NCJ Number
125461
Date Published
1990
Length
280 pages
Annotation
This book reviews the history of victimology, research on the nature of victim/witness assistance programs, and approaches to the needs of victims of various types of crime.
Abstract
Part I focuses on the history and emergence of the field of victimology and on the development of victim compensation, family violence intervention programs, and victim/witness assistance programs. Part II reports on the first systematic study of the organizational structure and functions of 184 victim service and witness assistance programs. Other information on the programs addresses staffing patterns, funding levels and sources, and the use of volunteers. Included in Part II are chapters on specialized services for elderly crime victims; respondents' self-evaluation of program strengths, problems, and needed changes; and descriptions of model victim service and witness assistance programs. Part III examines specific programs, recovery services, and remedies for crime victims. A case study shows how the Program in Social Ecology at the University of California at Irvine helped develop a victim/witness program for the community. Other chapters address victim/witness services pertinent to missing and murdered children, battered women and their children, and victims of family violence. The concluding chapter discusses restitution to crime victims as a presumptive requirement in criminal case dispositions. Chapter references, appended directory of respondents to the National Survey of Victim/Witness Assistance Programs. For individual chapters, see NCJ 125462-71.