About Violence

Victims of crime are impacted in many ways including physical injury, emotional pain and suffering, and financial loss.  Providing a voice for victims in the criminal/ juvenile justice process and connecting them with meaningful advocacy and services can be an important part of the healing process, allowing them to transcend their victimization.  The Crime Victims Act provides victims of crime the following rights listed below. Local agencies receive funding to ensure these rights and services are delivered.  Based on the individual’s needs and preferences, services may be provided by governmental agencies such as the county victim/ witness offices, local non-profit organizations such as local rape crisis and domestic violence centers, legal service agencies, agencies serving homicide survivors and children’s advocacy centers.  


Victims of crime have the following rights:

• To be provided with basic information on available services;
• To be told about certain significant actions within the justice pertaining to the victims’ case. This includes the granting or denial of bail to an adult offender, the detention or release of a juvenile, the filing of a petition alleging delinquency, and the escape and subsequent apprehension of an adult prior to trial or a juvenile prior to adjudication;
• To receive information of the availability of crime victim’s compensation;
• To be notified of the Address Confidentiality Program if eligible to apply;
• To not be excluded from a criminal proceeding unless the court, based on the record before it, determines that testimony by the victim would be materially altered if the victim heard other testimony at the proceeding.
• To offer comment regarding a defendant’s bail conditions at the time bail conditions are imposed or at any subsequent proceeding where bail conditions may be modified.
• To be accompanied at all proceedings by a family member, a victim advocate or other support person;
• To give prior comment on the sentencing decision regarding an adult offender or the disposition of a delinquent child;
• To receive help in preparing an oral and/or written victim impact statement detailing the physical, psychological and economic effects of the crime, which will be considered by the courts;
• To be restored as one was before the crime as much as possible, through restitution, have property returned that was seized as evidence but no longer needed for prosecution, and to receive assistance with preparing, submitting and follow- up with a claim for compensation;
• To be notified of an adult offender’s transfer from a state prison to a mental health facility and the discharge, transfer or escape of the adult offender from that facility;
• To receive immediate notice of the release of an adult offender on bail who is incarcerated in a local prison for a violation of a Protection From Abuse (PFA) order, Sexual Violence Protection Order (SVPO), or Protection From Intimidation (PFI) order ,or for a personal injury crime committed against the victim protected by the order;
• To have notice and to provide prior comment on a judicial recommendation that the defendant participate in a motivational boot camp;
• To have notice and provide comment on resentencing decisions regarding an offender;
• To be notified of the disposition and sentence of an adult, including sentence modifications;
• To have notice and provide prior comment on prosecutor’s waiver of eligibility requirement of an offender to enter the Recidivism Risk Reduction Incentive (RRRI) Program;
• To be notified and provide comment if the court considers an offender to be eligible for participation in the State Drug Treatment Program;
• To receive pre-parole notifications 90 days prior to parole date of offender;
• To submit pre-parole statements regarding offender’s parole supervision, including suggestions of special conditions, submit written petition to deny parole, and to appear in person or through representation to provide testimony before parole panel;
• Receive notice of the parole board’s decision before the offender’s release.
• To be present at trials and the execution of an offender; and 
• To receive notice of the arrest of a defendant for violating a PFA order. 

Victims of personal injury crimes have the additional rights:

• To receive notice of the arrest of a suspect or the filing or forwarding of a complaint relating to the crime;
• By the victim’s request, to receive notice when an adult offender is released from incarceration at sentencing;
• To receive notice of an opportunity to give prior comment on and receive post-sentencing decisions involving an offender’s release from a state prison, such as medical release, work release, furlough, parole, pardon or community treatment center placement;
• To receive notice of and provide prior comment on recommendations sought by the Department of Corrections that an offender may participate in a motivational boot camp;
• To receive notice of the release of an adult offender from a local correctional facility, including work release, medical release, furlough, parole, release from a boot camp or community treatment center placement;
• To receive notice of, including location and time, a dispositional proceeding, if the prosecutor’s office has advance notice of said proceeding;
• To receive immediate notice of the escape of an adult offender and subsequent apprehension;
• By the victim’s request, to receive notice of the filing, hearing or disposition of appeals;
• To receive notice of the commitment to a mental health institution from a state or local correctional institution;
• To receive notice of the termination of the courts’ jurisdiction;
• To provide prior comment on work release or medical release of an offender from a state prison or local correctional facility; and 
• To give prior comment on the potential reduction or dropping of charges or any changes of a plea in a criminal or delinquency proceeding or diversion of a case, including an informal adjustment or a consent decree.

Victims of sexual assault have the additional rights:

• To receive information concerning the availability of protection orders;
• To have the confidential support of a counselor from a rape crisis center at the hospital during and after a forensic rape exam.  (call 1-888-772-7227 to contact a local rape crisis center); 
• To have a sexual assault evidence kit collected and tested anonymously/without a name attached to it;
• To have a sexual assault evidence kit collected and tested even if the exact location of the crime cannot be provided;
• To not be billed or charged for the costs of a forensic exam or sexual assault evidence kit;
• To have sexual assault evidence kept according to the statute of limitations; and
• To be notified of the status of a sexual assault evidence kit, if requested, including at least 60 days prior to the destruction of evidence.