Victims
Victims of a crime are sometimes left with no resources. Supporting the needs of the victims as well as using tools like restorative justice can help the victim and the offender as well. Crime hurts but Justice should be a part of the healing for everyone involved.
Recommended Books
Crimes can occur anywhere at any time, and affect anyone. And when crimes do happen, they leave victims in a state of disbelief and vulnerability. Crime threatens people’s safety and security, and in some cases challenges their faith. Pathways to Healing examines the basic stages of crisis and guides you through the process to reach out to those who are hurting.
Pathway to Healing: A Guide to Helping Victims of Crime
This is not soft-on-crime, feel-good philosophy, but rather a concrete effort to bring justice and healing to everyone involved in a crime. In The Little Book of Restorative Justice, Zehr first explores how restorative justice is different from criminal justice. Then, before letting those appealing observations drift out of reach into theoretical space, Zehr presents Restorative Justice practices. Zehr undertakes a massive and complex subject and puts it in graspable from, without reducing or trivializing it.
Little Book on Restorative Justice by Howard Zehr
Other Resources
When Men Murder Women is an annual report prepared by the Violence Policy Center detailing the reality of homicides committed by males against females in single victim/single offender incidents. The study analyzes the most recent Supplementary Homicide Report (SHR) data submitted to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
This summary by the Bureau of Justice Statistics reveals the rate of violent victimization in the United States rose to 23.5 victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 or older in 2022, after reaching a 30-year low of 16.4–16.5 during 2020–2021. Violent victimization includes rape or sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault. The last three decades saw an overall decline in the violent victimization rate from 79.8 to 23.5 per 1,000 from 1993 to 2022.
This report summary put out by the Bureau of Justice Statistics indicates that the long-term trend in the rate of violent victimization shows a decline from 1993 to 2021, from 79.8 to 16.5 victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 or older.
The 2022 NCVRW (National Crime Victims Rights Week) Resource Guide put out by the Office for Victims of Crime/ U.S. Department of Justice, includes an array of user-friendly outreach tools and sample products (e.g., a sample proclamation, social media posts, awareness posters), professional artwork to brand your observance (e.g., bookmarks, buttons, web ads), and information on the history of victims’ rights in the United States. The 2022 NCVRW theme is Rights, access, equity, for all victims
National Crime Victim’s Rights Week
Now available for download: 2019 National Crime Victims’ Rights Week color palette and customizable poster | OVC
Victims of Identity Theft
This report details the number, percentage, and demographic characteristics of victims who experienced one or more incidents of identity theft during a 12-month period.
Options for Victims This bulletin provides information to guide victims as they decide what to do after a crime, how to seek justice through the courts, and available resources.
National Center for Victims of Crime
Through collaboration with local, state, and federal partners, the National Center:
- Advocates for stronger rights, protections and services for crime victims
- Provides education, training and evaluation
- Serves as a trusted source of current information on victims’ issues
Financial Support for Victims of Crime: A Quick Guide for Corrections and Community Supervision Officers
This brief outlines the roles and ways in which can be used to inform victims of the supports to which they are entitled and how they can pursue restitution, compensation, or other means of financial support. In the case of restitution—where victims are repaid directly by the person who committed the crime against them—repayment establishes a sense of accountability for the person who committed the crime by creating a concrete link between the offense and the harm caused to the victim.
The Vision 21 initiative is the first comprehensive assessment of the victim assistance field in nearly 15 years. It provides a foundation for real change in the role of victim services.
The National Center for Victims of Crime offers Get Help Bulletins. These Bulletins provide basic information on a wide range of crime victim topics to increase awareness of the consequences of victimization and the options and resources available to help victims.
The Vicatrious Trauma Toolkit (VTT) was developed on the premise that exposure to the traumatic experiences of other people—known as vicarious trauma—is an inevitable occupational challenge for the fields of victim services, corrections and chaplains; however, organizations can mitigate the potentially negative effects of trauma exposure by becoming vicarious trauma-informed.
The VTT includes tools and resources tailored specifically to these fields that provide the knowledge and skills necessary for organizations to address the vicarious trauma needs of their staff.
Exclusive Members Content
The following articles with recent data from the National Center for Victims of Crime are found in the Members Section of the CMCA Website.
Assault
Crime And Victimization
CrimeTrends
Elder Victimization
Hate Crime
HumanTrafficking
Intimate Partner Violence
Mass Shootings
School Crime
Sexual Violence
Stalking
Urban Rural
Workplace Violence
Youth Victimization