Victim Assistance Program - Article Example

Victim Assistance Program Annotated Bibliography of Bartlett, M. & Padgett, M. (1997). Developmentand Implementation of a Victim-Witness Assistance Program at Royal Air Force Lakenheath, United Kingdom. Ann Arbor, MI: Proquest. The authors specialize in counseling and personnel services and their primary focus is on the emotional and psychological wellbeing of crime victims. They are active members of victim support groups and are currently planning to build their own victim-witness assistance program. The article focuses on the formation and performance of a victim-assistance program at Royal Air Force Lakenheath, UK. It compares the UK and U.S. legislation with regard to the support crime victims and witnesses receive, especially pertaining to their counseling needs. The article provided a review of the federal government policies and initiatives, and literature on current victim-witness assistance initiatives. The author finds out that these materials were mostly incoherent in their assessment of sources pertaining to victims and witnesses, especially the federal government papers. This inconsistency, according to the authors, makes the analysis of victim-witness assistance initiatives problematic. There was a considerable need for a more accurate understanding of the services that should be provided by victim-witness assistance programs. In comparison to the other articles, the authors used both first-hand information and secondary references to meet its research objectives. The authors interviewed victims, witnesses, and service providers, and evaluated their findings against existing literature on crisis intervention. The authors explained that the Department of Defense laid out the limits of a common program which served as the basis of more sophisticated initiatives, providing services to members of the military, government personnel, civilians, and families. The authors were able to show, through quantitative and qualitative methodologies, that the current programs conformed to current policies, in spite of the inconsistency among the program’s provisions. The article is helpful to advocates of victim support programs because it provides a review of literature enclosing guidelines for forming and managing a victim-witness assistance program. The literature largely reveals that victim-witness assistance programs will substantially benefit from a culturally sensitive approach. This proactive model of the particular needs of victims and witnesses belonging to different cultural groups was discovered to be absent in many programs. Thus, it is important for current and future victim-witness assistance programs to take into consideration cultural differences, as well as the needs of the most vulnerable populations such as the young and the elderly. Brown, S. (2008). The Murder Inquiry and the Complexities of Victim Experiences: The Need for a Community and Social Justice Perspective. British Journal of Community Justice, 6(3), 34+ The author is a professor of criminology at the University of Plymouth and an active victim advocate. She adopts a socially aware model of research to effectively link crime victims’ needs and policymaking. The article discusses the emotional, psychological, and legal difficulties experienced by victims, especially by homicide survivors, and the need for rigorous victim support services for these victims. Homicide survivors are usually caught in a terrible condition where their grief is worsened by an entire array of interconnected factors arising from the murder investigation process. These involve invasion of privacy, misinformation, financial constraints, access to resources, etc. Conflicts within the family may aggravate. More unfortunate is the fact that where young people are concerned, extensive counseling and treatment needs emerge. Moreover, there is the nonsensical public perception of the homicide survivor. The investigations conducted by victim support agencies, while substantiating the usefulness of emotional and practical assistance, demonstrate the severity of the issues of homicide survivors as aggravated by the criminal justice system. In comparison to the other articles, this article uses empirical findings from the examination of murder inquiry by the author herself in order to raise questions about the impact of the current murder investigation on social and welfare initiatives. Moreover, this article is specific to the needs and plight of homicide survivors. It adopts a legal-scientific approach to murder inquiry in order to fully understand its impact on the broader response of the society and the criminal justice system to homicide survivors. This, interestingly, rules out a wider community justice model of victimization. This article is useful to those planning to build their own victim assistance program for it provides a comprehensive description of the relevance of the social justice and community model to support services for homicide survivors. The author repeatedly stresses that it is important of victim assistance programs to recognize sincerely that homicide survivors may have special needs that are compounded by the investigation process of the criminal justice system. She also presented a paradigm for appropriate, synchronized referral systems inside and outside the criminal justice system to guarantee more inclusive and effective support services for homicide victims. Camacho, C. & Alarid, L.F. (2008). The Significance of the Victim Advocate for Domestic Violence Victims in Municipal Court. Violence and Victims, 23(3), 288+ The authors are both affiliated to the criminal justice system of Texas. They are also fervent advocates of victim assistance programs, especially those addressing the needs of victims of domestic violence. The objective of their article is to analyze procedures exercised by the victim support initiatives alongside other factors so as to evaluate their effect on the willingness of the victims to cooperate and the current standpoint of the municipal court on domestic violence. The findings show that the services of victims support groups and victim assistance program were the key determinants of whether or not a victim is willing to cooperate or take part in the disposition trial. The findings of the study are substantiated by policies implemented by the victim assistance bureau of the city prosecutor. The authors specified that their findings about cases of misconduct were substantiated by earlier investigations with cases of felony domestic violence that revealed that victim supporters can assist victims in understanding the legal processes and persuade them to cooperate with prosecution. When victims are engaged in legal procedures and are encouraged to voice out their needs, they are more willing to cooperate with prosecution. In comparison to the other articles, this article examines how the participation of victims may influence the result of the defendant’s case in misconducts. This research makes use of numerous municipal cases from a specific domestic violence court to look at the victim advocate’s role and factors that had an effect on the willingness of victims to cooperate with the prosecution. In order to make sure that resolutions in all cases were coherent, the authors interviewed all the decision makers, namely, the judge, prosecutor, and court advocate. This article is valuable to the current intentions of building a victim assistance program for it addresses the factors that encourage, or discourage, victims to cooperate with the criminal justice system. The authors decisively prove that partnership between the court advocate, the victim assistance program, and the prosecutor must be given prime importance as an empowering mechanism for victims. Moreover, the study advises victim assistance program to take into account the demographic variables relating to victims of domestic violence—most are females and members of minority ethnic groups—for they also affect victim cooperation. This article emphasizes the importance of court advocates and service providers. Greer, D. (1994). A Transatlantic Perspective on the Compensation of Crime Victims in the United States. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 85(2), 333+ Desmond Greer is a university lecturer of Common Law at the University of Belfast. He specifically studies crime victims, and currently focuses on the status of victims as regards compensation laws in developed countries, such as the UK and the United States. His article discusses the theoretical issues experienced by compensation schemes for crime victims in the United States. It evaluates the present compensation systems in Britain and the United States in connection with the scope of victims’ compensation rights, how perception of a victim has evolved, the definition and essence of compensation, when victims become disenfranchised, and the level to which there is an unsuccessful attempt to fulfill the victims’ needs for compensation. The aim of the author is to generate findings of importance for the future expansion of victims’ compensation, as well as for the inclusion of such concerns in victim assistance programs. In comparison to the other articles, this article focuses on the perennial issue of victims’ right to compensation. It used figures and statistics to show the number of crime victims who do not receive compensation, and how this condition detrimentally affect their ability to cope with the outcomes of their victimization. The article employs a comparative approach to demonstrate the conceptual problems inherent in the practice of victims’ compensation scheme. It also provides a comparison between the overall compensation given to crime victims in the United States since 1992 and the immediate economic impacts of crime on victims. Due to a certain extent of unreliability of available data, the author did not provide any definite conclusion to his findings. This article is useful to those planning to form a victim assistance program for it addresses one of the most important resources that victims need, but are persistently lacking—compensation. These financial concerns and knowledge of compensation schemes for victims should be embedded into all forms of victim assistance program in order for the clients and service providers to have valuable knowledge about victims’ rights to reparation under the framework of restorative justice. The article provides guidance on how the criminal justice system as well as the general public can help victim support agencies guarantee the fulfillment of the legal duty of the state to crime victims. Neff, J., Patterson, M., & Johnson, S. (2012). Meeting the Training Needs of Those Who Meet the Needs of Victims: Assessing Service Providers. Violence and Victims, 27(4), 609+ The authors are all advocates of victims’ rights and founders of major victim assistance programs in Virginia. They provided direction to authorities all over the country as they formed or administered state victim assistance programs. Their article analyzes the current knowledge, experience, and performance of victim service providers (VSPs). Because victim services are quite new, the authors assume that VSPs are also in their initial phases of development. The authors identify discrepancies in the VSPs’ training and expertise. They found out that VSPs who have less experience and less formal education are more in need of rigorous training than those who have greater experience and education. In comparison to the other articles, this article mainly focuses on the training needs of VSPs. It acknowledges the gap in literature and practice: there is much knowledge about the needs of the victims, but very few are known about the needs of those providing support for the victims. The study is also designed to help those who want to build and maintain a state victim assistance training school. The study is purely qualitative but it was able to produce a comprehensive account of the kinds of assistance required by victims and the types of training needed by VSPs. This article is helpful to those who plan to develop a victim assistance program. First, it identifies the exact support needs of victims. For instance, victims require prompt and correct information about their rights within the criminal justice system. They also require protection from possible threats, temporary housing, and medical support. More importantly, they may require emotional and social assistance because of the trauma caused by their victimization. Second, the article provides guidance on how victims can be better supported, especially in collaboration with their family, friends, and the criminal justice agencies. Third, the article specifies how VSPs can better serve their clients through further training and education, such as those provided by nonprofit organizations. Ultimately, the suggestion for those designing and overseeing training courses is to make them accessible to every VSP. These training programs guarantee that victims obtain the necessary and appropriate support. References Bartlett, M. & Padgett, M. (1997). Development and Implementation of a Victim-Witness Assistance Program at Royal Air Force Lakenheath, United Kingdom. Ann Arbor, MI: Proquest. Brown, S. (2008). The Murder Inquiry and the Complexities of Victim Experiences: The Need for a Community and Social Justice Perspective. British Journal of Community Justice, 6(3), 34+ Camacho, C. & Alarid, L.F. (2008). The Significance of the Victim Advocate for Domestic Violence Victims in Municipal Court. Violence and Victims, 23(3), 288+ Greer, D. (1994). A Transatlantic Perspective on the Compensation of Crime Victims in the United States. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 85(2), 333+ Neff, J., Patterson, M., & Johnson, S. (2012). Meeting the Training Needs of Those Who Meet the Needs of Victims: Assessing Service Providers. Violence and Victims, 27(4), 609+ Read More