Crime Victims' Rights Compliance Project
Oregon law identifies several dozen rights for crime victims in its state constitution and numerous statutes. Locating and understanding these rights, however, can be a difficult task. Many of the rights are well known and complied with throughout the criminal justice system. Other rights, however, are sometimes overlooked and unfamiliar to victims, advocates, courts and prosecutors.
In 2002, a Crime Victims Needs Assessment conducted by Portland State University found that as many as 59 percent of crime victims in Oregon believed that crime victims' rights law were not enforced in their cases.
To address concerns about awareness and enforcement of victims' rights, Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers appointed a statewide Crime Victims' Rights Advisory Committee which he has charged with developing "a coordinated plan so that within the Oregon criminal justice system, crime victims' rights will be clearly and consistently understood by crime victims, and crime victims will have every opportunity to fully exercise their rights – every victim, every right, every case, every time." The committee is chaired by Doug Beloof, Executive Director of the National Crime Victim Law Institute at the Lewis and Clark College School of Law. Membership of the committee includes more than twenty representatives from advocacy organizations, courts, corrections, police and prosecutors. The Committee is part of the broader Oregon Crime Victims' Rights Compliance Implementation Project of the Oregon Department of Justice. The Project receives substantial financial support from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime.
The Advisory Committee will determine:
1) how to increase awareness of crime victims' rights;
2) how to improve compliance within the criminal justice system;
3) how to report, review and resolve noncompliance with crime victims' rights;
4) how best to train system providers on improved compliance and new noncompliance measures;
5) how effective the project is; and
6) how to access the resources necessary for ongoing compliance work in Oregon.
There are seven working subcommittees:
- Training
- Victim Awareness
- Needs Assessment/ Evaluation
- Compliance
- Reporting, Reviewing, Resolving Non-compliance Issues
- Resources
- Rights in the Juvenile Justice System
See the Compliance Plan (link provided) for more information on these subcommittees.
For more information about this project and its developments, call Carol Schrader, Project Director, at 971-673-1981. Or e-mail them at Carol.Schrader@state.or.us.
To review the Crime Victims' Rights Compliance Project Plan Click Here
The June issue of the Oregon State Bar Bulletin provides an excellent summary of the issue of victims' rights in Oregon and other states. Many states are actively working to promote greater compliance with existing rights and greater sentitivity to victims issues within the criminal justice system. Click here to read the Bar Bulletin article. http://www.osbar.org/publications/bulletin/06may/victimsrights.html
