Kristina Rose, the Director of the Office of Victim of Crime (OVC), an agency in the Office of Justice Programs of the U.S. Justice Department, expresses and guides OVC’s work under the conviction that “Victims count, victims matter.”
She interprets this to mean that victims not only must receive services and guidance from the criminal justice system, but must also be included in policymaking and the implementation of services related to community safety. In this article, she describes some OVC-sponsored programs that support this vision. Through the Enhancing Law Enforcement Response to Victims Program (ELERV), OVC has partnered with the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) to introduce law enforcement leaders to the benefits and methods for adopting victim-centered, trauma-informed philosophies to improve the response to crime victims. In the Law Enforcement-Based Direct Victim Services Program (LEV), funding is provided to law enforcement agencies so they can hire and sustain victim service providers to improve the overall response to victims of crime, with an emphasis on reaching and serving victims in high-crime areas. The Vicarious Trauma Response Initiative (VTRI) enables the IACP to provide resources, training, and technical assistance to 12 communities seeking to build interdisciplinary, cross-agency collaborations to assess and address the impact of vicarious trauma on agencies’ staff. When law enforcement agencies’ staff address their own trauma, they are better equipped to respond to victims. Integrity, Action. and Justice: Strengthening Law Enforcement Response to Domestic and Sexual Violence Demonstration Initiative supports the IACP as they build the capacity of six law enforcement agencies to raise awareness about the existence and impact of gender bias and improve their response to sexual assault and domestic violence victims