Victim Service Providers: The Effect of Victim Characteristics on Services Provided

• In Event: Victim Service Providers, Provisions, and Technologies: Exploring Efforts to Serve the Needs and Experiences of Victims of Interpersonal Violence

Abstract

Victim service providers (VSPs) work to provide victims of crime with information, general assistance, program and medical referrals, and advocacy-related services. Victim services research can help identify ways that VSPs may better serve victims and help them heal. Using data from the National Survey of Victim Service Providers, accessed through ICPSR, the current study examines the frequency of service usage for each type of service provided and identifies the most commonly provided services, then estimates a series of binomial logistic regression models to explore how individual victim characteristics, like victim sex, age, or incarceration, affect which services were provided. The most common services provided by VSPs were case management (32%), program referral (31%), assistance in filing protection order (29%), criminal court accompaniment (21%), and notification of case events (18%). Results from logistic regression models are pending. Findings from this study will identify how services provided vary across individual characteristics, which may inform future research on equity in service access and on how individual characteristics shape victims’ needs.

Author

• Emily K. Meinert, University of Nebraska at Omaha