Abstract:
The Office for Victims of Crime has called for more research into how victims’ rights provisions are implemented and enforced; whether victims receive the rights and services to which they are entitled; whether being provided these rights and services increases victims’ well-being; and whether these services improve criminal justice outcomes. However, the field of victim legal services has so far lacked a conceptual framework that articulates the ultimate goals of these services, and how these services promote those goals. Such a framework can help victim legal services providers to: better craft programs that provide meaningful legal and social services to crime victims; better measure the impact of their interventions through meaningful evaluation; better tell their stories to community, criminal justice, victim services, and funding stakeholders.
The Justice Research and Statistics Association (JRSA) and the National Crime Victim Law Institute (NCVLI) were funded by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) to create such a conceptual model through a collaborative process, and to pilot test it with three legal clinics.
This webinar presents the conceptual model, talks about its uses in the field and the successes and challenges with testing it so far. [Author Abstract]
