NCJ Number
254782
Date Published
July 2013
Length
0 pages
Annotation
This Fact Sheet of the U.S. Justice Department's Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) describes ways in which OVC resources are being used to improve services for crime victims in Indian Country.
Abstract
This Fact Sheet first notes that in many American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities there is poverty, isolation, high crime rates, and a lack of services for many crime victims. As administrator of the Crime Victims Fund, OVC channels both formula and discretionary grant funding to programs that support the rights of AI/AN crime victims, which facilitate building capacity for victim services through training, technical assistance, the promotion of model programs, and innovations that fill gaps in needed victim services. This Fact Sheet describes the features of the Children's Justice Act Partnerships for Indian Communities grant program and the Comprehensive Tribal Victim Assistance discretionary grant program. Also described are ways in which justice for crime victims is being improved in Indian Country by enhancing the legal knowledge and skills of prosecutors, law enforcement personnel, and related professionals in providing justice and services for victims of domestic violence, which is at epidemic proportions in Indian Country. OVC also supports a restorative justice program intended to identify, examine, and document effective victim-centered restorative justice practices that are culturally responsive to the traditions and values of AI/AN people. OVC is also enhancing the response to tribal victims of sexual assault through an initiative that is developing and improving the work of AI/AN Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners in collaboration with a Sexual Assault response Team (SANE-SART). The Fact Sheet concludes with a review of the OVC Vision 21 resources for AI/AN crime victims.