Outreach for Victims of Crime
Crime can affect lives in small ways, or it can in fact be debilitating for victims and yes even fr their families. In the past three decades much research has been done about the effects of violence, crime and disasters. The results are in fact quite sobering. One in four women experience sexual abuse in their lifetime, one in ten people are stalked, one out of every three female homicide victims are from domestic abuse, approximately half of all protective orders are violated, one in four women are victims of domestic abuse in their lifetime and one in six people become disabled at an early age, many of these are from violence, crime, and abuse. The data is staggering. In the United States over 51,000 people die each year from violent crimes.
For people who struggle with domestic violence, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, or are victims of crime, they know all to well the ramifications are many. As a civilized society, these statistics are unacceptable. Deep rooted reforms and prevention is necessary to change the tide of this growing national crisis.
Victims of crime should always reach out to programs in their area for support. For victims of sexual abuse local sexual assault centers often run by the YWCA, or RAINN can be of great help. Victims of domestic violence can seek out the assistance of domestic abuse shelters and hotlines in their area. Some of these are national phone hotlines for people who live in more rural areas. Victims of stalking should seek out help from their police department and from domestic violence outreach. Online resources can also be quite helpful. For victims of all types of crimes including other types of crime such as robberies, assaults and abuse there are often coalitions for supporting victims on a state level and are run by individual state governments. These are meant to provide supportive outreach and compensation to victims to help them get their life back on track.
For communities that wish to reign in crime there are several approaches that are successful. First concerns housing, there are addendums for residential and commercial leases that many communities across America are encouraging landlords to use. These addendums make committing a crime a violation of their lease. This addendum applies to subsidized housing units as well. While enforcement can be sometimes lengthy, the provision does work. Additional tools include: increasing awareness on crime prevention, creating a zero tolerance in school systems for criminal behavior, instituting uniforms as a standard for middle level schools and high schools as well as creating a police presence throughout schools and at community events. One final area that is very helpful is having a town-wide or city wide email alert system for businesses and property owners. When a crime occurs this system allows an automatic email can alert to business and property owners to be on the lookout. Finally, personal safety should be taught on a adult and school level. As always an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.Want to know more? Go ahead: An ‘unlikely victim’ of domestic abuse speaks out