Maltreatment and Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research 
and Treatment.
    
Lucy has also contributed to three award-winning 
films, one of which, "Double Jeopardy," continues to 
be cited as a model to assist children going to court. 
In addition, she has delivered hundreds of lectures, 
training workshops, and teaching seminars to child 
advocates, therapists, and other professionals around 
the country. Countless child victims--most of whom 
will never know her name--have benefited from her 
many achievements.

Lucy is also dedicated to service. She finds time 
for active membership in the Board of Trustees of 
the National Center on Missing and Exploited 
Children; the American Professional Society on the 
Abuse of Children; and the Washington State Crime 
Victims Compensation Advisory Committee, among 
others. Despite her varied and demanding research 
undertakings, Lucy remains first and foremost a 
clinician who spends most of her days "in the 
trenches," working with child victims and their 
families.

One of Lucy's colleagues took time to write a support 
letter while attending to a critically ill, 
hospitalized mother: "The reason that I am departing 
from my bedside vigil is that my mother, a victim of 
child physical and emotional maltreatment herself, 
would want me to honor the country's most important 
professional who works with crime victims....On 
behalf of countless child victims, like my mother, 
who have so needed their voices heard, I heartily 
endorse [Lucy's nomination for this award]."

Bonnie Clairmont

Bonnie Clairmont has been an effective advocate for 
battered women and other sexual assault victims in 
the Native American community for the past 14 years. 
A skilled educator and leader, Bonnie was one of the 
first Native American women in the country to speak 
out and organize the Native American community to 
provide culturally appropriate education and services 
for victims.     

In 1981, Bonnie began her career in the battered 
women's movement at Women's Advocates, a shelter in 
St. Paul, Minnesota. This led to her instrumental 
role in the creation of Women of Nations, the first 
organization to address the issue of battering in 
the Native American community. In 1992, Bonnie 
initiated the development of the Eagle's Nest 
Shelter, which provides culturally appropriate 
shelter services for battered Native American women.     

Bonnie became the Director of the Division of Indian 
Work Sexual Assault Project in Minneapolis in 1985, 
where her commitment to sexual assault victims and 
her community activism skills led her to organize 
a community response to a series of brutal murders 
of Native American women. Bonnie has developed a 
culturally specific training curriculum for a wide 
variety of programs that serve Native American sexual 
assault victims, and she has served on the Board of 
Directors of the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual 
Assault as well as on the Attorney General's Task 
Force on Sexual Violence in 1988. Since 1989, Bonnie 
has served as a staff member of Sexual Offense 
Services of Ramsey County.

Her nominator said of her achievements, "Not only 
does Bonnie demonstrate incredible commitment to 
the Native American community, but she embodies 
cultural diversity with such understanding, 
sensitivity, and dedication that she is able to be 
understood and respected in all cultures."

Joyce Cowan

Joyce Cowan has been a driving force in the domestic 
violence field for the past 11 years. As the Executive 
Director of Family Rescue, Joyce has become widely 
known for her innovation, visionary leadership, and 
dedication to women and children who have experienced 
domestic violence.     

Under her leadership, Family Rescue has become the 
largest and most comprehensive program for survivors 
of abuse in Illinois and sets a standard for the 
Nation. Family Rescue programs include emergency 
housing, walk-in services, and two nationally 
recognized model programs: Ridgeland Transitional 
Housing, which offers a 2-year program of affordable 
housing with onsite supportive services including 
counseling, day care, and a before and after school 
program; and the Domestic Violence Reduction Program, 
which specially trains teams of police officers, 
counselors, and advocates to provide immediate crisis 
intervention services and followup response to 
families at risk of domestic violence.
    
Joyce has also been a leader in the Illinois 
statewide coalition against domestic violence, and 
has spearheaded the development and analysis of 
legislation, training initiatives, and information 
sharing to improve services for domestic violence 
victims across the State. In January of this year, 
Joyce's pioneering work in the field of domestic 
violence was highlighted on the NBC National Evening 
News with Tom Brokaw.

Her nominator asserts that "personal sacrifice, hard 
work, and perseverance are a way of life for Joyce!"

Rita Figueroa

Rita Figueroa survived two sons, aged 16 and 17, 
both of whom were murdered in separate incidents in 
the late 1970s--one by a juvenile and the other by 
an adult. After the murders, Rita committed herself 
to making the community of East Los Angeles safer by 
helping other families victimized by gang violence 
and working with young offenders. She helped found 
the Concerned Mothers group, an affiliate of the 
California Youth Authority's Gang Violence Reduction 
Project. The Project involves the residents of 
gang-infested neighborhoods in developing 
alternatives to gang membership for their children, 
supporting parents of high-risk youth, and assisting 
parents when tragedy occurs. Rita has been an active 
member of the Concerned Mothers group for 12 years 
and has assisted countless families who have suffered 
from homicides and drive-by shootings.     

Her work also reaches delinquents housed in the Los 
Angeles County Juvenile Hall and the California 
Youth Authority's custody facilities. As a volunteer, 
Rita is a regular participant in the Gang Reduction 
Awareness program and the Impact of Crime on Victims 
course in which offenders are educated about the 
trauma suffered by victims of crime. Survivors like 
Rita personalize crime, sensitizing both the public 
and offenders to the devastating impact of violence 
on victims. In this way, she motivates others to 
better their communities and their own lives. Her 
nominator said of Rita and her work with gang 
members, "She's dedicated to talking to the boys. 
She wants to help them find some peace in their 
hearts."

Suzanne McDaniel

Suzanne McDaniel is one of the few victim advocates 
to have served crime victims at the local, State, 
and national levels. As one of the first prosecutor-
based Victim Assistance Directors in the State of 
Texas, Suzanne helped establish the first community 
interagency council on sexual assault and family 
violence.

In recognition of her exemplary work at the local 
level, Suzanne was called upon by the Governor to 
create the State's centralized resource office--the 
first of its kind in the Nation. As Director of the 
newly created Texas Crime Victims Clearinghouse, 
Suzanne drafted many of the State's groundbreaking 
publications on crime victim issues, while 
coordinating an exhaustive array of training 
conferences and speaking engagements for the benefit 
of victims, advocates, and allied professionals.     

Suzanne's extensive experience brought her to the 
attention of the State Attorney General in 1991, 
when she became the State's Crime Victim Information 
Officer. Her new post gave Suzanne an opportunity to 
extend her leadership as one of the State's most 
knowledgeable and effective policy advocates. As a 
legislative liaison, Suzanne provided guidance that 
helped to ensure the passage of numerous legislative 
and regulatory initiatives, including passage of 
the State's Constitutional Amendment for Victims. 
Suzanne's role as a key policy leader for crime 
victims' rights was affirmed by her appointment as 
the legislative liaison for the State coalition of 
victim organizations (VOTERS).     

From coordinating field hearings for the President's 
Task Force on Victims of Crime to her 10 years of 
service on the National Organization for Victim 
Assistance board, Suzanne has established herself 
as one of the Nation's most accomplished advocates 
for victims.  A crime survivor wrote, "Suzanne...
feels everyone is important and needed in the fight 
to improve assistance for crime victims...I have 
never heard her say, `It's not my job.' In fact, 
she has never been shy about poking her nose into 
things and offering assistance--her enthusiasm and 
dedication are boundless!"

Dr. Brian K. Ogawa

Dr. Brian K. Ogawa is an ordained minister and an
internationally known writer, consultant, and 
lecturer on victim issues. Since 1982, he has served 
as Director of Maui's Victim/Witness Assistance 
Division. In that time, Brian's work in the areas 
of culturally appropriate services, Morita therapy, 
and victimology have earned him a well-deserved 
reputation as a "pioneer" in the victims' movement.

Brian has published several groundbreaking books, 
the proceeds of which are donated to victims' 
programs from Washington, D.C., to the Commonwealth 
of the Northern Mariana Islands. His treatise, The 
Color of Justice, was perhaps the first book to 
describe the significant challenges facing the 
American criminal justice system as it seeks to 
serve culturally diverse victims of crime. He has 
also written Walking on Eggshells for domestic 
violence victims and To Tell the Truth for child 
victims of physical and sexual abuse.     

Brian serves in a leadership capacity with the National
Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA), the oldest 
national network of victim service providers across 
the country. In addition, he has served in an 
advisory capacity to numerous projects on victim 
issues, including national-scope projects funded by 
the Office for Victims of Crime that focused on 
victims of hate crime and on the clergy response to 
crime victims. His training seminars on multicultural 
issues have reached policymakers, advocates, 
researchers, and criminal justice professionals at 
the international, national, State, and local 
levels.

As Director of Maui's Victim/Witness Assistance 
Division, Brian goes beyond the call of duty to 
counsel, support, and assist crime victims. The 
efforts of his Division were recently cited in the 
Annual Report of the Criminal Injuries Compensation 
Commission for an increase of 235% in crime victim 
compensation claims from Hawaii.
    
Perhaps most reflective of Brian's commitment is the 
statement made by a crime victim in her letter of 
support: "I hold in my heart only admiration...and 
deepest gratitude to [Brian]...he helped save my life...
when I thought it didn't matter anymore; he took the 
time and made sure I knew that I did matter."

Deborah Spungen, MSS, MLSP, CTS
         
Ms. Spungen was spurred to victims' rights activism 
following the 1979 murder of her oldest daughter, 
Nancy, by a punk rock musician. Engulfed in a media 
ordeal and without support services, Ms. Spungen 
turned tragedy into a personal commitment to help 
surviving family members of homicide victims.

She began her efforts in Philadelphia in 1980, 
organizing the city's first support group for 
homicide survivors. After 6 years of unpaid work to 
sustain the support groups, she received a small 
grant to launch Families of Murder Victims (FMV) 
in the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office. 
FMV provides counseling, court accompaniment, support 
groups, assistance with compensation claims 
assistance, and advocacy to over 1,800 crime victims 
each year. FMV was the first homicide survivor 
organization to receive Federal funding support 
provided through the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) 
victim assistance program.

In 1991, Deborah expanded her efforts to include 
violence prevention. She is co-founder of the Student 
Anti-Violence Education (SAVE) Project, which 
annually provides a 30-week violence prevention 
curriculum to more than 2,000 fourth through eighth 
grade students in inner city schools in the 
Philadelphia and Chester school districts.

Deborah authored the best-selling And I Don't Want 
to Live This Life, the story of her daughter's murder 
and her family's survival in the aftermath of the 
crime. Her new book, HOMICIDE: The Hidden Victims, 
will be published in 1997. A highly sought-after
spokesperson and effective trainer on victim issues, 
Deborah has appeared on over 350 radio and television 
programs, and has provided training on victim issues 
to criminal justice professionals around the country.     

A supporter wrote of her work, "Deborah has given 
generously of her time and personal life to bring 
victim concerns to the public on radio, television, 
print media and public gatherings, both lay and 
professional. Her name has become synonymous with 
victim advocacy." 


Cheryl and Norma Bess  (Daughter and mother)

Office for Victims of Crime "Special Courage Award"

When 15-year-old Cheryl Bess left for school in 
October 1984, neither she nor her mother, Norma, 
knew that their futures would shortly be changed 
forever. Cheryl was abducted off the street by Jack 
Oscar King, a repeat sex offender on parole for the 
rape and attempted murder of a 9-year-old girl. 
Jack King drove Cheryl to a southern California 
desert where he attempted to rape her, doused her 
in acid, and left her to die. For eight hours she 
wandered blindly before being rescued by an aqueduct 
worker. She told herself she could not die; her death 
would be too hard for her mother to bear.

Her abductor was apprehended and sentenced to 32 
years. In reality, he will probably serve 15 years, 
based on California's sentencing system at the time; 
his estimated release date is May 12, 2000. Recently, 
Cheryl testified in support of newly enacted California 
laws which mandate longer sentences for sex offenders, 
longer time required (85%) before parole consideration, 
and life sentences for "3 strikes"--provisions that 
parallel those in the Federal Crime Act.     

For Cheryl, however, it is too late. Had these laws 
been on the books in the 1980s, Cheryl would not be 
blind and deaf in one ear. As she told the California 
Assembly Public Safety Committee, "I am living proof 
of what a criminal can do."

Cheryl is an excellent student and wants to become 
a teacher and a musician. She finished high school, 
attends Saddleback Community College in Mission Viejo, 
continues to pursue her musical interests, and is 
frequently the lead singer in a Christian rock band 
at her church. She is experienced in public speaking, 
and as a college student hosts a weekly 3-hour radio 
show on a public radio station, KSBR, preparing her 
script in Braille.

Cheryl is always ready to provide inspiration to 
other crime victims. At the California Crime Victim 
rally convened to support the tougher law last summer, 
Cheryl told the over 500 participants that she must 
"speak for all the abducted children who never came 
home and for all the murdered victims who no longer 
have a voice." At the National Organization for 
Victim Assistance annual conference last fall, she--
alongside her mother--told 1,000 attendees at a 
Victim Speak Out that "once you face death, anything 
is possible." And at the Los Angeles Crime Victim 
Memorial event in November, her singing of "Wind 
Beneath My Wings" inspired more than 400 crime 
victims, most of whom were survivors of homicide 
victims.     

Norma Bess works full-time in support of Cheryl. 
She has nursed her through countless operations and 
recovery, and cared for her physically, emotionally, 
and spiritually. Most importantly, she has instilled 
in her the confidence that she can accomplish 
anything. 

1996 Crime Victim Service Award Recipients

John and Pat Byron

Mr. and Mrs. Byron's daughter--Mary--was murdered 
on her 21st birthday by a former boyfriend the day 
after he posted bail on a charge of raping her. 
Mary had asked to be notified of his release since 
she had been stalked by him and feared for her life. 
No notice was provided. After Mary's murder, the 
Byrons committed their lives to ensuring that victims 
throughout their State would be notified regarding 
the release of their offenders. Their dedication 
and advocacy led to the development in Louisville 
of the VINE system, which stands for Victim 
Information and Notification Everyday. The system 
allows victims to register anonymously and be 
notified by a computerized call-back system upon 
the release of a specific inmate. On March 25, 1996, 
the Governor of Kentucky signed legislation enacting 
this system statewide.

Kentucky Governor Paul Patton recently said about 
the Byrons, "Their courageous leadership in Kentucky 
paves the way for other States to adopt similar 
notification systems that will save countless lives."

Frances Davis

Frances Davis has survived extraordinary tragedy. 
In separate incidents in the Bedford-Stuyvesant 
neighborhood of New York, each of her three sons 
was killed by gunfire. Ms. Davis turned her pain 
into service, and in 1993 created her own 
all-volunteer organization called Mothers of All 
Children. Ms. Davis recruits, trains, and inspires 
her volunteers, who then provide other survivors 
of homicide victims with bereavement counseling. 
They also help organize community violence 
prevention activities such as "Shoot Hoops, Not 
Guns"--basketball tournaments for youth. Frances 
Davis deals with her grief and her loss by continuing 
to participate on victim impact panels before young 
people at high schools and detention centers 
throughout the northeast. She is a national role 
model for other crime victims whose powerful stories 
can be part of stopping the cycle of youth violence.

Her nominator, Dr. Lucy Friedman said, "Frances has 
helped lead other survivors out of despair and shown 
them how advocacy can provide a constructive channel 
for their rage. I have no doubt that the work she 
has done with kids has saved many lives."

Dorothy L. Mercer, Ph.D.
 
In 1983, Dr. Mercer was hit by a drunk driver. In 
the years that followed the crash, Dorothy was forced 
to begin her Ph.D. work in counseling psychology over 
again because of the severe brain injury caused by 
the crash. Dr. Mercer has become a nationally 
recognized trainer and consultant on crime victims' 
issues, particularly related to drunk driving and 
closed head injuries. Her pioneering research on the 
results of victims serving on impact panels confirmed 
the beneficial effects for both the victims and the 
offenders who participate. Dr. Mercer's writings, 
including a brochure, "Don't Call Me Lucky," which 
is an account of her own personal struggle, and a 
book, Injury: Learning to Live Again, have inspired 
many victims to make the transition from victim to 
survivor to victim advocate.     

According to the Director of Victim Services for 
Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Janice Lord, "Dr. 
Mercer, through her writings, training, and personal 
example, has influenced thousands of victims and 
advocates over the last decade. Her writings will 
continue to be valuable forever." 

Shirl Pinto
         
Shirl Pinto was a witness to family violence as a 
child on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation 
in Lame Deer, Montana. For 16 years, she has been 
serving her people, first as a Head Start teacher 
and now as the director of Healing Hearts, a 
domestic violence program. Healing Hearts serves 
approximately 35 women and children each month, and 
Shirl Pinto is the only paid staff. Ms. Pinto is on 
call for victims of domestic violence 7 days a week, 
24 hours a day. She routinely responds to police 
calls late at night, drives victims over 100 miles 
to the nearest shelter, incurs personal expenses to 
buy them meals or other necessities, and often shares 
her own home with them. One volunteer noted that the 
whole community counts on her. Ms. Pinto also is a 
forceful voice in Montana for the needs of Native 
American crime victims and is working for stronger 
domestic violence laws within the Northern Cheyenne 
tribe. Statewide, Healing Hearts has established a 
network with other Indian reservations in Montana, 
sharing information and assisting women from other 
tribes.      

Says Montana Attorney General Joe Mazurek, "Her 
greatest accomplishment is the women she has 
helped...those who are able to now support others 
and donate their time to the Healing Hearts program."

Marilyn Smith

More than 25 years ago, Marilyn Smith, deaf since 
the age of 6, was brutally raped. With no services 
for the hearing impaired, her recovery was long 
and lonely. Honoring a vow she made to herself, 
Ms. Smith has worked since 1980 to provide deaf 
women and children who have been violently 
assaulted access to a supportive healing environment 
where they could receive understanding and appropriate 
services. In 1986, Ms. Smith founded the Abused Deaf 
Women's Advocacy Services (ADWAS), which operates a 
24-hour crisis line, provides safe homes for battered 
women, and offers counseling to sexually abused deaf 
children. ADWAS's mission is unique in this country 
and probably the world. Through Marilyn Smith's 
leadership, her program has developed training for 
deaf and hearing crime victim service providers, and 
also provides materials such as "Sexual Assault, It 
Happens to Deaf People Too," "Domestic Violence, 
Deaf People are Hurt Too," and "Date Rape and
Acquaintance Rape, What Deaf Teenagers Should Know" 
to victims and service providers. Says Wendy Reed, 
the former President of ADWAS, "Marilyn is 
definitely a pioneer--a deaf woman in the hearing 
world, fighting for and winning equal and accessible 
services for deaf victims of domestic violence and/or 
sexual assault."
 
Marilyn also was chosen as one of the "community 
heros" to carry the Olympic Torch as it went across 
America in 1996!  

Teens On Target Fidel 
Valenzuela and Sherman Spears
 
In an effort to reduce the epidemic of violence among 
youth, Teens on Target was created in collaboration 
with municipal, public, and private agencies within 
the Cities of Oakland and Los Angeles, California. 
Teens on Target organizes gunshot victims, many of 
whom are paraplegic, to address the consequences of 
violence, speak at schools, and counsel other shooting 
victims. The victims use their leadership skills to 
encourage other victims not to seek revenge, but 
instead to seek nonviolent solutions. Their workshops 
reach over 4,000 young people each year. Two youth 
leaders, Fidel Valenzuela, who heads Teens on Target 
in Los Angeles, and Sherman Spears, the project 
coordinator in Oakland, have been selected to 
receive the Crime Victim Service Award on behalf 
of Teens on Target.

In his nomination letter, the Mayor of Oakland, 
Elihu M. Harris, stated that, "Mr. Spears and Mr. 
Valenzuela, survivors of two of this country's most 
violent neighborhoods, are now using their energy, 
talent, and leadership skills to help other children 
escape violence." 

David Beatty
         
David Beatty's name is synonymous with national 
leadership in public policy to benefit crime victims. 
During the past 10 years, his work at the National 
Victim Center has focused on providing policymakers, 
service providers, and other victim advocates with 
information, training, and hands-on consultation in 
the fight to legally establish victims' rights at 
the State and national levels. For example, Mr. 
Beatty instituted a legislative database of more 
than 27,000 victims' rights statutes, the only 
comprehensive compilation of victim legislation in 
the United States. He has also helped crime victim 
advocates organize successful constitutional 
amendment campaigns in many of the 20 States that 
have enacted an amendment. His pioneering work in 
civil legal remedies includes developing a civil 
legal remedies resource center for crime victims, 
with a directory of attorneys to assist them, and 
co-authoring the innovative Civil Justice for Crime 
Victims Training Curriculum, which is used nationwide.

Victim advocate Roberta Roper, whose daughter was a 
homicide victim, pays the highest tribute to David 
when she notes, "Honoring David with this national 
recognition is a way for all crime victims, like 
myself, to thank him for his gift of effective 
advocacy for all of us." 

Connie Lee Best, Ph.D.

For two decades, Dr. Best, through her teaching, 
clinical supervision, academic research, and 
publications, has helped to shape compassionate 
public policy and greatly improve training programs 
for rape crisis counselors, police, physicians, 
military personnel, and others who work with sexual 
assault victims. Dr. Best created the Nation's first
multidisciplinary assistance program for hospitalized 
crime victims, and pioneered research in Post 
Traumatic Stress Disorder. She served as a 
co-investigator for the national study, "Rape in 
America: A Report to the Nation," which was a 
groundbreaking study documenting the extent of 
violence against women, particularly adolescents. 
Dr. Best, a Commanding Officer in the Naval Reserve, 
has been an outspoken advocate and trainer for 
victims' rights within all branches of the military, 
and serves on the Executive Committee of the 
Department of Defense Advisory Committee on Women, 
which advises Secretary of Defense William Perry.

Said Senator Hollings, "For more than 20 years, 
Connie has fought with great heart and courage on 
behalf of violent crime victims....Without the 
dedication shown by Connie and those like her, 
people in my hometown and across the Nation would be
considerably worse off. She has earned this top 
Justice award." 

Heidi Hsia, Ph.D.

Dr. Heidi Hsia has been the Director of the Division 
of Services for Victims and Their Families for 
Montgomery County in Maryland. Her work has had a 
dramatic impact on improving crime victims' rights 
and services throughout Maryland. Dr. Hsia was an 
important leader in increasing the rights of sexual 
assault victims to receive HIV information; passing 
a bond to support domestic violence centers; and 
producing an educational program in Spanish on legal 
options of abused women. On the national level, Dr. 
Hsia is a noted trainer on multicultural issues. In 
1989, she planned the first judicial education 
program on Minority Women as Crime Victims, and for 
over 10 years has trained people on the needs of 
Asian crime victims, including abuse among the Asian 
elderly, and cultural barriers in the criminal 
justice system. On the international level, Dr. Hsia 
has served as a consultant to the United Nations 
Development Program.
 
Says Nominator Dr. Illeana Herrell, "Dr. Hsia has 
creative ideas, academic credentials, and an 
impressive list of publications, but what is most 
worthy of recognition is the energy and patience 
that she has devoted to inspiring her own staff, 
municipal leaders, and other members of her community 
to work as hard as she has to enhance victim services 
and establish victim rights." 

Barbara J. Hart
         
For over 20 years, Barbara Hart has been a leader in 
the fight to provide greater protections to battered 
women and their children. She has helped to create 
numerous organizations across the nation that advocate 
for increased safety for victims of domestic violence, 
including the Women's Legal Clinic at George 
Washington Law School; the Pennsylvania Coalition 
Against Domestic Violence, the first statewide 
domestic violence coalition in the nation; the 
National Coalition Against Domestic Violence; and 
the Leadership Institute for Women, which designed 
a training curriculum for lay and professional 
women aimed at ending violence against women. Ms. 
Hart has conducted studies and written position 
papers, model policies, and protocols that have 
dramatically influenced public policy on violence 
against women in Pennsylvania, nationally, and 
internationally. In nominating Barbara Hart, Thomas 
W. Corbett, Jr., the Pennsylvania Attorney General, 
said, "Barbara Hart has been a central catalyst for 
much of the creative and critical thinking that has 
been invested over the last 20 years in reducing 
violence against women. The impact of her involvement 
on the lives of domestic violence victims is 
immeasurable, but there is no doubt that her efforts 
have laid the foundation for much of the important 
reforms that have been achieved."

Jerry Tello

According to the Los Angeles Times, "Una Familia 
Buena y Sana" (A Strong and Healthy Family) is no 
ordinary theatrical presentation. An unprecedented 
drama dealing with a subject that is often taboo 
among Latinos, the play is about a family's ordeal 
when they discover that their children have been 
sexually abused by a relative. Jerry Tello, a 
psychologist who is credited nationally with 
creating model prevention programs, developed the 
project after he reviewed child sexual abuse 
prevention programs and found that "there was 
nothing available for Latinos, nothing culturally 
sensitive or linguistically relevant." The play, 
which was viewed by thousands of school children, 
is just one example of Jerry Tello's contributions. 
Over the past 24 years, Mr. Tello has worked in Los 
Angeles to help victims of child abuse, sexual 
assault, and family violence, particularly within 
the Latino community. He has pioneered programs in 
detention facilities to help break the cycle of 
violence. Mr. Tello has a statewide and national 
reputation for excellent and innovative training on 
these issues, and many of his written works are in 
both English and Spanish. Jerry Tello was one of the 
first and only males to work at the East Los Angeles 
Rape Hotline. His expertise regarding multicultural 
issues and Latino males have made him a valuable 
asset to the California Youth Authority's Gang 
Violence Reduction Project. He was also the lead 
consultant for the innovative Young Men as Fathers 
Parenting Program, designed for incarcerated 
delinquents, and co-authored the Preparing for 
Positive Parenting program for paroled young felons. 
These two programs are widely acknowledged to be 
groundbreaking in helping to prevent the cycle of 
violence. He presently is co-chair of the National 
Compadres network, an organization that promotes 
the positive, responsible involvement of Latino 
males in their family and community.
    
Says Walt Jones, Program Manager for the Young Men 
as Fathers Program, "Jerry was brave enough in the 
mid-1970's to confront the secret of sexual violence 
in his community, and he continues to be a powerful 
voice against violence and for strong, caring 
families." 

------------------------------

Endnotes

1 Because VOCA victim assistance grants cover a
2-year period, FY 1995 is the most recent year
with complete data on victims receiving services
supported by VOCA victim assistance funds. Data
are not yet available on the number of victims
served with FY 1996 funds.

2 The base award to States and territories was
increased in 1997 to $500,000 as a result of an
amendment to VOCA in the Violent Crime Control and
Law Enforcement Act. The exceptions are the
Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, American Samoa,
and the Republic of Palau, which receive a base
award of $200,000.

3 In FY 1995, the first year of the Academy, 32
students completed the 45-hour course of training
and 600-page curriculum.

4 Six States--Alaska, California, Minnesota,
Nebraska, Oregon, and Wisconsin--were given
jurisdiction over offenses committed by or against
Indians in the areas of Indian Country within
these States. In these States and specific
jurisdictions specified in Public Law 83-280 
(18 U.S.C. 1162, 28 U.S.C. 1360), the State or
Territory has the same force and effect within
Indian Country it has elsewhere within the State.