The Office for Victims of Crime (OVC), an agency within the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), was formally established by Congress in 1988 through an amendment to the Victims of Crime Act of 1984 (VOCA). VOCA was largely an outcome of the 1982 President’s Task Force on Victims of Crime and established not only the Crime Victims Fund (CVF) and OVC but also separate program initiatives to address the rights and needs of all crime victims. VOCA authorizes OVC to fund states to operate crime victim assistance and compensation programs and develop demonstration initiatives and national-scope training and technical assistance. An amendment to VOCA also allows OVC to fund improved investigation and prosecution of child abuse in Indian Country under the Children’s Justice Act (CJA). Crime victims receive support from OVC through formula and discretionary grants for programs and projects designed to enhance victims’ rights and services. OVC also has an advocacy and leadership role in developing policy for and raising awareness of crime victims’ rights and provides an array of training and other targeted resources for the many professionals who work with victims.

The mission of OVC is to enhance the Nation’s capability to assist crime victims and to provide leadership in changing attitudes and developing policies and practices that promote justice and healing for all victims of crimes. OVC accomplishes its mission by

• Administering CVF.
• Funding direct services to crime victims.
• Providing training programs that reach diverse professionals nationally and internationally.
• Sponsoring demonstration programs and projects that have national impact.
• Publishing and disseminating materials that highlight promising practices for the effective treatment of crime victims that can be replicated.
• Developing policy and establishing public awareness initiatives that improve the response to needs of crime victims.
• Offering technical assistance to governments, private-sector programs, and other allied professionals.

About the Office for Victims of Crime Resource Center

Established by OVC, the Office for Victims of Crime Resource Center (OVCRC) is your primary source for crime victim information. Whether you are drafting policies on domestic violence, searching for up-to-date research on child abuse, investigating a story on hate crime, or seeking statistics on the extent and nature of victimization in the United States, you can turn to OVCRC. Highly trained information specialists answer your questions by using OVC and other DOJ publications, national and regional victimization statistics, a comprehensive criminal and juvenile justice library, and OVCRC’s well-established network of victim advocates and organizations.

As a component of the National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS), OVCRC has direct access to the most comprehensive criminal justice library in the world—the NCJRS Research and Information Center, which contains the latest research findings, statistical reports, program descriptions, and evaluations on victim issues published by public and private sources, including the Federal Government. OVCRC acquires more than 500 new documents for the NCJRS collection each year, covering the following topics:

In addition, OVCRC has developed a vast network of agencies, organizations, and individuals who serve the needs of crime victims. Through this network, OVCRC information specialists will direct clients, such as victim/witness coordinators, experts studying the psychological effects of victimization, or grassroots organizations, to resources that can address their concerns.

Information about crime victims is now available from OVCRC 24 hours a day through the Internet and Fax-on-Demand System. The NCJRS World Wide Web Justice Information Center (JIC) home page (www.ncjrs.gov) can lead you to menus that provide information and publications from all OJP agencies—Office for Victims of Crime, National Institute of Justice (NIJ), Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), and Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA)—as well as from the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). Many publications are available in a format that allows you to download full text and graphics. Announcements about current publications and developments in criminal justice also are published in the free Justice Information (JUSTINFO) Electronic Newsletter (www.ncjrs.gov/justinfo/dates.html) distributed on the 1st and 15th of every month. For more information and help with online services, first-time users can send an e-mail message to look@ncjrs.gov. If you require technical assistance or have specific questions on criminal and juvenile justice topics, you can send an e-mail containing your query to askncjrs@ncjrs.gov. Additionally, selected publications can be obtained through the Fax-on-Demand System. Call 1–800–627–6872 and follow the instructions to receive, by fax, a listing of available publications.

OVCRC distributes victim-related publications produced by OVC, other OJP agencies, and the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Most publications are free, including OVC documents, BJS data reports, NIJ research publications, BJA program descriptions and evaluations, OJJDP bulletins, and ONDCP drug-related crime fact sheets.

OVC publications include research findings, statistics, and literature on emerging victim issues; studies of promising practices and demonstration programs with national impact; guides for policy development; and technical assistance and skill-building tools.

OVCRC information specialists work with you to determine which products would best meet your information needs. Specialized products include

• Information packages containing data and research summaries on specific victim issues, relevant OJP documents, a reading list, and contact referrals.
• Fact sheets summarizing new issues affecting victims and their service providers.
• Videos that can be used as training tools for victim service providers and allied professionals.

In keeping with its primary purpose—to increase awareness of crime victims’ needs and to improve services to them—OVCRC maintains a close alliance with victim service professionals. As part of its outreach efforts, OVCRC staff attend national, state, and local conferences and distribute free literature at OVCRC exhibits. In addition, OVCRC provides publications and resource materials for training workshops, seminars, and conferences on request.

This resource guide, which is updated annually, presents a catalogue of available OVC publications and other resources, such as videos and technical assistance tools, arranged alphabetically by topic. Victim-related documents published by other OJP agencies are also listed in this guide. The publication date, cost (if any), NCJ number, and authoring agency are listed at the end of each description; if the document is available online, a URL is given. Generally, documents that are available in PDF format are also available in ASCII text and HTML formats. A listing of all documents in this guide, alphabetical by title, can be found in the index.

To order a publication or video listed in the catalogue, please contact OVCRC by phone at 1–800–627–6872, by fax at 410–792–4358, by e-mail at askncjrs@ncjrs.gov, or by mail at NCJRS, P.O. Box 6000, Rockville, MD 20849–6000. An order form can be found at the end of this guide. NCJRS also has an online ordering system that you can access 24 hours a day at www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/AlphaList.aspx.