The National Center for Victims of Crime (NCVC) is an American

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 50 ...

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

dedicated to providing information,

resource Resource refers to all the materials available in our environment which are technologically accessible, economically feasible and culturally sustainable and help us to satisfy our needs and wants. Resources can broadly be classified upon their ...

s and

advocacy Advocacy is an Action (philosophy), activity by an individual or advocacy group, group that aims to influence decision making, decisions within political, economic, and social institutions. Advocacy includes activities and publications to infl ...

for victims of all types of crime, as well as the people who serve them. The staff oversees a variety of programs including, but not limited to: the DNA Resource Center, the Stalking Resource Center, the Financial Crime Resource Center, the National Compassion Fund, Victim Connect and the D.C. Victim Hotline. The National Center for Victims of Crime hosts the annual National Training Institute, designed to share current research and effective policies with service providers, in order to advance the quality of services available to victims of crime.

Programs

Annual conference

The National Center for Victims of Crime holds an annual National Training Institute. The National Training Institute is held in conjunction with the National Crime Victim Bar Association National Conference, "Civil Actions for Criminal Acts". The National Training Institute emphasizes a multidisciplinary approach to sharing promising practices, current research, and effective programs and policies that are victim-centered, practice-based, and research-informed. The National Training Institute is a forum for law enforcement, victim service professionals, allied practitioners, policymakers, and researchers to share current developments and build new collaborations. Sessions will highlight practical information to better support services for the wide range of persons victimized by crimes of all types.

VictimConnect Resource Center

The VictimConnect Resource Center is a project funded by the

Office for Victims of Crime The Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) is a part of the Office of Justice Programs, within the U.S. Department of Justice. The OVC's mission is to provide aid and promote justice for crime victims. The office was created in 1988 in an amendment t ...

and launched in July 2015. It is a place for victims of any crime to learn about their rights and options—confidentially and compassionately. VictimConnect can be accessed anywhere in the United States through a phone and texting hotline available 8:30am to 7:30pm Eastern Time, and through online chat from 9:30am to 6:30pm Eastern Time. Staffers of the helpline are called victim assistance specialists, and they have specialized training in helping victims connect with resources, access referrals, and craft next steps to regain control over their lives. Both English and Spanish speakers are available and the program has access to interpreters for over 200 languages. Additionally, VictimConnect has a Senior Services Program to assist senior victims of abuse or financial fraud. Senior services staff have been specifically trained to provide referrals, community resources, and additional support to prevent and increase awareness of elder abuse.About Us
. ''Victim Connect Resource Center''. National Center for Victims of Crime. Retrieved March 2, 2016.

Tribal Resource Tool

The Tribal Resource Tool is a web-based, community centered resource mapping tool that connects AI/AN victims and survivors of crime and abuse to over 1,000 local, trauma informed and verified resources in their community. This tool also identifies gaps in victim services so those can be addressed. It was created with funds from the Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime in partnership with the National Congress of American Indians and the Tribal Law and Policy Institute.

Training and Technical Assistance

The National Center provides Training and Technical Assistance through Victim Assistance to Support Tribes (VAST) and Project Safe Neighborhoods. Project Safe Neighborhoods is a Department of Justice funded project that matches Training and Technical Assistance providers with selected field sites. The National Center evaluates field site’s Victim Service Units, conducts joint analyses with partner organizations and hosts training on subjects, such as Domestic Violence and Firearms.

DC Victim Hotline

The DC Victim Hotline officially launched on October 1, 2015. It is funded by the District of Columbia Office of Victim Services. It is the only citywide hotline providing free, confidential local resources for victims of all types of crime in the

District of Columbia ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

. The hotline operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, is free and confidential. It provides an access point for victims of any crime to access assistance. The Victim Assistance Specialists staffing the hotline build connections with community partners through networking and cross-training. They provide basic crisis-intervention and referrals to community organizations.

National Compassion Fund

Following the murders at Sandy Hook Elementary School, a movie theater in Aurora, a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, and

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also ...

, the victims' families found that questions over the method of distributing charitable contributions caused them even more pain.Eaton-Robb, Pat (July 1, 2013). "Another ordeal for Newtown: Divvying up donations". ''Associated Press''. Questions included how much should go to the family of each murdered victim, how much should go to survivors who witnessed the murders and will need years of therapy, and who should make these decisions. There were also significant delays in the distribution of donations and questions over whether the organization that collected the donations should retain a portion of the donations. The National Center for Victims of Crime created the National Compassion Fund in order to establish a method and rubric for collecting and distributing donations to victims that could be set up quickly and distributed fairly following a mass shooting. The National Compassion Fund has collected charitable donations and distributed funds to victims of the 2014 Fort Hood shooting,

2015 Chattanooga shootings On July 16, 2015, Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez opened fire on two Military base, military installations in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He first committed a drive-by shooting at a Military recruitment, recruiting center, then traveled to a United State ...

, 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting,

2017 Las Vegas shooting On October 1, 2017, Stephen Paddock, a 64-year-old man from Mesquite, Nevada, opened fire on the crowd attending the Route 91 Harvest music festival on the Las Vegas Strip in . From his 32nd-floor suites in the Mandalay Bay hotel, he fired ...

, the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, 2018 Cincinnati shooting, and the 2019 Aurora, Illinois shooting. the 2019 El Paso Shooting, the Indianapolis 2021 Shooting, the Atlanta 2021 Fund, The 2021 Oconomowoc Wisconsin Shooting, and the 2021 West Hempstead Shooting.

Legislative advocacy and lobbying

The National Center for Victims of Crime supported the Elder Abuse Prevention and Protection Act of 2017, which increased professional training for federal investigators and prosecutors, designated prosecutors to handle cases of

elder abuse Elder abuse (also called "elder mistreatment", "senior abuse", "abuse in later life", "abuse of older adults", "abuse of older women", and "abuse of older men") is "a single, or repeated act, or lack of appropriate action, occurring within any rela ...

in each federal judicial district, established elder justice coordinators in the

U.S. Federal Trade Commission The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. The FTC shares jurisdiction o ...

Bureau of Consumer Protection The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. The FTC shares jurisdiction ov ...

and the

U.S. Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...

, and increased penalties for perpetrators of elder abuse. In December 2017, the National Center for Victims of Crime supported the Combat Online Predators Act, which would increase the maximum sentence in federal prison for stalking a minor. In January 2018, the National Center for Victims of Crime supported the Protecting Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Authorization Act, which would make it illegal for amateur athletics governing bodies to fail to report sex-abuse allegations to a law enforcement authority within 24 hours. It would also extend the

civil Civil may refer to: *Civic virtue, or civility *Civil action, or lawsuit * Civil affairs *Civil and political rights *Civil disobedience *Civil engineering *Civil (journalism), a platform for independent journalism *Civilian, someone not a membe ...

statute of limitations A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. ("Time for commencing proceedings") In m ...

for

human trafficking Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others. This may encompass providing a spouse in the context of forced marriage, or the extrac ...

and federal sex offenses. It would also require national governing bodies to develop and enforce methods to prevent, report, and respond to the abuse of child athletes. In February 2018, the National Center of Victims supported the Crime Amy, Vicky, and Andy Child Pornography Victim Assistance Act, which would provide a legal process for

restitution The law of restitution is the law of gains-based recovery, in which a court orders the defendant to ''give up'' their gains to the claimant. It should be contrasted with the law of compensation, the law of loss-based recovery, in which a court o ...

for victims of

child pornography Child pornography (also called CP, child sexual abuse material, CSAM, child porn, or kiddie porn) is pornography that unlawfully exploits children for sexual stimulation. It may be produced with the direct involvement or sexual assault of a chi ...

in Connecticut.

Former

Stalking Resource Center

In 2000, the National Center for Victims of Crime partnered with the

Office on Violence Against Women The United States Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) was created following the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) of 1994.stalking Stalking is unwanted and/or repeated surveillance by an individual or group toward another person. Stalking behaviors are interrelated to harassment and intimidation and may include following the victim in person or monitoring them. The ter ...

. In January 2004, the National Center for Victims of Crime established the month of January as National Stalking Awareness Month in order to raise awareness of the crime of stalking. The federal grant funding the Stalking Resource Center was awarded to a different nonprofit organization, AEquitas, effective October 1, 2017. AEquitas renamed it the Stalking Prevention, Awareness, and Resource Center (SPARC).

Critical Choices forums

After the

terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

, the National Center for Victims of Crime held free forums to help survivors of victims decide whether to join the

September 11th Victim Compensation Fund The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) was created by an Act of Congress, the Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act (49 USC 40101), shortly after 9/11 to compensate the victims of the attack (or their families) in excha ...

or seek

damages At common law, damages are a remedy in the form of a monetary award to be paid to a claimant as compensation for loss or injury. To warrant the award, the claimant must show that a breach of duty has caused foreseeable loss. To be recognised at ...

in court.Kivlan, Terence J. (October 18, 2002). "Crime victims group schedules forum for 9/11 survivors". ''Staten Island Advance'' (Staten Island, New York). p. A11. The forums included presentations on economic losses, non-economic losses, and

civil litigation Civil law is a major branch of the law.Glanville Williams. ''Learning the Law''. Eleventh Edition. Stevens. 1982. p. 2. In common law legal systems such as England and Wales and the law of the United States, United States, the term refers to non ...

, followed by question-and-answer sessions.

Funding

The National Center for Victims of Crime receives grants from government agencies. Between October 1, 2018, and September 30, 2019, the National Center for Victims of Crime was awarded $1,399,655 in federal grants from the

.National Center for Victims of Crime, FY2019
. ''

USASpending.gov ttp://www.usaspending.gov USASpending.govis a database of spending by the United States federal government. History Around the time of the Act's passage, OMB Watch, a government watchdog group, was developing a site that would do essentially eve ...

''. Retrieved January 10, 2020. Between October 1, 2017, and September 30, 2018, the National Center for Victims of Crime was awarded $8,899,348 in funding from the U.S. Department of Justice.National Center for Victims of Crime, FY2018
. ''

''. Retrieved October 25, 2018. From October 1, 2016, to September 30, 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice awarded $3,076,007 of grant funding to the National Center for Victims of Crime.National Center for Victims of Crime, FY2017
. ''

''. Retrieved October 25, 2018. Between October 1, 2015, and September 30, 2016, the National Center for Victims of Crime was awarded $3,742,090 in funding from the U.S. Department of Justice and $466,308 from the District of Columbia Office of Victim Services and Justice Grants.National Center for Victims of Crime, FY2016
. ''

''. Retrieved February 14, 2018.FY16 OVSJG Grant Recipients
. ''Office of Victim Services and Justice Grants''.

Government of the District of Columbia The District of Columbia has a mayor–council government that operates under Article One of the United States Constitution and the District of Columbia Home Rule Act. The Home Rule Act devolves certain powers of the United States Congress to ...

. Retrieved February 14, 2018. Between January 1, 2016, and December 31, 2016, the National Center for Victims of Crime expended $2,839,965 of federal funding.

Grant noncompliance

audit firm An audit is an "independent examination of financial information of any entity, whether profit oriented or not, irrespective of its size or legal form when such an examination is conducted with a view to express an opinion thereon.” Auditing ...

found the National Center for Victims of Crime

non-compliant In general, compliance means conforming to a rule, such as a specification, policy, standard or law. Compliance has traditionally been explained by reference to the deterrence theory, according to which punishing a behavior will decrease the viol ...

with a

federal grant In the United States, federal grants are economic aid issued by the United States government out of the general federal revenue. A federal grant is an award of financial assistance from a federal agency to a recipient to carry out a public purp ...

in 2018.Consolidated Financial Statements with Supplementary Information
. ''National Center for Victims of Crime, Inc. ''. via Federal Audit Clearinghouse. December 31, 2018. Retrieved March 6, 2020. The organization did a draw on

grant funding without having associated expenses, and the funds were neither spent nor returned within ten days of the draw as required. In addition, the

audit An audit is an "independent examination of financial information of any entity, whether profit oriented or not, irrespective of its size or legal form when such an examination is conducted with a view to express an opinion thereon.” Auditing ...

was not completed within the required nine months because of the organization's significant delays in providing

documentation Documentation is any communicable material that is used to describe, explain or instruct regarding some attributes of an object, system or procedure, such as its parts, assembly, installation, maintenance and use. As a form of knowledge manageme ...

and responses to the audit firm. The audit firm also identified a significant deficiency in

internal control Internal control, as defined by accounting and auditing, is a process for assuring of an organization's objectives in operational effectiveness and efficiency, reliable financial reporting, and compliance with laws, regulations and policies. A broad ...

over financial reporting and noted noncompliance that was material to the financial statements. The organization agreed with the findings and agreed to implement corrective policies and procedures. The 2019 audit found that the National Center for Victims of Crime continued to be non-compliant with the terms of its federal grants by drawing $145,892 from five different Department of Justice grants, and the funds were neither spent nor returned within ten days of the draw as required. This was the second year in a row that the auditors found the organization to be non-compliant in the cash management of its federal grants.Consolidated Financial Statements with Supplementary Information
. ''National Center for Victims of Crime, Inc. ''. via Federal Audit Clearinghouse. December 31, 2019. Retrieved March 25, 2022. The 2020 audit found neither material weaknesses nor significant deficiencies.Consolidated Financial Statements with Supplementary Information
. ''National Center for Victims of Crime, Inc. ''. via Federal Audit Clearinghouse. December 31, 2020. Retrieved March 25, 2022.

Loan noncompliance

The National Center for Victims of Crime has a

business loan A business loan is a loan specifically intended for business purposes. As with all loans, it involves the creation of a debt, which will be repaid with added interest. There are a number of different types of business loans, including bank loans, ...

with a financial institution, and the organization's audited financial statements noted that it was not in compliance with the loan agreement as of December 31, 2018.

History

Martha "Sunny" von Bulow's husband was arrested and charged with attempting to

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

her by

insulin Insulin (, from Latin ''insula'', 'island') is a peptide hormone produced by beta cells of the pancreatic islets encoded in humans by the ''INS'' gene. It is considered to be the main anabolic hormone of the body. It regulates the metabolism o ...

overdose A drug overdose (overdose or OD) is the ingestion or application of a drug or other substance in quantities much greater than are recommended.

that ended up resulting in an irreversible

coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal wake-sleep cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. Coma patients exhi ...

. Her husband was convicted, but the conviction was overturned on

appeal In law, an appeal is the process in which cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of clarifying and ...

. At a second trial, he was found not guilty.Matthews, Sandra (January 7, 1986). "Victim Center to Carry von Bulow's Name". ''Orlando Sentinel''. p. C1. At a national meeting of

Mothers Against Drunk Driving Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is a non-profit organization in the United States, Canada and Brazil that seeks to stop drunk driving, support those affected by drunk driving, prevent underage drinking, and strive for stricter impaired drivi ...

, Alexander Auersperg, her son, met E. Gene Patterson, a co-chairman of a national victims' coalition. The two of them teamed up with Auersperg's sister Annie-Laurie and Morris Gurley, Sunny von Bulow's financial adviser, to form a new nonprofit organization with Patterson as director.Sunny's Kids Set Up Funds for Crime Victims
. ''Daily News'' (New York, New York). p. 11. The organization was named the Sunny von Bulow Victim Advocacy Center, and it opened in January 1986, in

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

.Mathers, Sandra (January 7, 1986).
Victim Center to Carry von Bulow's Name
. ''The Orlando Sentinel''. p. 19. Fort Worth was chosen because of its location in the center of the United States. Auersperg envisioned the organization to be a national information and referral organization for victim-advocate groups. Auersperg pledged $1.5 million to fund the organization during its first three years, with his hope that the organization would become self-supporting. The organization was renamed the National Victim Center in 1987, and it became the National Center for Victims of Crime in December 1998.
. ''National Center for Victims of Crime''. December 1998. Archived fro

on February 8, 1999.

References

External links

* {{official site, http://www.victimsofcrime.org
National Center for Victims of Crime's Public Service Announcement
on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

Criminal justice Compensation for victims of crime Non-profit organizations based in Washington, D.C. Organizations established in 1985 Victims' rights Crime in the United States 1985 establishments in the United States