Report to Congress, December 1999

For more than a decade, crime victim issues have received tremendous bipartisan support in Congress and among State legislatures. Through their persuasive advocacy, crime victims have effected a growing body of rights and programs established to meet their needs. The results of the 1982 President's Task Force on Victims of Crime and the passage of the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) in 1984 marked a critical turning point in how society viewed and treated crime victims. Today, crime victims and their advocates are a visible and strong force as evidenced by the energy they have infused into the public debate on the Victims' Rights Amendment through their effective leadership, strong lobbies, and organized constituency. At the dawning of the next millennium, the crime victims movement is now characterized as a field and recognized as such in the new report—New Directions from the Field: Victims' Rights and Services for the 21st Century published by OVC in 1998. Expanded funding from government and nongovernment sources for victims' programs and services is born out of the experiences and recommendations of the victim advocacy field. OVC, as the only Federal agency solely devoted to addressing the needs of crime victims, is positioning itself to help lead the victims' rights field into a century that further recognizes the legitimate role of crime victims in the criminal and juvenile justice systems through the full implementation of rights and improved delivery of services for crime victims. Although the crime victims' field has witnessed tremendous growth over the last decade, OVC must address many outstanding issues and needs before crime victims and the advocates who serve them fully achieve recognition and accommodation within the Federal, Tribal, State, military, and local systems of justice. Those issues include strengthening the infrastructure of the victims' field, supporting systemic change to improve the criminal justice system's response to crime victims, and incorporating the five global challenges from the field into OVC policy.

Today, crime victims and their advocates are a visible and strong force as evidenced by the energy they have infused into the public debate on the Victims' Rights Amendment through their effective leadership, strong lobbies, and organized constituency.

Strengthening the Infrastructure of the Victims' Field

The field and OVC must focus on three areas before crime victims' rights and services can be integrated into the institutional thinking of legislators, policymakers, program administrators, and society-at-large. These areas are addressed under the following headings: Securing a Stable Financial Future for Crime Victims' Programs, Supporting Expertise in the Field, and Using Technology to Benefit the Field.

Although the crime victims' field has witnessed tremendous growth over the last decade, OVC must address many outstanding issues and needs before crime victims and the advocates who serve them fully achieve recognition and accommodation within the Federal, Tribal, State, military, and local systems of justice.

Securing a Stable Financial Future for Crime Victims' Programs
To secure a stable future for victim services, victim advocates and crime victims are focusing their attention on increasing the amount of funding to offer comprehensive victim services and to recognize the need to offer competitive wages to the victim service providers. While the Crime Victims Fund—the major source of funding for crime victim services nationally—has enjoyed steady, and in some years, substantial growth, to truly meet the needs of America's nearly 32 million crime victims, additional funding must be made available to ensure crime victims have access to services. It should be standard practice that, no matter whether a crime victim lives in a large urban city like New York or in the tiniest rural community in Mississippi or on the most remote American Indian reservation in Montana, victim assistance services should be available. To ensure that victims have access to services in the aftermath of crime, victim services must be established in hospitals, police departments, social services agencies, and in the workplace in urban, suburban, and rural areas of the country. Next, those interested in a career in victim services must be offered a "living wage" and benefits, and this requires a commitment of funding for human resources. Without a commitment of the necessary resources to attract and retain qualified personnel, crime victim programs will never achieve the needed stability to offer victims comprehensive services. In addition, the field can no longer afford to rely so heavily upon the use of volunteers to deliver services to crime victims. While volunteers play an important role in assisting crime victims, they should not be looked to as an alternative to full-time, permanent staff if victim service programs are expected to flourish. Likewise, as the issue of professionalization of the victims' field is debated among advocates, the idea that victim rights and services can be appropriately delivered using a cadre of volunteers is as unrealistic as expecting government agencies to operate principally with a volunteer work force.

While the Crime Victims Fund—the major source of funding for crime victim services nationally—has enjoyed steady, and in some years, substantial growth, to truly meet the needs of America's nearly 32 million crime victims, additional funding must be made available to ensure crime victims have access to services.

Victim service programs must be fully staffed to meet the demand from victims and so program managers should no longer be forced to divide their time between oversight of the agency and delivery of services to crime victims. Adequate resources need to be allocated to allow managers the time required for strategic planning, fundraising, advocacy, personnel management, budgeting and accounting, and recordkeeping. With additional resources, of course, comes additional accountability. To address issues of accountability and to achieve better management of victim services programs and expenditures, education and training is needed not only for those who provide direct services to crime victims, but also for those individuals who manage Tribal, State, and local victim service programs.

Supporting Expertise in the Field
Many victim advocates have transferred their experience as crime victims into efforts to help others in similar situations. These advocates come from all walks of life just as victims come from all walks of life. Many advocates bring to the field a wide range of professional work experience gained in both the public and private sectors. They have ably transferred the skills, knowledge, and ability gained from previous work experience to their service for crime victims. Other advocates come to the field with little or no previous work experience but with tremendous commitment and energy to make life easier for the next victim. Despite their energy and enthusiasm, formal training is necessary for victim services providers so that they understand the best practices in the field. A commitment to education and training for victim advocates and allied professionals must be a top priority for the next millennium.

Without a commitment of the necessary resources to attract and retain qualified personnel, crime victim programs will never achieve the needed stability to offer victims comprehensive services.

Currently, there is a debate about how to determine and measure competency within the victim services field. Ideas, ranging from the creation of national standards for victim service programs to training certification and other educational requirements for victim services providers, are being discussed. Likewise, a focus on education for children about crime, violence and victimization, crime prevention, death and dying, and trauma is a critical need as evidenced by the recent rash of violence in the schools across our Nation. One example of OVC's effort to address the educational needs of victim services providers is the establishment of statewide Victim Assistance Academies to provide comprehensive, academically based, fundamental education for victim services providers, victim advocates, criminal justice personnel, and allied professionals. These academies, an outgrowth of OVC's National Victim Assistance Academy (NVAA), would be linked to universities. OVC will provide technical assistance to selected States over a 3-year period through NVAA faculty. OVC will continue to provide foundation-level victim assistance education through the NVAA until a substantial network of State academies is established across the United States. Finally, OVC will fund the development of advanced educational opportunities through NVAA for seasoned advocates and allied professionals. In FY 1999, OVC funded five State academies and plans to fund additional State Academies in subsequent years, contingent on the availability of funding.

Through its national-scope training and technical assistance efforts, OVC has kept pace with the progression of the victims' movement by supporting a variety of initiatives designed to increase the awareness of crime victims' needs and the needs of those diverse individuals and organizations serving them. But the rapid development of ideas, services, and programs has fragmented the field into a proliferation of different approaches and goals for assisting victims. In FY 1999, OVC committed funding to support the development of a strategy that will combine this patchwork of practice and education, infuse it with the diverse voices of experience from across the Nation, and identify the common ground and goals to move the field forward. Cooperative, collaborative approaches to achieving a standard quality of service for crime victims is the intended result.

A commitment to education and training for victim advocates and allied professionals must be a top priority for the next millennium.

In FY 1999, OVC awarded a grant to develop an effective method to convene the leadership organizations of the victims' field to explore service standards, training, and collaborative practices. Its goal is to provide a "think tank" forum in which the field of victim services can develop practice standards (both for organizations and individual service providers) and a framework for implementing consistent, quality services to crime victims. A commission of national and regional experts from diverse disciplines will be established to compile a compendium of existing victim-service standards and education and certification programs. Also included is a plan to conduct a series of four "town hall" meetings involving advocacy groups, victim-service organizations, State coalition representatives, and practitioners. Information gathered will be shared with the field through an Internet Web site and a strategies-for-action kit will be created containing standards, implementation plans, assessment tools, and media aids.

In FY 1999, OVC committed funding to support the development of a strategy that will combine this patchwork of practice and education, infuse it with the diverse voices of experience from across the Nation, and identify the common ground and goals to move the field forward.

Using Technology To Benefit the Field
A look at the future would be incomplete without considering the impact of technology on the victims' field. Technology promises to improve victim access to services, the delivery of education and training to advocates, and further coordination between the private not-for-profit sector and public agencies. Technology has already helped to reach victims in remote areas through telemedicine capabilities. Teleconferencing has the potential to get training to the field and counseling services to rural areas of the United States.

The Internet and other computer-based technologies are allowing victims to access applications for compensation benefits, victim advocates to check on the status of a victim case, and criminal justice professionals to provide required notice to crime victims regarding criminal justice case information and offender status. In FY 1999, OVC used Web-based technology to provide critical notice to the surviving family members of Pan Am Flight 103 as they prepared for the upcoming trial of the alleged perpetrators in The Netherlands.

OVC will continue to support efforts to enhance technology aimed at service delivery and notification systems for victims. Recent upgrades and innovations in technology, particularly in State programs—made possible through large increases in administrative funds—have done much to improve victim services. Automated processes that improve access to centralized stores of data and the Internet and technological advances that enhance and expand services are helping Federal and State programs stay current. Here are a few examples of how OVC is using Crime Victims Fund dollars to support the use of technology to help crime victims.

Secure Telecast: A significant number of family members of victims of Pan Am Flight 103 have indicated a strong interest in attending the trial to be held in The Netherlands, and many more have indicated an interest in viewing a telecast of the trial. OVC is funding the establishment and management of a secure telecast to four downlink sites: two in the United States and two in the United Kingdom. Encrypted satellite transmission will be used to ensure that only specified sites can receive the transmission of the trial. Family members will be certified and badged by the Federal Protective Service, and only those family members will be allowed access to the broadcast.
Web site: Syracuse University College of Law is creating and maintaining a secure Web site for Pan Am Flight 103 victim family members. By using a password-protected design, only family members will have access to the Web site. The Web site will include background material about legal developments, cases, and laws relating to the bombing; criminal trial updates; information about OVC services for family members who plan to attend the trial; and an interactive component enabling family members to correspond with Syracuse University College of Law and/or other family members.
Victim Web sites for States. OVC funded the Michigan Victim Alliance to create a model victim Web site on the Internet to provide information and support to victims. The Alliance will support expanding outreach efforts to victim groups in other States, particularly those that can build crime victim Web sites if offered no-cost technical assistance and short-term Web maintenance services. Outreach efforts will also be directed toward librarians, journalists, and criminal justice professionals. A "Crime Victims Web Ring" is planned as a means to tie victim Web sites together online. If successful, the project will provide an affordable and effective means for victims nationwide to use the Internet as another source for information and support.
Telemedicine Initiative in Indian Country. In FY 1999, OVC funded the Indian Health Service (IHS) to develop a pilot program to procure training and computer software to scan and transmit diagnostic images in sexual abuse, physical abuse, and sexual assault cases in Indian Country. The technology will allow a diagnosis to be made at a hospital staffed with medical personnel experienced in dealing with these cases. This pilot will be established at selected IHS medical clinics or hospitals that do not have an attending physician onsite or that must refer their initial medical observations to an expert for a second opinion. The project is designed to minimize long trips by children to urban hospitals and repeated forensic sexual assault medical exams.
Telemedicine Consultation for Child Abuse Cases. Funding was approved for the U.S. Department of Navy to purchase telemedicine equipment for the Armed Forces Center for Child Protection at the Bethesda National Naval Medical Center to assist with startup costs to create telemedicine consultation and teaching capability to diagnose child abuse.

Supporting Systemic Change

OVC is committed to continuing efforts to improve the Federal criminal justice system's response to crime victims in several ways. OVC uses forums to identify issues and to share information and provides technical assistance and training to effect governmentwide systemic change. OVC is strengthening the response to mass violence in U.S. communities by increasing a community's own capacity to respond more effectively to mass victimization. Reaching out to victims of international terrorism and identifying underserved and unserved victim populations continues to be a priority for OVC as is expanding assistance to crime victims in Indian Country.

National Symposium on Victims of Federal Crime
OVC continued to effect disciplinewide change through efforts such as the Second National Symposium on Victims of Federal Crime in Washington, D.C., during the week of February 8–12, 1999. This event represented the largest training conference for Federal law enforcement victim/witness assistance personnel in the country. In FY 1999, special emphasis was placed on assisting victims of mass casualty incidents and domestic terrorism. Speakers at the symposium included the U.S. Attorney General, the Deputy Attorney General, the Deputy Director of the FBI, and other experts in victim assistance from Federal agencies. A third national symposium on victims of Federal crime is planned for January 2001.

Working Toward Governmentwide Systemic Change
Several future capacity-building efforts promise continued systems improvements in the delivery of victim services. With the upcoming release of the revised Attorney General's Guidelines for Victim and Witness Assistance, OVC plans to continue working with the Deputy Attorney General's working group on victim issues and to provide guidance and technical assistance to DOJ components and other Federal agencies with victim/witness responsibilities. This includes providing assistance to these agencies on implementation issues, development and delivery of training, and victim/witness assistance through the establishment of advocate positions. Further, OVC will continue its participation on the working group established to develop a Federal victim notification system with funding returned to the Crime Victims Fund from the National Fine Center.

OVC's Response to Mass Violence Within the United States
OVC is working to improve the criminal justice system's response to communities affected by mass violence within the United States. OVC is providing individual training on community crisis response and is collaborating with other Federal agencies.

Individual Training for Community Crisis. To respond to States and communities in crisis, OVC has funded individual training on community crisis response as well as deployed crisis response teams to communities. OVC's crisis response efforts, while helpful, have not yet yielded an identifiable network of crisis response teams throughout the country—the original goal of much of the training funded. OVC provided funding to the Jefferson Institute for Justice Studies to establish community-based mass crisis response protocols by assisting communities with the tools, skills, and technical assistance needed to develop and implement their own coordinated and collaborative long-range implementation plans. The Institute will develop a needs assessment report, a community action guide, a program implementation guide, and an informational brochure and provide technical assistance to guide communities through the design, development, and implementation of a long-range crisis response protocol.
Collaboration With Other Federal Agencies. OVC plans to work with the Office for State and Local Domestic Preparedness (OSLDP) within the U.S. Department of Justice to develop State and local capacities to respond to crises. This effort will be coordinated on the Federal level among OVC, HHS, OSLDP, and other related DOJ components. OVC will coordinate with mental health and emergency preparedness experts in devising a strategy for States to plan and implement their own centralized crisis response plans. OVC also plans to conduct a series of regional seminars and training courses that will train local crisis response teams to respond to needs in their communities.

Meeting the Needs of Victims of Terrorism Abroad
With the growing level of tourism and employment opportunities abroad for American citizens, efforts must be made to provide services to American citizens victimized abroad as well as to citizens from other countries victimized within the boundaries of the United States. Victims must also have easy access to which countries provide victim compensation to foreign nationals and to instructions for applying for those benefits. In addition, OVC continues to function as a resource for other countries to develop victim compensation programs in their own countries.

OVC has provided funding and assistance to victims of the bombing of American embassies in East Africa and to the surviving family members of Pan Am Flight 103. OVC's work with victims of terrorism and mass violence began with the Oklahoma City bombing tragedy in April 1995. Since that time, OVC has learned much about the unmet needs of terrorism victims within the United States and overseas. Assisting victims of terrorism in foreign countries involves many challenges that are not present when a terrorist incident occurs in the United States. Extraordinary travel requirements for victims and families, unique autopsy issues, and confusing benefit policies for Federal and other American employees stationed or working overseas are just a few of those complications. In the aftermath of the embassy bombings in East Africa, OVC recognized that the government needs a coordinated and sensitive plan for assisting American victims of overseas terrorism.

U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno requested OVC to coordinate a working group with the other agencies of the Federal Government, most importantly the State Department, to address these international issues. The working group has met three times already and is in the process of preparing a study which will compile the medical, mental health, benefits, and operational policies of all Federal agencies, and some local responders to international events. Based on this study, the working group will draft a protocol for victim assistance in the event of future terrorist incidents against Americans overseas. The protocol will be modeled after the National Transportation Safety Board's protocol for domestic airline disasters. It is anticipated that this protocol will drastically improve the assistance to American victims of terrorism abroad. Also, the work begun with the United Nations to highlight victims' rights and issues has yielded a greater awareness and sensitivity to crime victims worldwide and fostered numerous collaborative efforts between the United States and other countries and among OVC and agencies such as the Department of State.

OVC is committed to working with the International Society of Victimology and others to assure that American citizens victimized abroad receive services and assistance, to provide leadership to other nations through the provision of training and technical assistance, and to advocate for the fair and equal treatment of crime victims everywhere. One top priority for OVC is to obtain authority to establish an International Compensation Program that will allow OVC to provide financial assistance to American citizens and employees of the U.S. government injured while working abroad. Despite the current authority provided in VOCA to supplement State compensation programs to provide benefits to victims of terrorism abroad, State statutory provisions and administrative and Federal funding requirements offer a bureaucratic response to victims of terrorism abroad. OVC is also funding efforts to document services provided to victims of terrorism and mass violence within the United States and to develop training and other protocols to ensure an effective, coordinated response to these incidents.

Continual Identification of Underserved and Unserved Victim Populations
Within the past several years greater attention has been devoted to meeting the needs of victims represented in various demographic segments of society. Funding and attention have been focused on American Indian crime victims, non-English speaking victims, and other racial and ethnic minorities. However, to assure full representation of the victims' community, outreach must be made beyond victims of racial and ethnic minorities to include victims with disabilities, elderly crime victims, and fraud, white collar crime, and burglary victims.

Funding and attention have been focused on American Indian crime victims, non-English speaking victims, and other racial and ethnic minorities. However, to assure full representation of the victims' community, outreach must be made beyond victims of racial and ethnic minorities to include victims with disabilities, elderly crime victims, and fraud, white collar crime, and burglary victims.

OVC will address the needs of other specific victim populations through a series of projects in the areas of white collar crime victims, elderly victims, hate/bias crimes, stalking, cultural considerations, and diversity. In addition, OVC will fund several projects through the Field Initiated National Impact Project, which address critical training needs expressed by practitioners in the field. For instance, OVC plans to continue into FY 1999 a grant to support a model national training curriculum to improve prosecutorial responses to victims of elder abuse and domestic violence and to pilot test and revise the model curriculum at 1999 national conferences. OVC will also continue into FY 1999 an educational series of fraud prevention programs to stop financial exploitation of the elderly, particularly through telemarketing schemes. These efforts have adopted a truly interdisciplinary approach involving many diverse members of the community, including bank personnel, law enforcement, criminal justice officials, and elderly citizens.

Expanding Assistance to Crime Victims in Indian Country
OVC will work for systemic change by strengthening the criminal justice system's response to child abuse cases in remote areas of Indian Country. OVC will focus on establishing stronger "partnerships" among Tribal law enforcement agencies, Tribal and local victim services providers, the FBI, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Attorney's offices, and relations between VOCA victim assistance State administrators and State crime victim compensation programs and American Indian Tribes. OVC's goal is to ensure that coordinated services are provided to victims of crime and will maximize that availability of victim assistance funding from both Federal and State agencies.

Addressing the Four Global Challenges From the Field

An ambitious agenda for the future has been established by crime victims and leading advocates in the field, New Directions from the Field: Victims' Rights and Services for the 21st Century. This report contains 250 recommendations for action. The following four global challenges for responding to victims of crime in the 21st century emerged from these recommendations presented in New Directions. OVC will continue to provide leadership and support to the victims' field using the four global challenges defined in New Directions as the compass for its actions.

Raising the level of professionalism in the field of victim services is an important goal to achieve if victims are to have their needs recognized and met and so begin to heal.

Fundamental Rights for Crime Victims
The enactment and enforcement of consistent, fundamental rights for crime victims in Federal, State, Tribal, juvenile, and military justice systems and administrative proceedings represents the first challenge from the field. OVC will direct its efforts toward assisting States with the full implementation of the rights established by amendments to State constitutions. This includes encouraging the use of VOCA victim assistance funds to support programs and interventions mandated in their respective State constitutions.

OVC will promote the establishment of victim ombudsman programs to enforce the implementation of established rights, provide funding and technical assistance to help implement victim notification systems, fund demonstration programs that identify promising practices in the delivery of rights, and provide other support identified by the States through both its formula and discretionary grant programs. Similar efforts will be supported to ensure that statutory provisions affecting Federal crime victims are met.

Comprehensive Quality of Services to Crime Victims
Other global challenges focus OVC's efforts on delivering comprehensive, quality services to crime victims regardless of the nature of the victimization, age, race, religion, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, capability, or geographic location. OVC will accomplish this by focusing on specific activities. It will continue to develop national scope training and technical assistance reaching out to diverse groups through its funding of Action Partnerships with Professional Membership Organizations grant program, collaborative work with agencies and organizations with similar commitments to meeting the needs of underserved victim populations, and dissemination of training to urban and rural communities through the OVC Training and Technical Assistance Center (TTAC). In addition, OVC will continue to provide technical assistance to State VOCA administrators to assist them with strategic planning and outreach efforts.

OVC's funding of the National Victim Assistance Academy, the State Victim Assistance Academy initiative, grants awarded to colleges and universities to develop academic-based education on victims' rights and services as well as the development of numerous training and technical assistance packages for law enforcement, prosecutors, mental health and medical professionals, the clergy, the business community, and others will assure that crime victim issues are integrated into all levels of the Nation's educational system and ensure that justice and allied professionals receive comprehensive training on victims' issues as a part of education and continuing training in the field. Raising the level of professionalism in the field of victim services is an important goal to achieve if victims are to have their needs recognized and met and so begin to heal.

Supporting, Improving, and Replicating Promising Practices
OVC is committed to maximizing the impact of resources available from the Crime Victims Fund by supporting, improving, and replicating promising practices in victims' rights and services built upon sound research, advanced technology, and multidisciplinary partnerships. OVC's funding and evaluation of demonstration projects such as the Victim Services 2000 initiative that can serve as laboratories and training sites for communities across the country seeking innovative strategies for serving crime victims is responsive to requests from the field for examples of "what works" for crime victims in jurisdictions nationwide.

Listening to Victims' Voices
While OVC relies extensively upon input received from victim advocates and other professionals regarding the emerging needs of crime victims, victims' voices continue to play a central role in the development of programs, services, and policies affecting crime victims. OVC will use initiatives like its Victims' Services Professional Development consortium, the Victim Services Resource Network established under TTAC, town hall meetings at national conferences, correspondence from crime victims, and other direct victim contacts to influence Federal priorities in the next millennium.

In the years ahead, OVC will continue its work to secure sound legislative protections that will provide fundamental rights for crime victims allowing them to fully participate in the criminal justice system.

For the future, OVC will continue to enhance the infrastructure, expand the scope of outreach to victims, and broaden its response and the types of services it offers to the field. By listening to the field and soliciting feedback at victims' rights conferences and meetings, OVC will continue to identify crime victim needs and act on them through advocacy and policy development, provision of direct services, and development of grants, training, and technical assistance to support programs and services to crime victims. Community ownership of victim services is one overarching goal of this movement, as are formalizing services and pursuing victim justice through such strategies as restorative justice. Continued development and enhancement of technologies to improve systems serving crime victims is also a major goal. In the years ahead, OVC will continue its work to secure sound legislative protections that will provide fundamental rights for crime victims allowing them to fully participate in the criminal justice system.

Efforts on behalf of crime victims will be accomplished through advocacy, leadership, and policy development. OVC will continue to hold focus groups and provide presentations at conferences sponsored by various disciplines throughout the coming year, using profession-specific recommendations contained in New Directions as a guide.

The key to OVC's success in promoting victims' rights and services is to listen to the victims and victims field, and New Directions has provided that voice to guide policy into the next millennium.

OVC is also developing a New Directions training package and videotape for use by the field at conferences, trainings, and other meetings. The package will present the information contained in New Directions in a variety of formats and will also contain a mechanism for reporting State and local implementation activities back to OVC. Through TTAC, OVC will continue to fund experts to provide training around the country on the promising practices highlighted in New Directions. OVC will continue to develop victim sensitive policies and practices through the revision of guidelines for funding programs, the Attorney General Guidelines for Victims and Witness Assistance, and protocols and practices developed through grant funding. The key to OVC's success in promoting victims' rights and services is to listen to the victims and victims field, and New Directions has provided that voice to guide policy into the next millennium.

Amending VOCA To Better Meet the Needs of Crime Victims

OVC now has 15 years' experience in administering funding programs and providing services in response to the various needs of crime victims. With each year's experience, OVC has gained new insights, has identified the continuing and unmet needs of victims, and has witnessed the challenges faced by States and communities in prioritizing and funding victim services. Further, OVC has struggled to overcome the obstacles at the Federal level that impede effective policy and program development and interfere with OVC's ability to respond to the needs and expectations of crime victims, victim advocates, allied professionals, and legislators. OVC has identified several key statutory amendments needed to improve its effectiveness on behalf of crime victims.

The proposed statutory amendments are intended to broaden the authority of OVC to respond to victims' needs; to modify the formula for distribution of Crime Victims Fund deposits; and to allow new sources of deposits into the Crime Victims Fund so OVC may address unmet needs and emerging issues, including streamlined access to assistance, expanded eligibility for victim services funding, and improved outreach to crime victims.

OVC Authority

Victims of Acts of Terrorism Outside the United States. OVC would like to see VOCA amended to provide authority to the OVC Director to establish an International Compensation Program within OVC that uses program funds for benefits to victims as well as for program operations. OVC also seeks authority to award grants to public agencies, including Federal, State, and local governments, for victims of terrorism abroad. OVC wants a broader definition of "victim" to include a citizen or employee of the United States and a person injured or killed as a result of a terrorist act or mass violence occurring on or after December 20, 1988, with respect to which an investigation or prosecution was ongoing after April 24, 1996. To support assistance to these victims and to establish an International Compensation Program within OVC for victims of terrorism abroad, VOCA must also be amended to allow OVC to double the amount authorized for the Reserve Fund.
Fellowships and Clinical Internships. OVC seeks to amend VOCA to authorize the use of program funds to establish a fellowship program to support the identification and implementation of innovative national programs and technical assistance to the field by tapping the expertise of policymakers and practitioners in the field. Such authority would be beneficial to OVC in its program and policy development efforts, its preparation of cutting-edge information for the field, and its understanding of the impact of emerging issues in the victims' rights field.

Modify Distribution of and Increase Deposits to the Crime Victims Fund

Increase Funding for Nationwide Training and Technical Assistance and Direct Services to Federal Crime Victims. OVC seeks an amendment to VOCA to restore the original 5-percent allocation for nationwide training and technical assistance and direct services for Federal crime victims. This increase would allow OVC to respond to actions that have federalized violent crimes and increased the victim/witness responsibilities of Federal law enforcement and prosecutors; efforts to respond to victims of white collar crime; and requests to fund demonstration projects identifying promising practices. Further, efforts to provide funding support for crime victims training at the State and local levels and to support evaluations of funded programs necessitate an increase in discretionary funding. The large increase in Crime Victims Fund deposits and the growing technical assistance needs of the field in implementing victims' rights make an amendment increasing the funding allocation for discretionary grants appropriate at this time.

OVC also recommends increasing the percentage of allocation for State crime victim compensation programs under the VOCA formula grant from 40 percent to 60 percent of the total allocation from the Crime Victims Fund. This would allow States that are struggling to pay victim claims to do several things: meet their obligations, consider adjustments in the maximum award amount for each victim claim, and adjust payments for expenses to match inflation. OVC also seeks to double the amount, from 5 percent to 10 percent, of each State's Federal grant award for use in program administration, training, and statewide improvements in delivering services to crime victims.
Gifts, Bequests, and Donations from Private Entities and Individuals. While the Crime Victims Fund has enjoyed steady growth over the past several years, such growth is not guaranteed. In the event of a shortfall, OVC seeks authority to accept gifts, bequests, and donations from private entities and individuals to continue our support to crime victims' programs and services. Authority to tap public, private, and individual resources will permit the OVC Director to collaborate with private sector organizations and individuals when deposits in the Crime Victims Fund decline or are unexpectedly depleted due to response to unanticipated needs such as in cases of terrorism and mass violence.

Further, OVC seeks to expand the definition of "State" to include the District of Columbia and the United States Government when performing law enforcement functions in and for the District of Columbia. Such redefinition would designate District of Columbia residents as eligible for grants from the Crime Victims Fund. This amendment would allow OVC to provide formula and discretionary funding to the U.S. Attorney's 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.

Conclusion

By making much-needed resources available to fund Federal efforts and State and community-based programs and services, VOCA and the Crime Victims Fund have contributed to the changes in attitudes, policies, and practices affecting crime victims. Their efforts in the past 15 years have yielded documented improvements in how the justice system responds to crime and victimization, an increase in victim cooperation with and participation in the justice system, and an expansion of the service system for crime victims, including allied professionals from the health, mental health, legal, faith, and business communities.

The impact of crime and the need for services for those victimized have received worldwide attention, including from the United Nations. OVC has taken a leadership role in working with key leaders among victim advocacy organizations to assess and address the standard of care for crime victims. OVC has worked to develop policies, procedures, programs, training, and informational materials to help raise public awareness and educate those who come into contact with victims of crime. This has all been made possible because of the passage of VOCA and the establishment of the Crime Victims Fund. OVC looks forward to continued leadership from Congress and the Chief Executive in the coming years as we strive to meet the needs of crime victims.

Contents

Report to Congress

December 1999

Office for Victims of Crime

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