Enhancing Response to Victims: A Formative Evaluation of OVC’s Law Enforcement-Based Victim Services (LEV) Program

• In Event: NIJ Day: Improving Services for Victims of Crime

Abstract

The Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) developed the Law Enforcement-Based Victim Services (LEV) program to develop new or enhance existing victim services (VS) programs. The LEV program seeks to build and sustain law enforcement agencies’ internal capacity to address the rights and needs of crime victims by funding LE-VS specialists to provide trauma-informed direct services and coordinate additional assistance with community-based service providers. RTI International, in partnership with the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), conducted a formative evaluation of the LEV. Specific objectives were to (1) develop a comprehensive inventory and typology of all LEV programs, (2) develop logic models and identify core components of a subset of sites, (3) conduct an evaluability assessment in the subset of sites, (4) develop recommendations for future outcome evaluation, and (5) develop an implementation guide and fidelity measures. Findings suggest that the field of system-based victim services needs additional research, evaluation, and learning to help identify what is working in efforts to improve the law enforcement agency response to victims and increase successful victim outcomes.

Authors

• Kelle Barrick, RTI International

• Elizabeth Tibaduiza, RTI International