Advocating for Victim Rights: An Evaluation of the National Crime Victim Law Institute State and Federal Clinics

The RAND Corporation and National Center for Victims of Crime will build on current work evaluating the National Crime Victim Law Institute (NCVLI) victim rights clinics by assessing how the clinics affect the observance of victim rights by court officials. The clinics were conceived as a response to the fact that, in spite of extensive victim rights legislation in all states, many victims still are not receiving the rights they are entitled to under law. The NCVLI clinics provide attorneys to represent victims in court, hold trainings for court officials on victim rights issues, and attempt to promote appellate decisions affecting victim rights.

The process evaluation that was conducted in phase 1 of this project examined how the clinics have been implemented, problems they have had to overcome, and how different clinic models affect the work they do. The impact evaluation to be conducted in phase 2, will examine the extent to which victims have increased acceptance and observance of victim rights by court officials using a variety of methods.

The methods include: (a) comparing satisfaction with the criminal justice process between clients of clinics and a sample victims not represented by clinic attorneys; (b) comparing the extent to which victim rights were observed prior to the start of the clinic with observance in clinic cases and current cases not represented by clinic attorneys, (c) comparing attitudes of criminal justice officials toward victim rights before and after the clinic began and media coverage of victim rights before and after the clinic began; (d) examining how the work of the clinics have resulted in new victim rights case law, court rules, and legislation; and (e) assessing the success of clinics in developing ways of sustaining themselves above and beyond the OVC grant through NCVLI.
nca/ncf