Victims Issues
Engaging Crime Victims and Those Who Serve Them During Probation, Parole and Community Supervision Week
Over the past 15 years, probation and parole agencies have worked diligently to improve their services to crime victims, and to help them understand and exercise their rights. Crime victims and survivors, and those who serve them, are excellent potential partners for observing the 2008 Probation, Parole and Community Supervision Week.
A good starting point is to become aware of all crime victim services within your jurisdiction. The Office for Victims of Crime sponsors an On-line Victim Services Directory, where contact information about victim assistance programs can be accessed by state, city, zip code, and/or types of services provided. To help create a roster of victim services within a jurisdiction, visit the Directory at:
http://ovc.ncjrs.org/findvictimservices/
- Information and referrals about victims' rights, services and criminal and juvenile justice resources (PDF)
- Each year, the Office for Victims of Crime creates a resource guide for National Crime Victims' Rights Week with lots of ideas on how to make sure victim services are part of your agency
APPA offers several on-line trainings on victims issues.
Forward these links to staff and co-workers for review and possible continuing education credits:
- Domestic Violence: Fundamentals for Community Corrections
- Identifying Elder Abuse
- Intimate Partner Domestic Violence
- Responding to Elder Abuse Victims and Offenders
- Stalking: Living in the Shadow of Fear
- Strategies for Effective Victim Assistance in Sex Offender Management in Rural Areas
- What is Elder Abuse?
- Why Elder Abuse is Important for Community Corrections
APPA Publications:
- Community Corrections Response to Domestic Violence: Guidelines for Practice
- Responding to Stalking: A Guide for Community Corrections Officers
- Preventing and Responding to Corrections-Based Sexual Abuse: A Guide for Community Corrections Professionals
- Promising Victim-Related Practices and Strategies in Probation and Parole
- The Victim's Role in Offender Reentry: A Community Response Manual
Probation and parole agencies can engage crime victims and victim advocates in a number of creative ways:
- Work with local victim advocates to develop a press release or media “pitch package” that highlights what agencies are doing to assist victims of crime and fulfill their statutory and constitutional rights. The concept of community corrections and victim assistance agencies as “partners for justice” offers a unique angle for media coverage.
- Pair a victim advocate and probation or parole officer together for talk shows on television or radio. The focus can be on victims’ rights, needs and concerns when their offenders are serving their sentences under community supervision, and what types of things probation and parole agencies are doing to identify and meet the needs of crime victims.
- Invite crime victims and survivors and victim advocates to conduct a victim awareness class for offenders. Guest speakers can address the physical, financial, emotional and spiritual impact of crime on victims, and discuss why offender accountability is so important to many victims.
- In any proclamations or resolutions that seek to honor Probation, Parole and Community Supervision Officers Week, include a statement such as: “Whereas, probation and parole agencies in (jurisdiction) are committed to assisting victims of crime, and making sure that they are aware of their rights and that those rights are exercised in accordance with law.”
- Ask local victim service providers to identify probation or parole officers who have been particularly helpful and sensitive to crime victims and their needs, and seek their support in honoring such individuals with a certificate of appreciation.
- Make copies of the roster of toll-free telephone numbers for criminal and juvenile justice and crime victim assistance (see below), and make them available to all probation and parole officers during Probation, Parole and Community Supervision Officers Week.
There are a number of excellent resources available from Justice Solutions that address crime victims’ needs and offender programming and that engage victims and survivors, including the following:
- Victim Impact Statement Resource Kit.
- How to Document Losses for Restitution.
- Community Services Projects Sponsored during National Crime Victims’ Rights Week (that link community service projects to activities that directly benefit crime victims and those who assist them).
- Offender Apology Package (that includes a curriculum to help offenders write an apology letter to any victims who indicate a desire to receive one).
- Sample Conditions of Community Supervision Relevant to Victims.
These resources can be accessed free from Justice Solutions’ web site, under “Articles and Publications,” at www.justicesolutions.org.
Finally, Probation, Parole and Community Supervision Week is a good time to recommit your agency’s energies to consideration of victims as “clients” of probation and parole, and to enhance efforts to partner with victim assistance programs to promote “justice for all,” including crime victims.