Securing Rights for Victims: A Process Evaluation of the National Crime Victim Law Institute's Victims' Rights Clinics

• NCJ Number: 241952
• Author(s): Robert Davis; James M. Anderson; Julie Whitman; Susan Howley
• Date Published: 2009
• Length: 138 pages
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Monograph

Annotation

This is the final process-evaluation report of the National Crime Victim Law Institute's victims' rights clinics.

Abstract

This monograph is based on case studies of the individual State clinics and describes a process evaluation conducted by the RAND Corporation and National Center for Victims of Crime of the National Crime Victim Law Institute (NCVLI) State and Federal victims' rights clinics. The body of the monograph synthesizes commonalities of experiences among the individual clinics, as well as differences in their approaches and environments. Findings show that there is great diversity in the ways in which clinics have been structured; although there are problems with the use of pro bono attorneys, they hold potential for expanding the volume of cases that clinics handle and their geographic coverage; while their primary focus has always been on addressing violations of clients' legal rights, most of the clinics have developed a focus that includes addressing all of victims' crime-related needs, either directly or through referrals to other service providers; clinics differ substantially in their approaches and methods of operating; standing has been the threshold issue that clinics have had to confront at the trial-court level; and some clinics have won significant gains at the appellate and federal levels. The evaluation was funded by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ). The clinics were designed to increase awareness of victims' rights among criminal-justice professionals and to respond to violations of rights through legal advocacy. Tables, figures, and references