Running head: VICTIM SERVICES PROPOSAL Victim Services Proposal Marshall Lloyd CJU1275 Criminal Justice Capstone Amanda Covarrubias-Martinez 08/19/2017 1 VICTIM SERVICES PROPOSAL Content 2 page 1. Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………3 2. Introduction…………………………………………………………………………..4 3. Problem Statement……………………………………………………………………5 4. The Objectives………………………………………………………………………..6 5. Literature Review……………………………………………………………………..7 a. The Victim Assistance Program…………………………………………………..7 b. The Victim Compensation Program……………………………………………….8 c. The Victim/Witness Program………………………………………………………9 6. Research Questions…………………………………………………………………….10 7. Subject of Study………………………………………………………………………..10 1). Unit of Analysis…………………………………………………………………….10 a. The Department of Justice…………………………………………………………..11 b. The Victims………………………………………………………………………….11 i. victims of violent crimes…………………………………………………………….11 ii. victims of litigation crimes………………………………………………………….11 2). Duration…………………………………………………………………………….12 3). Sampling Method…………………………………………………………………..12 8. Measurements……………………………………………………………………………13 a. Methodology……………………………………………………………………………13 b. Scaling………………………………………………………………………………….13 c. Levels of Measurement………………………………………………………………..14 9. Data Collection………………………………………………………………………… 10. Analysis……………………………………………………………………………….. 11. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………... 12. References……………………………………………………………………………….15 VICTIM SERVICES PROPOSAL 3 Abstract Beginning in the 1970s, the victim was returned to the forefront of the criminal justice system. According to Stein (1977), the victim movement promoted programs that attempted to provide aid to victims that could assist them in recovering from the victimization experience. The overall purpose of the victim movement is to reintegrate victims transition to normalcy by offering them an opportunity to participate in the handling of their cases (Victims' Rights and Restitution Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 10607(c)). The federal government leads the way by funding programs designed to aid victims who are called upon to testify in criminal cases. These programs attempt to reduce needless trips to court, give victims higher compensation for lost wages due to time spent in the courtroom, assist victims get back their property that had been used as evidence, protect victims from intimidation by defendants and to notify victims of how their cases are proceeding (Victim Services Agency, 1985). It is critical that the programs receive funds efficiently to promote victims safety, increase their knowledge of and confidence in legal options, and help them recover from victimization. Few programs to date have been evaluated using rigorous research designs and systematic study. This paper seeks to address the issues adjacent to the plight of victims of crime and how they can be protected using the criminal justice system during the investigation and conviction process of the defendant. This paper does not claim to address all the issues that are involved in combating the problems faced by victims in the criminal justice department. Conversely, it addresses some of the causes of the problems and highlights several victim programs. It also recommends on what should be further done to further enhancing of the situation. VICTIM SERVICES PROPOSAL 4 Introduction There are social and academic interests regarding the lives of violent crime victims in which reflects a changing role of importance within the public policy, law making decisions, and social service provisions. With every crime, there is a potential of neglecting a victim that is left behind, whether it is a company, individual, or groups of people (Boba, 2005). The federal government took the initiative once more in 1982 by declaring a Victims’ Rights Week to focus attention on the particular problems of victims (Kennedy et al. 1998). A presidential task force was established, and on its recommendation, the 1982 Omnibus Victim and Witness Protection Act became law. The Act called for the use of victim impact statements, assessments of the physical, financial, and psychological effects of crime on individual victims, taken before sentencing (Davis et al., 1990). Problem statement (The problem statement should focus on the theme, the victims) The criminal justice system has focused more on defendants and how to rehabilitate them at the expense of the victims; the Crime Victim Rights Act is yet to be effectively implemented. The Objectives The sole objective of this proposal is to fully analyze and understand the role and importance of public policy, law-making decisions, and social service provisions with respect to while enacting programs that protect victims’ rights within the criminal justice system. To fully analyzed these concepts requires a concise assessment of roles and importance, the history of victims of crime will be delved into, and the progress made to date will be explored (Newmark, 2014). In the first decades of crime existence, the criminal justice system and social services ignored the plight that occurred with victims. Instead, they focused more so on the causes and VICTIM SERVICES PROPOSAL 5 nature of crime and rehabilitation of the offenders (Davis et al., 1990). Therefore, the victims of crime have gone unrecognized in public discourse until the enactment of the “Crime Victims' Rights Act” enacted in 2004 (Office for Victims of Crime, 2009). The other objective analyses the practicality of the Crime Victims' Rights Act and whether what is offered is beneficial to victims. To assess this objective capture this detail, the review notes several programs that have been implemented under this Act will be analyzed coupled with their relevance to the victims (Johnson & Shields, 2017). Recommendations will be made on the services offered by the programs. Recently, such programs have begun gaining more funds to improvise (I think you mean improve?) services for other types of victims dealing with the elderly, child exploitation, hate crimes, and stalking. There have also been programs tailored for victims that include immigrants, visible minorities, and the rural and disabled victims. However, there is still a question that continuously lingers (ok but regarding what?) I think the source Newmark could go atr the end of this paragraph.) (Newmark, 2014). Are these programs being adequately funded enough and supported enough to fulfill the objective of serving maintain a balance between the victims’ rights and the offender’s rights? Understanding the facts revolving the statistics of victims and what services they are gaining, as well as if these services are enough, is through the improvement of programs to become more culturally relevant to societies ever growing diversity. The last but not least objective is to conduct a comparative analysis between amount of government funds invested in inmate rehabilitation, parole and defendant programs in comparison to the amount invested in victims programs. Further investigation has identified that the criminal justice system still maintains the most funding towards the criminal offenders as opposed to funding programs for victims’ rights (Newmark, 2014). Although the funding for VICTIM SERVICES PROPOSAL 6 victims of crime has drastically changed over the past decade, the focus has remained on the punishment and treatment of offenders. At the same time, the programs that have been designed to provide services for victims of crimes are highly underfunded or grant based. There are also issues identified with a diversity of individuals being provided victim services. Many of the programs that are being funded are more dedicated to women of domestic violence (Newmark, 2014). Social services, victim programs, and crises centers are mainly devised to handle the cases of female victims of violence with their partners and through sexual assault encounters. Thus, such programs are not reflecting the needs of victims who are coping with other types of crimes being done to them through the offender’s actions (Jerin & Laura, 1998). Literature Review Every crime leaves behind a victim, and as history would have it, the indicative of a criminal justice system has historically focused less more on the offender than the victim. This has, in turn, made the victims turn into offenders as they fell through the cracks without the society noticing it. 35% of the current tried and convicted inmates were once victims of a crime, and they were not properly handled (Daigle, et al. 2016). There is a need for emotional support (Is this really a role for government, emotional need and how do you measure its success or failure objectively? ) from the government to ensure that the victims do not turn into villains and commit crimes. There are three primary programs that are mostly standard; the victim compensation program, the victim assistance program and the victim witness program (Johnson & Shields, 2017). a. The Victim Assistance Program VICTIM SERVICES PROPOSAL 7 The victim assistance program is aimed at providing the victim with information on the court proceedings and investigation development related to the crime committed (Jerin & Laura, 1998). The primary function of this program is to help victims with them prepare their testimony preparation, offer counseling services to the victim and their families to assist them to cope with the trauma the crime caused and to update them on the development of the case (Newmark, 2014). This program acts as an anchor between the victims and the justice system as it keeps to inform all parties both sides updated on the progress of a specific case the other. Conversely, The program is usually offered to mostly victims of rape and physical violence crimes victims and not all victims of crime. Although the condition is that the program provides professional counseling to the victim and the family members before they are prepared for court, only 34% of the victims receive get counseling while 17% of the family members get it. 84% of these cases are from violent rape and sexual assault related crimes.( Office for Victims of Crime. 2008) b. Victim Compensation Program The primary objective of this program is to offer financial compensation to the victims regarding the damages that were endured during the time the crime was committed, lost earnings during the trial period, medical and funeral expenses. In instances where the mental capacity of the victim is affected, counseling costs are also included. Compensation in most cases comes from the offenders regarding fines and damages costs (I would need to see a source on this point, offenders have no money). In this case, the victim compensation programs should always have funds to cater for the needs of the victims since offenders are liable to at least $50 per offense as fine coupled with serving time in a correctional institution. Converse to this belief victims is seldom compensated financially. This leads to loss and deters victims from getting involved in the entire trial process. Additionally, the damages are paid after the trial which could VICTIM SERVICES PROPOSAL 8 take years before the court case is tried and the conclusion arrived at (is anyone really expecting offender to pay?) I doubt it, do youhave a source oo this point?, If not then revise and focus on state funding, and who is eligible for funding.). c. Victim Witness Program Victim Witness Programs (VWP) offered to victims and/or witnesses of civil or criminal litigation processes that involve the department of justice. The purpose of a VWP is aimed at ensuring that the victims/witnesses have been treated fairly with respect and their dignity is maintained. Such programs are meant to ensure that the victim’s right to have access to the information regarding the case has been enacted. According to this program, a victim cannot be a government institution it has to be an individual or a private entity. This is in accordance with the section 503(c) of the Victims' Rights and Restitution Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 10607(c)). The overall assumptions of victim-witness assistance and compensation programs were twofold: that providing services to victims would increase their cooperation in bringing offenders to justice, and that doing so would be good for community relations (Karmen, 1996). This was based on the premise that counseling services help victims build better self-esteem, assertiveness, social support, coping and self-efficacy. This is a form of rehabilitation for the victims so that they can get over the crime and continue to be productive members of the society. On paper, this would work, and all would be well conversely that is not possible. When it comes to victim compensation program, they have to wait for years until the case is heard and the conviction is made. On instances where the offender is found guilty and is unable to pay the fine, then the victim is not compensated (Dawson et al. 1993). This makes the entire criminal justice process to become a financial problem to the victim. VICTIM SERVICES PROPOSAL 9 The victim assistance programs are highly biased as mentioned and are deemed to simply offer to counsel to those affected by sexually related crimes. Violent crimes have a chance of affecting the victim whether sexual or not. The programs are heavily underfunded, and they lack enough staff to offer the services that they are supposed to provide. As a aresult, This makes the process of access services by the victims to be an ardious experience long and tedious, causing vicitms to forego services and most of them give up (Daigle et al. , 2016). There is insufficient information pertaining the rights of a victim during and after criminal proceedings. This ignorance is as a result of more focus being placed on the defendant rather than the victim in the criminal justice system. There are various factors that make the programs discussed above ineffective regarding services to victims not to be valid. The programs are designed perfectly to meet the needs of the victim conversely the problem is the implementation part. This disconnect is caused by the services not reaching the people it is intended for and therefore not having the desired impact. The desired impact of all these programs is to ensure that the victims are catered to by offering counseling, information, and advice. Lack of enough funding and staff in the justice department dedicated to reaching out to victims makes the larger population unaware of the rights they have once they become victims of a crime. Additionally, the process of acquiring the services offered at times is too much time and makes the victims feel as if they are being punished for the crime committed against them. Overall, the use of robust methods to evaluate victims' services programs is wanting. In a 2009 review that examined 18 intervention studies for victims of IPV, only three of the studies qualified as rigorous based on three criteria: VICTIM SERVICES PROPOSAL • 10 Random assignment of participants to a treatment group (i.e., individuals receiving the intervention) or a control group (i.e., individuals receiving "business as usual") • At least 20 cases included in each group • An outcome of IPV recidivism or violence severity Presenlt, most studies to date do not account for inherent differences between participants who receive services and those who do not. This means that any benefits attributed to receiving treatment may not be due to the program itself but instead may be due to a characteristic that treatment participants share. For instance, being highly motivated to receive services or having more social support encouraging them to seek services. When we evaluate programs using methods that account for this kind of "selection bias" for example, through random assignment to groups, we might find that the programs are not as effective as once thought (Office for Victims of Crime. 2008). Research Questions - Do the victims’ service programs help people recover and cater for all affected people? - Do the operations and control methods through victim service programs allow victims to withstand what has occurred to them? - Do the programs further victimize the victims using tedious processes and strict requirements? - Do the programs offer the required financial, emotional, psychological, and physical assistance? - Have the programs managed to ensuring justice has been delivered to the victim? Subjects of Study VICTIM SERVICES PROPOSAL 11 1). Unit of Analysis The victim protection and compensation programs are implemented by the government through the department of justice. The first subject of study will be the department of justice. The other subject of study will be the victims who will be divided into two categories; victims of violent crimes and victims/witnesses of criminal litigation processes. a. The Department of Justice The Office of Victims of Crime (OVC), is mandated with the duty of reaching out to victims of criminal cases and offer state assistance in accordance with the law. The central questions that will be addressed at the OVC will be comparative (Office for Victims of Crime. 2008). The ratio of staff to the number of victims on an annual basis will be analyzed. The funding system and the challenges experienced by the office in trying to reach out to the victims. The process of acquiring assistance will also be analyzed to establish if there is a correlation between the process of getting support and the effectiveness of the office. Previous data from closed cases will be checked and analyzed to determine what the office could have been able to do differently in each case independently (Office for Victims of Crime. 2008). The steps taken by the office to create awareness will also be analyzed to determine the impact of the knowledge and information once it has been passed on to the public. b. The Victims i. Victims of violent crimes Most of the victims of violent crimes are usually typically lower and middle-class citizens and are not aware of their rights (Johnson & Shields, 2017). The victims are administered will be given a questionnaire to fill to determine if they are aware of know their rights as victims. They VICTIM SERVICES PROPOSAL 12 will question the effectiveness of the office and what they feel should be done differently to curb the challenges that are experienced. ii. Victims of Litigation Crimes Most of the victims are high-class citizens that work for government organizations or private organizations (Office for Victims of Crime, 2014). These can be victims who witnessed a crime being committed by the government or against the government. They require state protection as they have valuable information pertaining a crime that could lead to significant losses and have detrimental effects on the public in the long run (Boba, 2005). They will also be given the same questionnaire to determine whether they get the best services from the office of victims of crime and the challenges experienced. Additionally, their safety will not be compromised by the process. 2). Duration The research will take twelve months to have acquire all the necessary gather information and data from the office and the victims. Acquiring a years’ worth of results will better allow for a and establish greater concepts understanding of how victims are treated when crimes occur against them. The fact that most of the information is available at the office of victims of crimes provides the necessary makes it easy to be able to analyze the access to information and to also reach out to the victims themselves for proper feedback (Boba, 2005). 3). Sampling Method The method of sampling to be used in this instance will be stratified sampling. Each case will be analyzed and divided into the groups above; either violent crime or litigation crime. Once this has been established under the violent crime, there will be sexual violence and non-sexual VICTIM SERVICES PROPOSAL 13 violent crimes. Under litigation, there will be two categories as well against government institutions and private institutions. This will allow the victims to be contacted differently and for the questionnaires to be designed to ask the questions that are unique to each group (Boba, 2005). Measurement a. Methodology To measure the efficiency of the victim programs and to determine what more requires to be done the proposal will use three data collection methods (Boba, 2005). The first one will be a content analysis which will encompass going through past closed and open cases at the office of victims of crimes and determining whether the victims received the services as required by law. This will set the foundation for the rest of the information as patterns will be determined from the data collected. Observations will be made at the office of the victims of crime and the entire process of acquiring assistance will be recorded and will be used to make recommendations and conclusions on the effectiveness of the services offered by the office (National Association of Crime Victims Compensation, 2017). This will be followed by a qualitative method of collecting data from the victims by using questionnaires. The survey will be made up of closed and openended questions aimed at determining whether the victims have the information that they are supposed to get from the office (Boba, 2005). b. Scaling Scaling in the questionnaires will be aimed at determining the effectiveness of the services offered and whether the victim is willing to reach out to the office as well. These will include; on a scale of 1 to 5 VICTIM SERVICES PROPOSAL 14 1- Very Bad 2- Bad 3- Okay 4- Good 5- Excellent The other scale to be used will be regarding a range of numbers. For instance, the number of times that a victim has been contacted by the office of victims of crime regarding their cases or their compensation; a. 1-5 times b. 6-10 times c. 11-20 times d. More than 20 times. c. Levels of Measurement Once the data has been collected from content analysis and the questionnaire, it will require being interpreted to conclude. The level of measurement to be used to interpret the data will be qualitative (Boba, 2005). They will include ordinal and ratio will be utilized. The ratio of employees to a number of victims, the ratio of number of victims offered the stated services to those not provided the services and the proportion of the number of victims compensated and those who never got compensated. Using ordinal, the different types of victims will be ranked in an orderly manner to determine whether there is a level of bias towards particular type of crime at the expense of others. Data Collection Method VICTIM SERVICES PROPOSAL 15 Analysis Conclusion References Boba, R. (2005). Crime Analysis and Crime Mapping, Pearson Prentice Hall Publishers, New York Daigle, L.E. Guastaferro, W.P. Azimi, A. (2016). Victims' compensation as a tool of therapeutic justice: examining the physical and mental health needs of victim compensation applicants and the role of health in America, Journal of Violence and Victims, Volume 12 Dawson, J., S. Smith, and C. DeFrances (1993). Prosecutors in State Courts. Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice. Jerin, R. A. and Laura J. M. (1998) Victims of Crime. Chicago, IL: Nelson-Hall Publishers Johnson, D.W. Shields, M.A. (2017). Victimization, Wellbeing and Compensation: Using Panel Data to Estimate the Costs of Violent Crime, Journal of Economics of Crime, Volume 32 NCJRS (n.d.). Funding for Crime Victim Services. Retrieved https://www.ncjrs.gov/ovc_archives/nvaa/ch21-11.html VICTIM SERVICES PROPOSAL 16 National Association of Crime Victims Compensation (2017) Crime watch Compensation. Retrieved from. http://www.nacvcb.org/index.asp?bid=14 National Victims Resource Director, 1996. Office of Crime Victims, Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Justice. Newmark, L. C. (2014). Crime victims’ needs and VOCA-funded services: Findings and recommendations from two national studies (NCJ 214263). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice. Kennedy, Leslie W. and Vincent F. Sacco (1998). Crime Victims in Context. Los Angeles, CA: Roxbury Publishing. Office for Victims of Crime. (2008). The history of the crime victims’ movement in the United States. A component of the Office for Victims of Crime Oral History Project. Retrieved August 08, 2017, from https://www.ncjrs.gov/ovc_archives/ncvrw/2005/pg4c.html Office for Victims of Crime (2014) Funding History. Retrieved from Office for Victims of Crime: https://www.ovc.gov/publications/factshts/compandassist/fs_000306.html