Victim Assistance in Canada (From Resource Material Series No. 56, P 48-59, 2000, Hiroshi Iitsuka and Rebecca Findlay-Debeck, eds. -- See NCJ-191475)

• NCJ Number: 191479
• Author(s): Ezzat A. Fattah
• Date Published: December 2000
• Length: 12 pages
• Sale Source: United Nations Asia and Far East Institute for the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Offenders
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Issue Overview; Historical Overview
• Language: English
• Country: Japan
• Note: Work product of the 112th UNAFEI International Training Course, “Participation of the Public and Victims for More Fair and Effective Criminal Justice.”

Annotation

After presenting a brief history of victim assistance in Canada, this paper profiles models of victim assistance and then discusses program setting and personnel, the needs of crime victims, the types of services, financial assistance to crime victims in Canada, offender restitution, and victim-offender reconciliation and victim-offender mediation programs.

Abstract

In Canada there are no national standards or unified sets of rules that govern victim services. Consequently, victim services are more developed in certain areas than in others, and in some places they are virtually nonexistent. Even in an area such as government compensation to victims of crime, because each Province has its own compensation act or law, the rules and amounts of compensation can have substantial variation. These differences among jurisdictions make it impossible to offer a general picture of victim assistance in Canada or to present a general synopsis of the state of victim services. In profiling the diversity of issues manifested in the state of victim services in Canada, the paper reviews the models of victim assistance being debated and implemented in various Canadian jurisdictions, such as victim assistance programs housed in police departments and victim assistance programs placed in the community. A section on the needs of crime victims identifies the diversity of crime-victim need that arise from various types of victimizations, such as domestic violence, sexual offenses, property offenses, and offenses that cause varying degrees of emotional and physical damage to the victim. The types of services required to meet various victim needs are discussed. This is followed by overviews of various types of victim services that exist in Canadian jurisdictions, namely, financial assistance to crime victims, offender restitution, and victim-offender reconciliation and victim-offender mediation programs.