 Prior to the 70s and in many communities now, there's not been somebody who's specifically there for the needs of the victim. And we wanted to know what the condition of the victims were. Victims were falling through the cracks. They were just having to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and muddle along without anyone paying attention to what their needs were. We're going to have to think about what to do for you. We understand the pain that you're in. You need some protection. What happened in our community was very unique. Everybody sat down and they said, somebody needs to be there for the victim. One of the things that really was a motivating force again early on was the 1982 President's Task Force on victims of crime. And it like opened the floodgates. I mean it really did, finding out how victims were treated, finding out how few services were for victims. The President said, I want you to put in action the recommendations. The first thing we did was create an office for victims of crime. There has really been, since 1982, an explosion of legislation, of new programs, of new policies, all of which have improved dramatically the way that victims are treated by the criminal justice system. It's time now to move that wonderful knowledge that has been accumulated out in the field to come up with very precise and exciting and clear directions for what we now want to call a field rather than a movement. That's exactly what new directions is. A landmark document that chronicles not only how far the victim's field has come since 1982, but where we should be going. The creation of this roadmap was no simple task. The hundreds of programs and recommendations presented in new directions came from more than a thousand people across the nation who work with crime victims every day. The Office for Victims of Crime compiled these ideas into this book, but the recommendations you will find here were developed by the field and for the field. At the core of new directions is the challenge of creating and implementing consistent fundamental rights for all crime victims, regardless of whether they are in federal, state, juvenile, military, or tribal court. These basic rights provide a compass by which victims can navigate the criminal justice system, helping them receive information, make important decisions, and begin their healing process. Going into the criminal justice system was really like a blind date. We had no idea what to expect. It was really at the last minute that we were being told everything that was happening. Victims of crime are uniformly stunned by the fact that this whole process is out of their control. We felt over and over again that it wasn't focused on Shannon being killed, but technical procedures and things that we really didn't care about. And when you aren't familiar with the system, there are a lot of questions, a lot of fears. And most victims want to know everything that's going on in their case. They don't want to be surprised. They want to begin to have a little control over their lives again. When a defendant comes to court, he's immediately advised of his rights. You have a right to remain silent, you get an attorney, you get your witnesses. You don't hear those same kind of rights being given to a victim so that they know that whatever issues or concerns they have is also addressed by a court. As the survivors, we have nobody representing us. We are just there walking through this. What we are in the courtroom is a necessary nuisance. I mean that's something, but that's what we are in the courtroom. There is nothing there that is all. What we found is that in many cases, fewer than half of those crime victims were actually being given their rights. And so if you're talking about rights that are only being observed about half the time, it's hard to say that those are real rights. Defendant sits up, of course, with his attorney. The ADA sits on the opposite side. We have to sit in the audience. We're not allowed to open our mouth. The prosecutors in our office know that our policy is, I better not hear from an unhappy victim about the way they've been communicated with. They may not like the result, but they still have a right to understand why we're doing everything we do. When they come to court, this is where they know justice will happen. No matter how else they've been treated, this is where they know justice will happen. And if it doesn't, their disillusionment and their devastation is ten times worse. We found that sentences were being passed throughout the United States. The judge had no idea of the consequences of the crime on the victim. And that was pretty striking. We might have been able to heal if we had some justice, but we have nothing. And the thought of knowing that there are four people out there, evil people, that did this to my son. How can you heal? You don't heal. Most judges are very fearful that in some way if they treat victims better or they put too much attention, they'll abridge the rights of the accused. And they're two separate things. You're not going to abridge the rights of the accused by helping with victims' rights. I'm told by the crime victims with whom we deal that victim impact statements are critical. When I had everything inside, there was a lot of pressure on me. I felt very heavy. And when I just let everything out, I just felt relieved. I remembered shaking and being very hesitant in my voice, and just it was really difficult. But I got out what I had to say, and that was very important. We have judges that'll say things like, I've already read everything. I don't need to hear you. We have judges that say, you have one minute. We have judges that say, I'm going to give the max anyway, so I don't need to hear you. What they don't understand is, victims need to say it. I think the prosecutor has an obligation to bring to the court's attention that this crime victim would like to be heard. As a judge, you can order anybody to jail, sign an order, walk out the door, go home, and you have your life. But with the stroke of your pen, it affects these people's lives greatly and maybe permanently. So you have to be careful as to how you approach that. No one is immune to the effects of crime. So our second challenge is to provide all victims with access to comprehensive quality services crafted to fit their needs. This includes victims with disabilities, victims whose first language is not English, and victims in rural and remote areas. The programs you're about to see are highlighted in new directions because using sound research, the latest technology, and innovative partnerships, they are meeting the needs of crime victims. We've got an outstanding warrant for them for assault. There's been a guy on your phone out here, black-headed guy. Gone now. How long has it been here? About 15 minutes. 15 minutes ago. It's quarter to go, you know, which way to the right and left. Well our mandate is to have a zero murder rate in our city. We could really be called a homicide reduction unit because a lot of domestic violence cases end in homicide. We created the largest domestic violence investigative unit in the country, and we've had some success. We've cut our homicide rate in half. We've got what I call a comprehensive community coordinated response to domestic violence, including shelters and courts and prosecution and probation and child protective and adult protective. All the groups that have some impact or work with victims, we all come together. I can't stand by and just wait for someone to become a victim. I have a responsibility to make sure that that person doesn't become a victim. And that means proactive law enforcement and not reactive law enforcement. And I think that's our task. The correctional system is probably the last frontier of crime victim services. In the past we've been totally offender oriented. It's been the last ten years that we've had an awakening of that we have a responsibility to help crime victims, people that are most hurt by offenders. The Washington Ridge Correctional Conservation Camp is a partnership with the California and the U.S. Department of Forestry. And what we do here is that we try to not only teach them skills that they could use in the community to get a job, but we also take part of their wages to pay off their restitution, part of their wages, whether they have a restitution payment or not, goes into the state restitution fund. That helps to supplement crime victims throughout the state who make claims for compensation. I think it must be helpful to victims to know that the person that has done a criminal act against them is being forced and required to pay back to make amends for that offense. And I think it helps the victims to hear that most of the funding for state crime victim compensation programs also comes from offenders. You begin to swing that balance of being totally offender oriented, gradually accepting that yes you have a responsibility to the people that these guys have hurt. And then eventually you get an equal system and that's what we're striving for. We're not trying to take away offender rights. We're saying that victim rights have an equal role in the justice system. I had been verbally abused and physically abused for ten years. No one in my circle of friends, no one in my education taught me that a woman has rights. In the past deaf women would go into hearing agencies and they would focus so much on her deafness and how to communicate with her that her experience or the violence that she's experienced was completely ignored. We basically provide the same services as the general hearing agencies provide except that we are focused on deaf women. We use their language and we follow the cultural rules that are appropriate in the deaf community. All the staff signed, I felt a connection right away. And really it felt like a family, just a very close knit group. You have to remember that there are so many different groups of people out there that have different languages and different needs and it's really not fair to try to group them all together. This system has to meet the needs of everyone. Our third major challenge is to ensure the continual evolution of crime victim services through education and comprehensive training. The New Directions book offers examples of people and programs working to ensure that all justice and allied professionals receive the training necessary to do their jobs better and meet the needs of victims of crime. Here are a few examples of the many educational models included in New Directions. We have educational institutions that are beginning to put more and more victimology victim service related classes out to the general public and to the practitioners. This is the next evolution. We have certificate programs and we're moving towards graduate and PhD level programs of PhD in victimology is obviously the next step. Well I think first of all it's important to understand what being a crime victim at the time the crime occurs is like for a victim. It started as the victims movement. I think we're evolving into a discipline now and I think 15 years from now what you'll be talking about is victim service professionals. Everybody in this field wants to learn. Everybody in this field wants to do their job better and they are desperately looking for ways to do that and the New Directions is in fact what will help them do their job better. New Directions has also included the faith community as an important profession and a group that needs the education but also needs the awareness of how clergy and churches can't participate in the response to and the healing of crime victims. Holy cow, about a third of the building has been blown away. Clergy found for example in Oklahoma City that they were ill-equipped to respond to such a mass tragedy. How do you deal with the human spirit that's been crushed by what it's seen, what it's smell, what is heard? The Clergy Response Institute was established in Oklahoma City to help train clergy and not go unprepared for any kind of community response that they may face and also to receive training on criminal victimization and violence so that they can better address that whether it is in terms of a first responder, whether it is in the after care in the congregation and in the community or whether it's addressing those issues from the pulpit. The devastating stories of crime victims have always been a call to action. Their pain, their courage and their spirit have galvanized and inspired us to do more. Our final challenge is to ensure that the concerns of victims continue to infuse and inform the decision making process. Victims voices must continue to guide us as we move into the 21st century. The most important thing that we try to get across to people is that silence kills. As one victim said, the criminal justice system is all about me without me and we need to change that. Victims of violence have a very unique understanding of the impact of violence on people, individuals, on families and on communities. I think the country needs to really tap into that understanding. There are so many people that are holding pain in their heart and they're just waiting for someone to ask about it. The police, the court, the correction, the district attorney, all of these people have to be victim sensitive and victim friendly before this to work. I think New Directions did a wonderful job of listening to victims, finding out what their needs are and then translating that into some practical recommendations. The agenda for the future may be even deeper and broader than our challenges of the past. Seeing the focus of the victims movement, particularly the victims rights aspect, shift from simply passing statutes to actually implementing statutes. A very important part of what New Directions does is it gives us a focus for our debate and discussion on where victim services and where the rights of victims should be in the future. I truly hope that folks will read it from cover to cover. If you want to know what's happening in the movement, what's happening to crime victims and what's really needed, New Directions is the Bible.