Accessing Information: OVC Resource Center and Other Services

VICTIMS’ RESOURCES IN THE INFORMATION AGE
The advent of the information technologies, especially the enormous growth of the Internet, has changed the way in which information about crime victims’ issues is being made available to researchers, advocates, and practitioners. Today, victims and victim service providers can instantly access an enormous amount of information specific to their needs, including the latest research findings, statistical reports, program descriptions, grant and funding sources, evaluations on victim issues, promising practices, and referrals to professional organizations in the victim-serving community.

For victims and victim service providers, information access begins with the Office for Victims of Crime Resource Center (OVCRC), a component of the National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS). Its web site address is www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/ovcres.

Established by the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC), U.S. Department of Justice, OVCRC is your primary source for crime victim information. OVCRC is accessible 24-hours-a-day through the NCJRS World Wide Web Justice Information Center and Fax-on-Demand where menus provide information and publications from all the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) agencies: Office for Victims of Crime, National Institute of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Bureau of Justice Statistics, and Bureau of Justice Assistance, as well as the Office of National Drug Control Policy. In addition to the web site, victim assistance professionals can benefit by taking advantage of various online services, such as the Justice Information (JUSTINFO) Electronic Newsletter, e-mail inquiries, the Conference Calendar Database, and the Online Ordering Store. NCJRS also has highly trained information specialists to personally answer questions and direct individuals to the best resources available. Furthermore, NCJRS offers allied professionals an opportunity to be placed on its mailing list to receive up-to-date information via the NCJRS Catalog. Together with online services, Fax-on-Demand, and personal assistance, NCJRS and OVCRC can help advocates know more to better serve the needs of victims of crime.

ACCESSING NCJRS AND OVCRC
To contact OVCRC and NCJRS, call (800) 851-3420. NCJRS can be accessed online in the following ways:

NCJRS World Wide Web Homepage. The homepage provides NCJRS information, and links to other criminal and juvenile justice resources from around the world. The NCJRS web page provides information about NCJRS and OJP agencies, grant-funding opportunities, full-text publications, key-word searching of NCJRS publications, access to the NCJRS Abstracts Database, the current NCJRS Catalog, and a topical index. The address for the NCJRS homepage is www.ncjrs.gov.

NCJRS Online Ordering System. Publications, videos, and other materials that pertain to criminal justice, juvenile justice, and drug control policy can now be ordered at any time. Theonline store is open 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week at http://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/AlphaList.aspx.

Justice Information (JUSTINFO) Electronic Newsletter. This free, online newsletter is distributed to your Internet e-mail address on the 1^st and 15^th of each month. JUSTINFO contains information concerning a wide variety of subjects, including news from all Office of Justice Programs (OJP) agencies and the Office of National Drug Control Policy; criminal and juvenile justice resources on the Internet; criminal and juvenile justice funding and program information; and announcements about new NCJRS products and services. To subscribe, send an e-mail to listproc@ncjrs.gov with the message subscribe justinfo [your name].

E-Mail: Information and Help. Users requiring technical assistance or having specific questions about criminal and juvenile justice topics can send an e-mail to askncjrs@ncjrs.gov. To place an order for publications, users may send an e-mail to puborder@ncjrs.gov.

OTHER NCJRS ELECTRONIC INFORMATION SERVICES
Fax-on-Demand. NCJRS has established a “fax-on-demand” service that allows the user to obtain copies of selected NCJRS document directly through their own fax machine, using a toll-free telephone number. To access the fax-on-demand menu, simply call (800) 851-3420, and follow the prompts.

CD-ROM and Online Access to the Abstracts Database. Users with CD-ROM capability can also obtain the NCJRS Abstracts Database on CD-ROM. This disc features citations and abstracts of more than 140,000 criminal justice books, research reports, journal articles, government documents, program descriptions, program evaluations, and training manuals contained in the NCJRS Research and Information Center library collection. The disc also contains search software that supports retrieval, using any combination of words to search individual fields or all fields globally. The disc can be searched using “free text” methods, or in combination with the National Criminal Justice Thesaurus. In addition, the NCJRS Abstracts Database is available on the NCJRS homepage.

VICTIM-RELATED INTERNET SITES
Crime victims and victim service providers have witnessed a remarkable growth in the amount of information available to them, through the continued development of the Internet, especially the World Wide Web. Now, victim-serving agencies and advocacy organizations have the ability to reach around the corner or around the world with information about new issues, services, and promising practices designed to improve the welfare of victims of all types of crime. In an effort to present the most comprehensive and timely information available through this vast medium, the Office for Victims of Crime has substantially revised its World Wide Web homepage. OVC encourages crime victims and victim service providers alike to visit this comprehensive resource, located at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/.

Many other agencies and organizations are now providing victim-related information through the World Wide Web. The following is a list of sites on the Web that contain information on selected crime victimization topics. Please note that this list is intended only to provide a sample of available resources, and does not constitute an endorsement of opinions, resources, or statements made therein. Further, neither the Office for Victims of Crime nor Justice Solutions endorses any commercial products that may be advertised or available on any of these listed sites.

Federal Agencies/Resources

National Victim-related Organizations

National Criminal and Juvenile Justice- and Public Policy-related Associations

State-level Crime Victim Compensation Programs

State-level VOCA Victim Assistance Agencies

Federal and State Corrections

Victims Rights Compliance Programs

Other Victim Resources

Legal Research/Resources

Media