Surfing the Crime Net: Victim Support and Victim Assistance Programmes
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Surfing the Crime Net: Victim Support and Victim Assistance Programmes R.I. Mawby1 Introduction Harm reduction is the bedfellow of crime prevention. Providing services for victims at the time an offence is reported to the police may help alleviate the pain of victimisation and enable crime victims to cope. At the same time, they may be offered advice on crime prevention, access to crime reduction programmes, and help in filling up claim forms and in liaising with the police and other agencies. The availability of services abroad is currently of particular relevance, with both the EU and the US emphasising reciprocity and some degree of uniformity in the way citizens who experience crime or terrorist attacks while abroad are treated. It is also relevant to practitioners and policy makers interested in examples of successful programmes, and academics seeking to understand the emergence of the victims’ movement in its various manifestations. Organised support for victims first emerged in England and Wales and in the USA in the 1970s and spread to other countries, such as the Netherlands (Mawby, 2003). However, while specialist services directed at domestic violence and rape have become more common in industrial societies, the latest international crime victim survey (ICVS) indicates that services for victims of other crimes are far less widespread (see http://www.minjust.nl/b_organ/wodc/publicaties/rapporten/pubrapp/ ob187i.htm). This review therefore focuses on the UK, Europe and the US. It also avoids detailing more specialist sites dealing with domestic violence that have been addressed in an earlier review (Joyner, 1999). In considering contributions from different countries, a distinction is drawn between those of the independent sector, government sites, and more academic sources. UK services Services for crime victims in the UK began with the first victim support scheme, set up in Bristol in 1973/1974. Despite a faltering beginning, the organisation extended nationwide, and by 1979 a national association had been established, that gradually expanded its influence over—and at the same time its financial dependence on—government (Rock, 1990). Started as a voluntary organisation with limited financial resources, providing ‘tea and sympathy’ to (mainly burglary) victims referred to it by the police (Gay et al, 1975), Victim Support is now an established national NGO, covering a wide range of crimes and encompassing a court support programme for victims/witnesses. The fact that Victim Support is multi-faceted—providing services to victims, aiming to recruit volunteers, acting as a lobbying agency, and providing factual information for interested outsiders—is reflected in its website (at http:// www.victimsupport.org.uk/site_home.html). At first sight this appears geared towards volunteer recruitment, fundraising, and providing contacts for victims seeking help via the web. Even the local schemes’ pages contain little more than a standardised invitation to contact the local office.
Copyright © 2004 Perpetuity Press Lt
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