The Field Of Victim Advocacy

A fire rose within to burn social economic barriers that imprisoned me from achieving an education. As a member of a low-income household, I continually witnessed my parents struggling to pay for utilities, rent, and groceries. Although we received government assistance, it never seemed to be enough. My father worked long hours at a dairy factory to provide for our family, but his addiction to alcohol took most of his income. My mother depended on government assistance due to her chronic asthma and arthritis. Not being able to rely on my parents for stability, my six older siblings were forced to drop out of high school to become providers of their own.

For example, beginning in 1992, the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Health Care Organizations, required that all accredited hospitals implement policies and procedures for identifying, treating and referring victims of abuse (Mason, 1993). This included in-service training programs for staff members of their emergency departments and ambulatory care facilities (Mason, 1993). In 1994, 83 organizations, including the American Nurses’ Association and the American Bar Association, met to identify gaps and barriers between the health care delivery and criminal justice systems in dealing with family violence cases. Among their recommendations were the following: a mechanism for community professional coordination in assessment to maximize family safety; the creation of community-based family violence coordination councils; and the need to establish, in every community, a comprehensive, culturally sensitive, and accessible intervention system for family violence that links health, justice, mental health, social service, and educational systems (Stanley, 1994). In addition, the American Medical Association (AMA) published guidelines for Health care professionals to use in identifying domestic violence victims. Violent families are easy to describe

2. Identify two victim resources available locally and nationally. Include the organization’s name and website, and a summary of their services.

This paper will go in detail about a conducted in-person interview on a victim advocate named Christine Heer. Christine has a Master’s degree in Social work (MSW), including a Juris Doctor degree (JD). In addition, she is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and a Domestic Violence Specialist (DVS). Christine earned her education at Rutgers University and has been practicing social work for as long as 27 years and is still going strong. She is also part of the NASW Ethics committee. Christine’s work mainly involves with victim assistance services that specializes in family law, collaborative law, mediation, mental health, education and therapy. As of now, she is teaching at Rutgers Continuing Education and the Victim Assistance Academy.

Victim advocates and handlers have been around for many years and are entrusted with the responsibility and power to ensure the safety, security, and comfort of American victims. It is true that most people can relate to victims and help them to an extent. However, a Victim Advocate 's sole purpose is to serve those in need which makes them the backbone of most departments. It can also be said that victim advocates are an underrated part of law enforcement because while most people idolize detectives and their seemingly glamorous lifestyle against criminals, the men and women that call themselves Victim Advocates protect and serve those in need on an unmatchable level.

An interview conducted by Curtis Scheck who volunteers for the Lethbridge Victim Service Unit. Curtis has volunteered for two years and continues to pursue it. He defines the role of the organization as one who advocates for those who are unheard after a traumatic event. He states “[the] victim gets pushed aside; and we put them first” (Scheck, personal communications). The service is broken down into three sections; crisis support (first responders), court supports, and lastly media support. Curtis works in the crisis support section, providing immediate support after the first contact with the police. Witnessing first hand how the rights of a victim can be extremely important. The rights of a victim include victim impact statements, legislative

Victim rights are set in place to give victims of a crime ground to stand on to take action and seek justice against the offender. It truly gives the victim a place within the legal system rather than the defendant having all of the rights like it was in the past. “Victims are meaningful; they are more than just witnesses, they are more than just players, they are important participants in the Criminal Justice System” (Franks, A., 2007). Victims are the ones who can stand up against what has wrongfully been done to them and prevail with justice by the offender having to do time for their crime. Not only does this justice help the victim recover, it helps future victims have rights and have an easier time winning their case in the court of law.

Before sexual assault advocacy training I had a textbook understanding of advocacy as speaking out in support of something. By the end I saw advocacy as the active form of compassion. The training program defined advocacy as caring for the needs of the individual, ensuring that they are well informed about the process they are going through, and when necessary, defending their best interests. Working with an excellent Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner program at Sparrow Hospital meant I almost exclusively needed to provide only the first two jobs of an advocate. In the one instance where I felt it necessary to defend my patients interests, I failed and it still haunts me.

I grew up in a highly crime/drug infested neighborhood; which has given me a bias opinion about drug addicts and/or offenders and I doubt that a video and/or learning resource/s can sway that. The vast majority of violent offenders that I have known were on drugs and like most drug addicts seemed to feel a huge amount of self-pity and a have a huge un-realistic self-worth (they thought they were more important than the rest of the people living on the planet earth). My assumption about victims before watching the video is that no victim deserves to have received that title; no one has the right to steal and/or hurt another person for any reason.

As stated in Ministry of Justice (2013) press release victims of crime will receive more support than ever before to help bring offenders to justice and move on with their lives. The new Victims’ Code was set up explaining that people should expect from criminal justice agencies from the moment of reporting the crime to the end of trial. According to the Code victims of the most serious crimes, including hate crime, domestic violence, terrorism and sexual offences should get access to services like pre-trial therapy and counselling. There are free support and advice are available for victims of all crimes from Victims’ Information Service.

Victim’s rights provide victims with basic legal rights that they are entitled to. To begin with, victims are allowed to describe the pain, suffering, and emotional trauma they have endured as a result of victimization by use of a Victim Impact Statement (VIS). These statements have the power to influence the decision-making of judges, looking at sentencing or parole (National Center for Victims of Crime, 2008). After experiencing a serious and life changing event, a VIS allows victims to finally tell their stories and gives victims back some control in their lives. For example, if a woman has been a victim of domestic abuse for countless years, this statement can help explain to her community the tragic effect that domestic violence can have on a person. Furthermore, another right that victims have is the right to protection. Because participating in the criminal justice system can often endanger victims, safety measures are available to protect victims (Daigle, 2013). Going through a criminal trial can be a trying time for anyone, especially if a person knows his or her perpetrator. With the insurance of some type of protection, victims will go into a trial with more confidence than they otherwise would have, if it comes to

Victims’ rights are laws that have been passed by all states and the federal government for the purpose of increasing the willingness of victims to cooperate with police officers in order to improve job satisfaction. A victim is defined as an individual that was harmed by a crime committed by another individual. However, that doesn’t mean that these rights are truly respected and followed by all states.

Though these men undoubtedly changed the way we view child abuse and respond to it, perhaps child advocacy groups were the first organizations to bridge the gap between social services and the justice system. Child advocacy organizations like National Children’s Advocacy Center, which “revolutionized our nation’s response to child sexual abuse” (“History,” 2015) and Justice For Children are organizations that were started in the late 1980s to address issues of child abuse and respond to such abuse in ways that the justice system and social services failed to do. Child advocacy organizations started during this time retain a vast amount of similarities. For example, former district attorney prosecutors started both Justice For Children and

Society has not been very supportive of victims partially because society does not know how to approach the matter. Here in our community we have had a black cloud over the center which is slowly letting rays of sunshine in. It has taken a few years for our community as a whole to realize the purpose we serve in being a center for domestic violence. Still there are negative emotions which are hard to overcome. I know that I was not even given the opportunity to talk with a Victim Advocate when I was abused and it wasn’t until a recent change in victim’s rights for police to give victims a Victim referral sheet. It is a law in Wyoming to have centers with trained Victim Advocates in every county to serve this particular group of victims. It is also a law in Wyoming that all people who witness or hear about abuse of another make a mandatory report to law enforcement. One could even anonymously report abuse to

“To respond to the immediate needs of victims of domestic violence and sexual assault”. This statement was the overarching goal presented at my first new advocate/counselor training with Renewal House. Initially, I believed this goal to be straightforward and we would be given a formula for success to follow that would hold true is any case we may face. As the training moved forward it was quickly made clear that this “simple” goal needed to be approached with tenacity and strong critical thinking skills, as the immediate effects of trauma on victims are often extremely complex. There was no formula or list of steps to follow, but rather a body of empirical evidence and a skill set to serve as a guide to serving clients. It was this