A national network of professionals and volunteers concerned with victims and witnesses of gang violence should be established to provide vision, support, and direction to federal, state, tribal, and local initiatives.

A national network of professionals and volunteers should not be limited solely to practitioners who work mainly with victims and witnesses of gang violence. Additional participants should include, but not be limited to: other victim assistance organizations that should specialize in helping victims of gang violence; victim compensation programs and professionals; criminal justice professionals and their related associations--including law enforcement officials, prosecutors, judges, and probation and corrections authorities-- at the local, state and federal levels; national advocacy coalitions with business and community leaders, such as Chambers of Commerce and civic organizations; and the news media.

Through training and technical assistance opportunities such as those recommended in this report, the publication of a newsletter, OVC bulletins, and other outreach measures, network members can share information and resources. This initiative would achieve the ultimate goal of reducing perceived obstacles to exercising basic victims rights and improving assistance and services to victims and witnesses of gang-related crimes.

Comprehensive vertical assistance units for victims of gang violence should be established in all jurisdictions where gang activity is pervasive. These units could offer the types of multi-lingual services provided by the Gang Victim Services Program in Orange County, California, which include emergency crisis response services, accompaniment throughout the criminal justice system, and training for service providers.

Currently, many system-based victim assistance units are not user friendly to victims and witnesses of gang violence.

Each unit should be staffed by a coordinator who has experience in providing sensitive, ongoing assistance to victims and witnesses of gang violence, as well as general expertise in the criminal justice system, gang prosecutions, and methods of how juvenile justice and corrections systems deal with gangs. Professional and volunteer support should be sought from gang prevention and intervention programs, system- and community-based victim assistance organizations, community policing efforts, and victims/survivors of gang violence. Program staff and volunteers must have the ability to provide multilingual and dialect-specific services and support on a 24-hour basis.

At a minimum, the program should address the following issues:

• Availability of Staff. Staff and volunteers who are trained in culturally-specific death notification and crisis intervention should be on-call at all times (24-hours a day, seven days a week). Comprehensive intervention services must be made available to victims and witnesses as soon as a gang-related crime is reported. Immediate intervention services are often lacking because referrals are not made at the crisis stage of crimes for victims and witnesses. Improved coordination among law enforcement, prosecutors and victim service providers is needed, as well as interagency agreements regarding referrals and responsibilities for victim assistance.

  Volunteer programs must be established to increase human resources needed to provide victim and witness assistance around-the-clock in jurisdictions where gang violence is pervasive. There is a lack of volunteers who are willing to assist victims of gang violence. Efforts to recruit and train volunteers and interns from allied professions should be institutionalized within the gang victim assistance program. Possible volunteer sources include gang prevention and intervention programs and community policing efforts, colleges and universities through internship programs, and victims and survivors of gang violence who want to assist other victims.

• Multicultural/multilingual services. Program staff and volunteers should provide multilingual information, crisis counseling, and referrals for ongoing assistance to victims and witnesses of gang violence. All services should be confidential and should be coordinated, as needed, with criminal justice and law enforcement officials for calls related to witness intimidation, harassment, or harm.

• Advocacy and Coordination. By coordinating outreach efforts with the news media, justice officials, and other victim assistance programs, more victims of gang-related violence will be aware of services available to assist them. Detailed information about specific victims' rights and services should be available on-site at all locations at which victims and witnesses of gang violence might be present.

  Coordinating efforts with emergency rooms, hospitals, medical examiners, and funeral homes will facilitate prompt referrals and sensitive responses to victims, families, and survivors of gang-related violence.

  Coordination with appropriate justice officials is critical to the effective provision of victim/witness protection services. Victims and witnesses may be afraid to take advantage of witness protection assistance. Often they are threatened (including death threats) or intimidated into not getting involved in investigations and prosecutions. Justice officials are uniquely able to respond to these concerns.

• Information Referral and Assistance Services. Currently, there are few services available for extended family members of victims and witnesses of gang violence. Outreach programs to this underserved population, along with support groups and information dissemination, should be established.

  Assistance in completing victim compensation applications must be provided on a timely basis, and compensation forms should be made available in all hospital emergency rooms. The victim compensation application process can be bureaucratic and burdened by "red tape" for victims of gang violence. The gang victim assistance unit should guide victims through the process. If there is a determination that the victim was "contributory" in the crime, the claim for compensation is denied. Each case should be examined thoroughly to insure that this is an appropriate determination before the victim is considered "ineligible" for compensation. Compensation forms, and help in understanding and completing forms, should be available in emergency rooms. Copy and fax machines should be available to help expedite the claims process. Follow-up assistance to compensation applications should be provided, as needed.

• Training. Training for staff and written procedures on addressing the needs of family members whose loved ones have been critically injured or killed.

  Protocols to help deal with gang culture issues, such as the possible danger to the medical personnel if gang members bring their violence into the hospital, or to funerals where they might congregate and take over the services.

Hospital-based counseling and prevention programs should be established in medical facilities that often provide services to gang violence victims. These programs could include the types of services provided by Teens on Target in California. In addition, a protocol that includes appropriate security and safety procedures should be developed to assist hospital personnel in responding to incidents of gang violence.

In addition to dealing with the often catastrophic physical medical needs of victims, medical professionals are also faced with the psychological and emotional trauma that victims and their loved ones must endure.

Safety for hospital personnel is also a significant concern, especially when victims and perpetrators--some who are armed at the time they are rushed in for treatment--arrive at the same emergency room. According to Planning Group participants, emergency rooms can be frightening places to work.

Hospitals and emergency rooms, including emergency service units, should establish written policies and protocols that address needs of victims of gang-related crime, including but not limited to:

• Victim sensitivity training that is culturally diverse and that addresses any prejudices medical professionals may have related to the race and culture of the victims they serve;

• How to work with on-call victim advocates to ensure that crisis intervention, counseling, and support are available to victims and their loved ones;

• Guidelines for ensuring the security and safety of victims, as well as medical personnel;

• Training for hospital security personnel;

• Training in and protocols for death notification that include follow-up support from a trained victim advocate;

• Information on how to question victims about past victimizations, to assist in developing plans for their physical, emotional, and psychological reconstruction;

• Guidelines recognizing the importance of allowing family members private time with critically injured or deceased victims;

• Guidelines on coordinating the transport of bodies to funeral homes;

• Provision of victim compensation forms and referrals to agencies that can help victims complete the necessary paperwork;

• Provision of information on victims' rights and services, as well as immediate referrals to crisis intervention services and support groups;

• Protocols for debriefing hospital and emergency room personnel who may have high levels of anxiety and stress from dealing with chronic gang violence and victimization; and

• Coordinating cases and medical evidence with the criminal justice system to ensure appropriate follow-up.

School-based counseling and prevention programs addressing gang violence should be established where gangs are prevalent. These programs could be modeled after the integrated mediation and violence prevention programs of Victim Services, Inc., in New York City, which include an anti-violence curriculum, support groups, and conflict resolution/peer mediation modules that are used in cases involving gang violence. Gang-impacted school districts should consider providing crisis counseling services for youth witnesses to violent crimes.

Parents in gang-infested neighborhoods speak with frustration about the strong lure gangs pose to their children. In southern California, mothers whose sons were killed in gang warfare meet to share pain that has been exacerbated because, despite their ongoing, best efforts, their younger children joined gangs that ruled their neighborhoods.

Furthermore, children in communities afflicted with gang activity struggle as they witness chronic intimidation, violence, and victimization. What is often described as "living in a war zone" is a painful reality for many of these youth and their families.

Since schools strive to offer safe havens for children in gang-infiltrated communities, these institutions are a logical place to provide prevention, intervention, and victim assistance support and services to children and their families. In New York City, schools use a series of integrated mediation and anti-violence programs developed and implemented by Victim Services, Inc. These programs combine an anti-violence curriculum, peer mediation/conflict resolution training, and support groups to help students, their families, and faculty cope with gang-related victimization and reduce their own risk of becoming involved in violence. These programs should be considered for replication in communities where there is significant gang-related activity.

Host sites should be established with support from the Office for Victims of Crime to provide interested parties from other communities with training regarding promising practices, such as comprehensive victim assistance programs based in prosecutors' offices, hospitals, and schools.

At the same time, promising practices that benefit victims of gang violence have emerged in jurisdictions such as Orange County and Oakland, California and New York City. Comprehensive programs and services based on the Orange County, California, model-- including crisis intervention, death notification, compensation assistance, support groups, and "Impact of Crime on Victims" training programs--could be replicated and tailored to the unique needs of other jurisdictions with considerable gang activities. The Oakland- based Teens on Target program, in which teenagers and young adults who were injured by gang violence provide support, encouragement, and assistance to gang violence victims in hospitals, could also be replicated in other communities. These kinds of programs could provide on-site training to others or members of their staffs could travel to other communities to assist them in establishing similar programs.

The Office for Victims of Crime should support these kinds of host-site programs and the development of protocols, policies, and training curricula that can be replicated elsewhere.

Training curricula that include cross-disciplinary information should be developed and offered to professionals who deal with victims and witnesses of gang violence. Training should be provided for first responders on how to deal with survivors at the crime scene; funeral directors on how to deal with gangs before, during, and after funeral services; all criminal justice personnel, including police, prosecutors, and judges; mental health professionals; compensation providers; and teachers.

Perhaps the most significant problem is a lack of professionals and volunteers who have specialized skills in assisting victims of gang violence, both within the criminal justice system and in community-based victim assistance programs. Curricula must be developed to facilitate linkages among key players in gang-related victim assistance and intervention, including law enforcement officials; Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs); prosecutors; judges; community-based victim assistance program directors; VOCA administrators and compensation directors; funeral directors. These key players should be targeted as primary training audiences. Special attention must also be given to the high risk factors associated with assisting victims and witnesses of gang violence.

The discussion of "promising practices" among Planning Group members led to suggestions for various components of a training and technical assistance program for people who assist victims of gang violence. They include:

• Addressing and avoiding victim blaming;

• Providing crisis intervention including immediate on-the-scene response from care givers; case assessment prior to decision-making; mobile units for service providers and volunteers; information on how to assist survivors at crime scenes, including dealing with parents' needs when a child has been murdered; and crisis intervention coordination with law enforcement personnel;

• Increasing police sensitivity, including how to deal with families, use of terminology, and ways to communicate with survivors to integrate them in the process;

• Addressing crime-specific issues involving sexual assault and homicide that deal with each victimization as a unique incident;

• Providing crime scene cleanup with kits that include bleach, brushes, and blankets;

• Showing how to provide information, resources, and referrals at the local, state and national levels--recognizing diversity by geography, race, and culture;

• Offering specialized training for emergency medical professionals;

• Helping victims understand their options and choices in the aftermath of gang-related violence;

• Providing information on the criminal justice system such as the length of case involvement, process details, and possible continuances;

• Ensuring that the criminal justice system "keeps promises" made to victims and witnesses;

• Providing notification of offender status;

• Improving death notification practices, ensuring sensitivity to unique cultures;

• Emphasizing the need to cross-train between the public and private sectors;

• Stressing case management;

• Showing how to establish a vertical unit similar to the Orange County, California model;

• Addressing victim/witness protection issues and the administration of victim/witness services for court, including transportation, escorts, child care;

• Demonstrating how to intervene with gangs before, during, and after funeral services;

• Instituting timely property return procedures;

• Addressing victim and witness safety concerns, issues and services;

• Showing how to establish rumor control; and

• Helping victims problem-solve, predict, and prepare for the future.

• Cultural diversity issues;

• Ways to establish timely and ongoing outreach to victims and witnesses;

• Methods of establishing linkages among gang prevention, intervention, and victim assistance efforts;

• Aspects of victimization that are unique to victims and witnesses of gang violence; and

• Cross-training among the many disciplines involved in victim and witness assistance in gang-related crimes.

A strong judicial education component must also be developed--perhaps in conjunction with the National Judicial College and State Judicial Educators--on issues related to victims and witnesses of gang violence, with an emphasis on training newly elected and appointed judges.

In addition, there are many licensed professionals who should receive training and technical assistance relevant to assisting victims of gang-related violence, including medical professionals, emergency medical personnel, and funeral directors. Specialized training curricula should be developed, with training mandated as a requirement for licensure.

An intensive Planning Group discussion addressed the complex issues related to funerals when gang violence results in death. Sometimes funeral directors refuse to conduct the funeral because of the length of time before they receive compensation funding for their services, sometimes as long as a year. In cases where compensation is denied, surviving family members have no money to bury their loved ones. It is difficult for victims to access alternative funding such as that available from some social service agencies. Often, survivors will go door to door to solicit contributions for burial costs.

Relevant issues that must be addressed in the training curriculum include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Surviving family members of deceased victims of gang violence can be "re-victimized" by the entire funeral process. They need immediate information on how to access funding to pay for the funeral services. Immediate assistance from trained advocates who can help them identify the "tons of information" required for funerals and/or victim compensation is crucial. The same advocates can answer important questions about the violent death, how it occurred, and what they can expect to happen now and in the future. They can also consult about the media "tainting" the victims or implying a gang affiliation.

• When compensation is available to help surviving family members, there is strict application criteria. For example, many programs require that the crime be reported within 72 hours, and survivors have one year to apply for compensation benefits. Victims must be made aware of these conditions immediately.

• Funeral directors must be prepared for the possible presence of 200 or 300 gang members at their services. More often a smaller group of "home boys" will make their presence known at a funeral, even disrupting the services. Evidence of planning for revenge is often found in the neighborhoods in the form of graffiti vowing retaliation.

  The media must receive sensitivity training on covering funerals of victims of gang-related violence, including respecting the survivors' control, decision making, and privacy concerns; refraining from interviewing children; providing a clear picture of the consequences of gang violence; avoiding glamorizing gangs; and paying attention to security/protection issues when gangs are present at funerals. The provision of information, referrals, and technical assistance via the Internet should also be explored. The OVC Resource Center and OJJDP Clearing House should work with this project to facilitate distribution of these resources through their home pages and linkages to the World Wide Web.

A protocol should be developed and implemented for debriefing all crisis responders to victims of gang violence, including emergency medical technicians and law enforcement personnel, who face serious threats to their physical and emotional well-being when not provided with ongoing opportunities for debriefing following critical incidents.

Professionals and volunteers who are faced with chronic violence as a component of their jobs often develop stress-related illnesses, such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)--which, in reality, is not a disorder but a normal response to an abnormal situation. First-responders to incidents involving gang violence--including law enforcement officials, victim advocates, EMTs, and hospital personnel--risk serious threats to their physical and emotional well-being when they are not provided with ongoing opportunities for debriefing following critical incidents. Chronic, acute, and developmental stressors related to their jobs and personal lives can combine to create considerable health threats to crisis responders.

Excellent models for debriefing workers in professions in which actual violence or the risk of violence is pervasive--including law enforcement and corrections--have proven effective in helping officers cope with the stressors of being exposed to chronic violence. The OVC-developed model for correctional staff who have been victimized or involved in critical incidents could be adapted to meet the unique and specific needs of gang violence crisis responders.

The crisis responder critical incident debriefing should be incorporated into the training curriculum cited in Recommendation Number Six.

Policies, protocols, and programs should be established to promote safety for victims and witnesses of gang violence and those who assist them at the federal, state, tribal, and local levels. These could include both emergency and short-term relocation programs, security measures in courthouses and at correctional facilities, and secure transportation. Prosecutors should be encouraged to use every legal measure possible to ensure the safety of such witnesses before, during, and after case disposition.

Fear of intimidation, harassment, or harm is the most significant reason why victims of gang violence fail to exercise their rights and seek assistance, and why witnesses to gang violence refuse to become involved in the criminal justice process. Often, victims and witnesses who cooperate are considered snitches, and they become prime targets for gang retaliation. The lack of cooperative witnesses creates a situation in which cases are often dropped.

Professionals and volunteers involved in gang prevention, intervention, and victim assistance must coordinate efforts to expand security available to victims and witnesses at all levels of the criminal and juvenile justice systems.

In most jurisdictions gang perpetrators, victims, their loved ones, and supporters converge in courthouses and corrections facilities, increasing opportunities for potential intimidation and harm to victims and witnesses. In some jurisdictions, including in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and in the South Carolina Board of Probation, Parole and Pardons facilities, separate rooms have been established through a combination of private and public donations for victims and witnesses who participate in justice processes. Secure facilities with staff and volunteers offer privacy and protection to victims and witnesses. Play areas for children, restrooms, refreshment machines, and written/videotaped information about the criminal justice system are useful features which may be incorporated in separate waiting areas.

Court safety efforts and training should incorporate a specialized component related to gang issues. Judges, court clerks, bailiffs, and all relevant law enforcement personnel should receive this vital training.

The relocation of victims and witnesses in gang-related crimes was cited as a significant challenge by Planning Group participants. While relocation programs and policies currently exist in some jurisdictions, organized witness security programs are rare and often lack coordination among agencies and jurisdictions.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) currently has eased the ability of housing authorities to make relocation available to protect victims and witnesses in anti-drug and anti-crime efforts. The Department of Justice, HUD, and Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) have collaborated to launch "Operation Safe Home" to coordinate anti-crime and anti-drug efforts of those agencies in public housing. A publication about the availability of this resource should be developed and disseminated.

In addition, relocated victims and witnesses should be provided with training about employment, life skills, and financial management. Relocation expenses--including first and last month's rent, security deposit, and moving expenses--must also be taken into consideration by federal, state, tribal, and local criminal justice officials.

Currently, VOCA funding cannot be utilized for the purposes of victim/witness security because it is prohibited by the Victims of Crime Act. Since government resources for security are extremely limited, Planning Group participants felt that consideration should be given to pursuing legislation that would fund victim/witness security and related services. Drug forfeiture funds should be examined as a possible source of funding to promote increased safety for victims and witnesses of gang violence.

A forthcoming report from the National Institute of Justice outlines a promising approach to structuring witness security programs which include, but are not limited to: victim/witness risk assessment by trained investigators; basic information about the criminal justice system; tour of court and any secure waiting areas; court escort services for those who are afraid to travel to court alone; secure transport; coordination with victim services; and emergency and short-term relocation. While no such comprehensive efforts are currently in operation, Baltimore, New York City, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles are using some of these components.

The U.S. Department of Justice should review its existing resources relevant to victims of gang violence and provide more discretionary funding to encourage the proliferation of "promising practices" that reduce gang violence and assist victims. All federally funded gang intervention/suppression programs and advisory groups should include needed services for victims of gang violence.

Four specific recommendations related to DOJ initiatives and resources were offered:

1. More discretionary dollars should be designated for victims of gang-related violence. Federal funds should also be increased for local organizations that assist such victims and witnesses.

   Currently, professionals and volunteers who are committed to assisting victims and witnesses of gang-related crime lack human and financial resources to adequately perform their jobs. Lack of services often threatens the safety and security of victims and prevents them from exercising their legal rights.

   Victims of gang-related crime do not have priority status under current VOCA regulations, so local service organizations struggle to provide important service and support on a shoestring. Additional federal support for their grass-roots activities would go far toward improving both rights and services for victims of gang-related crimes.

2. The intervention/diversion approach used by drug courts should be examined for use with nonviolent juvenile gang members.

   Planning Group participants believed that young gang members without adjudications involving violent crimes needed opportunities to become law-abiding citizens. They suggested the drug court model as an option for these youthful offenders, whereby young gang members who successfully comply with certain requirements, such as staying away from gang activities, staying off alcohol and other drugs, paying restitution, performing community service, attending schools, and obeying curfews, could avoid incarceration and a delinquent record.

   DOJ, through its Office of Drug Courts, could examine the juvenile drug court for possible application to nonviolent juvenile gang members.

3. Community policing efforts should be involved in assisting victims of gang-related crimes and should reinforce their commitment to community organizations promoting nonviolence.

   Community involvement and leadership from law enforcement are two key elements to gang intervention and victim assistance. The innovative approaches offered by community policing partnerships could provide an excellent foundation for expanding assistance and services for victims and witnesses of gang-related crimes, especially immediately following the commission of such crimes.

   Local initiatives funded by the DOJ COPS office should be encouraged to include the implementation of services and support for victims of gang-related crime as a key component of their program activities, such as the Planning Group training initiative sponsored in 1996 by the U.S. Attorney from the Western District of Arkansas. Because gang activity is increasing across Arkansas, the project coordinator identified assistance for victims and witnesses of gang violence as a priority.

   Planning Group participants stated strongly that programs and advisory committees addressing gang prevention, intervention, and suppression, and victim assistance should not operate in a vacuum. Such efforts would, without a doubt, benefit from ongoing coordination and communications that identify problems, seek innovative solutions, develop model approaches, and evaluate the effectiveness of coordinated approaches prior to replicating models in other jurisdictions.

4. Gang intervention/suppression programs that receive federal funding, such as the OJJDP demonstration sites, should incorporate victim assistance as a key element.

   The Comprehensive Community-Wide Gang Prevention, Intervention, and Suppression Program funded by OJJDP is a three-year program being piloted at five sites. It provides an important opportunity to include a victim advocate module within each vertical prosecution unit. Guidelines for inclusion of this component should be coordinated between relevant federal agencies, OJJDP and OVC. Related training and technical assistance, mentoring, and developing of program/service models, as described in this Report, Recommendations and Action Plan, should be incorporated into such federally funded programs and pilot sites.

The Office for Victims of Crime should support a working group on victims and witnesses of gang violence to provide assistance in the development of training curricula, selection of host sites, and implementation of the recommendations contained in this report.

Efforts to assist victims and witnesses of gang violence must be institutionalized within the U.S. Department of Justice. While OVC must assume the key leadership role, a working group could also guide implementation of coordinated efforts at the federal level with other Office of Justice Programs Bureaus that address gang-related issues. In addition, a working group on victims and witnesses of gang violence could offer guidance on community and institutional corrections.

A working group would augment current OVC initiatives related to victims of gang violence, such as the training and technical assistance project that will be funded in FY 1996/1997. The group could contribute to this project by providing vision, guidance, training, and ongoing technical assistance.

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