NCJ Number
251600
Date Published
April 2018
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This report uses data from the U.S. Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) to assess the current status of police-based services to crime victims, followed by recommendations for improving such victim services and relevant data collection.
Abstract
BJS maintains approximately 12 national data collections on federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies across the country. One of the most expansive of these collections is the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics program (LEMAS), which collects data from just over 3,000 state and local law enforcement agencies. Among the many areas covered by LEMAS is how law enforcement agencies are structured to provide victim assistance. According to the most recent data (LEMAS 2013), only 13 percent of U.S. law enforcement agencies reported having a specialized unit with full- or part-time personnel assigned to victim assistance, and only an additional 12 percent reported having any dedicated victim assistance personnel. Just over half of the agencies reported having some type of policies, procedures, or training related to victim assistance, but with no personnel dedicated to victim assistance. Twenty percent of reporting agencies indicated they had no policies or procedures related to victim assistance. Thirty-two percent of law enforcement agencies reported having a partnership or written agreement with a local civic, business, or governmental organization; however, LEMAS data do not specify whether these partnerships are related to victim services. Law enforcement leaders must participate in conversations about how communities can best meet crime victims' needs for services. Building more consistent, trauma-informed, police-based victim services will also require augmenting the statistical picture with more data about what works. Efforts underway to do this are described in this report.