Evaluation of Victim Services Programs Funded by "Stop Violence Against Women" Grants in the United States, 1998-1999

This project investigated the effects of Violence Against
 Women Act (VAWA) STOP (Services, Training, Officers, Prosecutors)
 funds with respect to the provision of victim services by criminal
 justice-based agencies to domestic assault, stalking, and sexual
 assault victims. Violence Against Women grants were intended "to
 assist states, Indian tribal governments, and units of local
 government to develop and strengthen effective law enforcement and
 prosecution strategies to combat violent crimes against women, and to
 develop and strengthen victim services in cases involving violent
 crimes against women." Domestic violence and sexual assault were
 identified as primary targets for the STOP grants, along with support
 for under-served victim populations. Two types of programs were
 sampled in this evaluation. The first was a sample of representatives
 of STOP grant programs, from which 62 interviews were completed (Part
 1, Criminal Justice Victim Service Program Survey Data). The second
 was a sample of 96 representatives of programs that worked in close
 cooperation with the 62 STOP program grantees to serve victims (Part
 2, Ancillary Programs Survey Data). General questions from the STOP
 program survey (Part 1) covered types of victims served, years program
 had been in existence, types of services provided, stages when
 services were provided, number of victims served by the program the
 previous year, the program's operating budget, and primary and
 secondary funding sources. Questions about the community in which the
 program operated focused on types of services for domestic violence
 and/or sexual assault victims that existed in the community, if
 services provided by the program complemented or overlapped those
 provided by the community, and a rating of the community's coordinated
 response in providing services. Questions specific to the activities
 supported by the STOP grant included the amount of the grant award, if
 the STOP grant was used to start the program or to expand services and
 if the latter, which services, and whether the STOP funds changed the
 way the program delivered services, changed linkages with other
 agencies in the community, increased the program's visibility in the
 community, and/or impacted the program's stability. Also included were
 questions about under-served populations being served by the program,
 the impact of the STOP grant on victims as individuals and on their
 cases in the criminal justice system, and the program's impact on
 domestic violence, stalking, and sexual assault victims throughout the
 community. Data from the ancillary programs survey (Part 2) pertain to
 types of services provided by the program, if the organization was
 part of the private sector or the criminal justice system, and the
 impact of the STOP program in the community on various aspects of
services provided and on improvements for victims.

Tags: battered-women, crime-prevention, domestic-violence, law-enforcement-agencies, program-evaluation, sexual-assault, stalking, victim-services, victims
Organization: Department of Justice