Victims and Victim Advocacy

Project Purpose:
The goal of this project is to increase awareness of the many difficulties facing victims, and the families of victims. This project will also allow you to explore services available to victims, as well as learn more about the role of victim advocates. This will be useful for those seeking a career in the criminal justice field and/or crime victim services.

Project Guidelines:
One of the goals of this course is to get you thinking more about crime victims. As our textbook mentioned whether you are considering a career in the criminal justice system, health care, first responder services, social work, or academia a deeper understand of victimization/victimology is needed to better serve victims (Burgess, 2019). For this project I also want you to think like a victim advocate. Pretend you are working for a victim assistance/advocacy organization. I want you to think about the role of victim advocates and victim services that were discussed in the textbook (pages 126-129), and some of the many tasks they are responsible for when it comes to helping victims (and victim’s families) navigate the criminal justice process.

You will first choose a victim from the list at https://www.mass.gov/guides/commemorated-victims.choose one of the victim’s whose name appears in bold blue in the list; these victims have personal stories on the website, which should make it easier to find information on them. Once you choose a victim you will do some research on the crime, the victim, and the offender (if known). You will use newspaper articles and any other available academic resources. After choosing a homicide victim you will try and think like a victim services advocate working to help that victim’s family. You will put together a presentation of some of the documents that are used by victim advocates to assist victims, covictims, and the community at large.

• First talk about the crime and the victim you chose; what happened? Describe the victim, the offender, the crime itself, and any other details readers should know. This would be useful for any other advocate/criminal justice professional who may be assisting the victim(s).
• Choose one of the theories of victimization and describe how this theory applies to, and can be used to explain, the crime that was committed against the victim you chose. Chapter 3/Chapter 13
• Create a list and discuss some of the consequences of victimization/costs of crime for the victim’s family. You should include the physical consequences, mental consequences, and financial consequences. Chapter 1
• Discuss how you would help victims’ families with compensation/restitution. What types of compensation/restitution are available to them, and what may be some of the difficulties with collecting restitution? Chapter 4
• I would like you to think about the covictims (page 516), or survivors) of homicide. Some of the common problems that confront covictims are listed in Table 13-5 on page 517 of the textbook. I would like you to think about how the crime may have affected someone close to the victim you chose. Discuss at least two (2) of the issues from Table 13-5 in relation to your victim. Chapter 13
• Create a victim impact statement (VIS) (see pages 117-120 for more on victim impact statements). Imagine you are an immediate family member of the victim and include a VIS on how the crime has impacted your family. This VIS would be given to the victim services advocate to be read when the offender is sentenced. Chapter 4
• Create a code of ethics for victim services providers. All the services provided to victims are extremely important. Victim service providers should adhere to a common set of ethical principles and professional standards. I would like you to create a list of at least three (3) ethical principles/professional standards that you feel would be important for someone working in victim services. You should not copy the ones from page 131, but use them as a guide to help you think about what you would do if you were working with victims/covictims. It may be useful for you to revisit your three “goals” for victims you came up with in Week 1. You can create more than three if you would like! Chapter 4 (see page 131 in textbook)