NCJ Number
74863
Date Published
1977
Length
20 pages
Annotation
The Victim/Witness Assistance Project (V/WAP) of Kings County, N.Y., is described in this operations report; activities for the period April 1, 1977, through June 30, 1977, are emphasized.
Abstract
V/WAP was established in July 1975 to aid crime victims and to manage appearances of witnesses for the King's County District Attorney's Office. The project is funded by LEAA, with matching funds provided by New York City. The project offers a number of services designed to mitigate difficulties encountered as a result of being vitimized or coming to court. These services include a crime victim hotline, emergency repair service for burglary victims, transportation services, a witness reception center for persons awaiting court appearances, day care for children of witnesses, and a services counselor for persons with social service needs. In addition, the V/WAP notification unit works in conjunction with the district attorney's office to regulate the appearances of police and civilian prosecution witnesses. In accordance with its third year grant, V/WAP will begin a major experiment to test the viability of medication/arbitration as an alternative to criminal prosecution for selected cases. Data will be available regarding this experiment in the next report. During the second quarter of 1977, V/WAP processed 16,153 civilian appearances. Of these witnesses processed, 13.4 percent were placed on alert, 14 percent were excused, and 72.4 percent were required to appear. V/WAP placed 4,268 police officers on alert during the quarter. Services counselor-client contacts totaled 471 for this period, an increase of approximately 120 percent over the first quarter of the year. Seven figures are included. For the first quarter report, see NCJ 74864.