Because Things 
Happen Every Day:
Responding to Teenage Victims of Crime 

Discussion Guide

Teenage Victims of Crime

COMMUNITY ORIENTED POLICING SERVICES
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
www.cops.usdoj.gov

NATIONAL CENTER FOR VICTIMS OF CRIME
www.ncvc.org


It took a while for me to learn-actually 
accept-that people have actually been 
through the same things I have. I just 
wish that they would've had a group 
like this sooner. Not just because 
something happened, but because 
things happen every day. 

 

-Yolanda


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About This Video

The National Center for Victims of Crime and 
the Office of Community Oriented Policing 
Services, U.S. Department of Justice, produced 
this 20-minute educational video, Because 
Things Happen Every Day: Responding to 
Teenage Victims of Crime, to illustrate 
the importance of a collaborative community 
response to teenage victims of crime. 

The statistics are alarming: adolescents represent 
approximately 14 percent of the general population, 
yet they comprise about 31 percent of individuals 
who become victims of violence.1 In fact, 
teenagers are approximately twice as likely as 
other age groups to become victims of violence.2 
Victimization during adolescence comes at a 
particularly difficult time in life. Normal 
adolescent development is characterized by 
rapid change, culminating in a desire for 
independence, a search for identity, the 
development of abstract thinking skills, 
and a need to separate from adults by 
establishing close relationships with peers. 
A teen's peer group becomes increasingly important 
and, in some respects, more influential than 
parents or other adults.

Because Things Happen Every Day features 
two innovative programs that have been 
effective in reaching and responding 
to teen victims through the use of peer 
leadership, in-school support groups, 
one-on-one counseling, and hotlines. 
The voices of teens themselves are 
prominent throughout the video, 
describing their experiences with crime, 
as well as what helped them recover 
their confidence and hope.


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How to Use This Video

Because Things Happen Every Day is geared 
toward anyone who works with teenagers 
and/or might be in a position to identify 
and support teen victims. Some examples 
include:

 Youth development professionals

 Victim service providers

 School resource officers and 
other law enforcement 

 Teen leaders

 School counselors and teachers 
(or other educators)

 Community groups

 Clergy (or other faith leaders)

 Principals and administrators

The goal of this video is to foster a greater 
understanding of the impact of crime and 
violence on teens and the obstacles teens 
face in coming forward and seeking help. 
We suggest you review the video several 
times before presenting it so that you 
will be familiar with the content and 
able to guide the training and discussion. 
Suggested discussion questions begin on 
page six. 

When your training is complete, we hope 
your participants will come away with 
these main ideas: 

 Teen victimization is a serious problem. 
A pervasive lack of awareness about the 
scope and prevalence of teen victimization 
is a serious hurdle in adequately responding 
to this problem. Any attempt to address 
teen victimization must involve an education component.


3

 Involve teens. 
Teens are greatly influenced by their 
peers. Peer-led programs promote action, and 
adult-run programs can be maximized when 
teens are put in a position to reach out 
and help their peers.

 Partnerships are crucial. 
Programs for teens are greatly enhanced 
through collaborative efforts among 
victim service agencies, schools, law 
enforcement agencies, businesses, faith 
communities, and youth-serving organizations. 
Decision-makers should look for opportunities 
to develop new services or tailor existing 
programs to directly support teen victims 
of crime.

 There are consequences if we don't help 
teen victims. Not reaching and providing 
support to teen victims leads to tremendous 
personal and societal costs. Many teen 
victims struggle with poor performance in 
school, depression, and other problems. 
Not responding to teen victimization can 
have life-long consequences.


4

Using This Video with Teens 

Although this video is aimed at raising adults' 
awareness of the problem of teen victimization 
and the range of possible responses, you may 
also wish to show this video to teens. If you 
do, be sure to warn the teens that they will 
see several young people talking about their 
own experiences of victimization, and this may 
trigger uncomfortable feelings for them if they 
or someone they know has been victimized. 
Be sure to give teens a resource number to 
call if they would like to talk to someone about 
a personal experience. If possible, have a 
trained counselor available to youth who need 
immediate support after or while viewing the 
video.

Some of the discussion questions below may 
be used with youth, and some additional ones 
may be added, depending on the purpose of 
the viewing. If showing the video to a group 
of teen leaders who want to start a victim 
outreach or support effort, the discussion 
leader should solicit the teens' ideas of how 
they want to get involved, encourage the teens 
to make a list of adults in the community who 
can support their efforts, and end the 
discussion with a concrete action plan.


5

Program Profiles

SafePlace, in Austin, Texas, is a large victim 
service agency that addresses various types of 
violence against adults and teens. SafePlace, 
which operates a hotline and provides free, 
confidential counseling to teens, works closely 
with school counselors and staff to form 
support groups for teens. SafePlace casts a 
wide net to attract teens in middle schools 
and high schools who are victims of various 
types of violence, including domestic violence, 
sexual assault, sexual harassment, and dating 
violence. SafePlace educates teens about the 
effects of violence and helps them deal with 
problems experienced at home or at school. 
SafePlace organizes support groups of 6-12 
teens each that meet for a total of 24 sessions. 
Girls and boys attend separate support groups 
which are held at schools. SafePlace's "Expect 
Respect" initiative has been featured on 
national television.

The Students Terminating Abusive 
Relationships (STAR) Program is a 
peer leadership and education program in 
Westchester County, New York. STAR's 
mission is to speak out against interpersonal 
and societal violence and to promote healthy 
relationships based on equality, respect, and 
trust. STAR members include high school and 
college students who attend monthly meetings 
to learn more about dating violence and how 
to plan and implement awareness activities 
in their schools and communities. The White 
Plains High School STAR chapter offers a 
model approach for establishing partnerships 
between schools, victim service providers, and 


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the local police department. STAR's community 
partners include: local middle schools and 
high schools, police departments, United Way, 
Junior League, Westchester Mental Health 
Association, YWCA, religious institutions, 
Boys & Girls Clubs, Students Against Drunk 
Driving (SADD), and local businesses. 
STAR collaborates with the White Plains 
Police Department, and officers frequently 
give awareness-raising talks to high-school 
students. STAR was started by the Northern 
Westchester Shelter in Pleasantville, New York. 
The Northern Westchester Shelter was founded 
in 1980 as a safe haven for domestic violence 
victims. The Shelter provides free confidential 
counseling, legal aid, support groups, and a 
24-hour hotline.

Questions for Discussion

After showing Because Things Happen Every 
Day, allow for at least 15 minutes to discuss 
audience reactions and explore how your 
program or community could improve its 
response to teenage victims of crime. Offered 
below are suggested questions, grouped by 
topic area, to help guide your discussion. Also 
highlighted are direct quotations from the video 
that help illustrate particular discussion points.

Teen victimization: The facts

 What crimes do teen victims experience?

Teen victims experience the whole range 
of crimes that adults experience, including 
domestic violence/dating violence, burglary, 
assault, identity theft, stalking, harassment, 
and homicide.


7

 How is responding to teen victims similar 
and dissimilar to responding to adult 
victims of crime?

Susan Herman: "Teenagers need many of 
same things, many of the same resources and 
services that adult victims of crime need. They 
need support; they need safety; they need 
safety planning; they need individual and group 
counseling. They need advocacy for those 
who go through the criminal justice process. 
They need compensation; they need orders of 
protection. The full range of services and 
resources that we've made available to adults 
need[s] to be adapted and need[s] to be made 
accessible to teenage victims of crime."
However, because teens are making the 
transition from childhood to adulthood, 
support for teen victims must take their 
developmental stage into consideration. 
For example, teens are strongly influenced 
by their peers, so peer-led education and 
support are especially beneficial for 
this population.

 What are some reasons why a teen might 
not come forward if he/she is being 
victimized?

Society often blames the victim. In addition, 
teens often think that they will be punished 
or arrested if, at the time of the victimization, 
they were in a situation where drugs or alcohol 
were involved. Additionally, many teens are 
aware of mandatory reporting requirements and 
do not want their victimization brought to 
the attention of law enforcement or child 
protection authorities.


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Reaching Teens

 What are some effective strategies for 
reaching teens?

Going to where teens are (e.g., setting up 
tables in the mall or hanging flyers on school 
bulletin boards and around the community); 
using "teen-friendly" language; forming trusting 
relationships; facilitating youth-led outreach 
efforts; ensuring confidentiality; and making 
educational information and support groups 
easily accessible to teens. 

Susan Herman: "We have to go where teens 
are, we have to speak their language, 
and we have to help them in ways that they 
want to be served." 

Ally: "It's important for communities to get the 
information out there, because if they don't 
know then nobody's going to reach out for 
help. Teens aren't going to just volunteer their 
information if they don't know where to go, and 
they don't feel safe talking to just anyone." 

 What outreach techniques can be used to 
reach teens? 

Within the school setting, hanging flyers and 
posters in the hallways or on bulletin boards, 
coordinating youth-led presentations in 
classrooms, and holding school assemblies are 
all effective ways to reach teens. In addition, 
teachers and counselors can speak directly 
with teens who might be at risk. They are in a 
unique position to notice if an individual has 
been behaving differently or has drastically 


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changed his or her appearance. School officials 
should be knowledgeable and able to make 
referrals to support groups or other appropriate 
resources.

Garreth Horwood: "Oftentimes a group 
member, before he's met me, has talked to 
the counselor or the teacher about a personal 
experience or two. Sometimes it's based purely 
on what the counselor or teacher has seen 
in terms of behavior: has that student acted 
violently? Have they suggested that maybe they've 
been hurt or abused? Maybe they've even seen 
physical signs like a bruise or something 
like that." 

Nolan Correa: "One of the recommendations I 
would like to make for other administrators is 
to go out into your community and look to see 
if there is a group, such as SafePlace, that can 
come in and assist your staff, community, and 
students These groups are there to educate 
and help, but we must go out and find them." 

In Westchester, New York, the STAR program 
holds school assemblies to educate students 
about dating violence and set up tables at a 
local mall on a Saturday afternoon to provide 
literature to teens. 

 In what ways did the programs in the 
video enlist teens in their outreach 
efforts? In what ways can you involve 
teens in your own outreach initiatives in 
your community?


10

The Northern Westchester Shelter recognized 
the need for an effective way to reach a 
population of victims that was underserved 
and developed Students Terminating Abusive 
Relationships (STAR) to meet that need. 
Because STAR is a student-led group, teens 
are able to reach out to other teens in ways 
that they know first-hand are effective. They 
give presentations about warning signs, types 
of abuse, and ways to help a friend in need. 
STAR teens actively encourage both their male 
and female peers to sign up for the STAR 
program.

Ally: "As part of the STAR group, we reach out 
to teens in the community by putting up posters 
and flyers at the YMCA, the library." 

Detective Tribble: "It's better perceived from 
one teen to another than as myself, as an adult 
and as an authority figure, talking to young 
people."

 What are the consequences of not 
responding to teen victimization?

Teens are twice as likely as any other age 
group to be victims of violent crime. Teen crime 
victims are at a greater risk of doing poorly 
in school, abusing drugs or alcohol, having 
problems eating or sleeping, being revictimized, 
and becoming an offender of violent crime 
themselves. 

Brandon: "Whenever I'd get mad at my house 
and I can't really hit my mom or anything I 
went and take it out at school." 


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Barri: "We cast the net kind of wide to attract 
as many kids who have had any form of 
victimization at all to participate. Because we 
know that those kids are at greater risk for being 
victimized again and for using those abusive 
behaviors in their own relationships."

Responding to Teens

 What are some of the indicators, as told by 
the teens in the video, that a teen might be 
being victimized?

 
 Physical injuries

 Yolanda: "I'd come to school with a black 
eye and I'd have bruise marks on my neck, 
shoulders, and arms." 

 Karis: "I had been cutting because I don't 
know how else to deal with it I used to 
have these huge gashes all over my arms."

  Isolation, withdrawal, or over-dependence 
on a dating partner

 Alexa: "He put me down and threatened 
me. He wouldn't let me go anywhere without 
him I lost all my friends. I completely lost 
who I was. I had no personality. I had nothing 
because he cut me down and destroyed my 
self-esteem."

  Feelings of shame, decreased self-esteem, 
and decreased interest in activities

 Karis: "I started to blame myself." 


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 Brandon: "It just made me angry all the time, 
and I never really had a smile, and I was 
never happy." 

 Yolanda: "It just takes a toll on everything. 
You're worried about this or you're not 
concentrating on your work or you're not 
doing something right or you don't perform 
well athletically because of it."

 Think of some examples from the video in 
which teens (a) needed help but felt that 
they could not seek it, or (b) attempted to 
open up to an adult, but did not receive 
the help that they needed.

 
 Karis: "It went on for about a year and I 
didn't, I just couldn't tell anyone."

 Amber: "I didn't know how to tell them, you 
know. I don't talk to my parents. I'm not 
open with my parents. We don't have a good 
communication thing going on."

 Yolanda: "Sometimes during class I would 
just go outside and cry and wonder why 
nobody didn't want to help me." 

 Brandon: "I would tell someone in between 
times but no one really listened."

 How can you make your outreach and 
support activities more effective and 
positive? 

 Yolanda: "You want to be able to have that 
one person reach out to you and help you 
and say, 'This is what I want to do. This is 
what I want to help you with.'" 


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 Barri: "If a child makes a disclosure to you, 
he or she trusts you, so you need to know 
how to respond in an effective manner. You 
should listen. Believe that child. Ask that child 
what they need to feel safe, and ask them 
how you can help them." 

 Yolanda: "I was talking to one of my English 
teachers, and she really just realized how 
much that I go through."

 What was the motivation for starting 
the Threat-Share Committee at Reagan 
High School? Who participates in the 
committee meetings, and what purpose 
does it serve?

Principal Correa put together the "Threat-
Share Committee" after the murder that took 
place at his school. The Committee consists 
of counselors, administrators, teachers, and 
department chairs. They meet once a week 
before school starts to share ideas about 
any possible student that may be at risk or 
currently experiencing violence of some sort. 
They converse about students whose behavior, 
dress, or attitude has changed, so they can 
then meet with those students 
to tell them about the SafePlace groups.


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Collaboration & Partnerships

 How did Reagan High School in Austin, 
Texas, make use of their community 
resources in responding to a severe 
incident of teen victimization?

Following a fatal stabbing of a young woman by 
the victim's boyfriend, the principal of Reagan 
High School held meetings and reached out to 
the school's staff, the school district, and the 
community-at-large for support and ideas for 
how to start a program to address the issue. 
They collaborated with SafePlace, which was 
already established in Austin, and arranged 
for confidential teen support groups to be held 
inside the schools for any teen who wanted to 
talk about victimization.

 Why is law enforcement an important 
component of a comprehensive response 
to teen victims?

Involving law enforcement lets teens know 
that the police are not the bad guys and 
that they are there to help. School Resource 
Officers (SROs) can be a very effective 
resource because they are in the schools 
where teens are and are well-informed about 
teen victimization issues. They also often have 
informed interactions with students and come 
to be seen as trusted figures in the school 
community. 


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 What role does Detective Tribble play 
in the response to teen victims in 
Westchester?

Detective Tribble gives presentations and 
conducts workshops with the students about 
victimization issues. He encourages teens to 
use the resources available to them, such as a 
confidential victim services hotline. 

 How does the Austin Police Department 
interact with SafePlace?

The Victim Services Coordinator at the Austin 
Police Department makes many visits to the 
local high schools. SafePlace also partners 
with groups like Communities in Schools, 
which invites school resource offices to 
give classroom presentations on various 
victimization issues.


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 Describe the partnerships that you saw in 
the video. How did they come about? Who 
are your partners currently? Who else in 
your community should be involved in 
this effort?

Both programs shown in the 
video demonstrate effective 
partnerships with local 
law enforcement, including school resource 
officers. The partnership that Reagan High 
School formed with SafePlace came about 
when the principal went into the community 
to look for a group that could assist his staff 
and students with the issues of violence that 
occur in school. In Westchester, schools call 
the Northern Westchester Shelter, home to 
the STAR program, and invite experts to come 
in and give presentations to the students. 
In addition, SafePlace provides training and 
consultation about victim issues to agencies in 
the community that serve youth (e.g., 
Extenda-Care, which provides after-school 
services and summer programs for teens; 
OutYouth, a gay, lesbian, and transgendered 
youth organization; the Boys & Girls Clubs; the 
Austin PTA; and Communities in Schools, a 
nonprofit social work agency). 

Endnotes

1National Crime Victimization Survey, 
Bureau of Justice Statistics, 
U.S. Department of Justice, 
2004 (data from 2003).

2Ibid.


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Additional Resources

National Center for Victims of Crime

www.ncvc.org

The National Center for Victims of Crime is 
dedicated to forging a national commitment 
to help victims of crime rebuild their lives. 
The National Center's toll-free Helpline, 
1-800-FYI-CALL, offers supportive counseling, 
practical information about crime and 
victimization, and referrals to local community 
resources, as well as skilled advocacy in the 
criminal justice and social service systems.

The National Center's Teen Victim Project 
web site (www.ncvc.org/tvp) offers teen-friendly 
fact sheets on various crimes, descriptions 
of current youth-led programs, and additional 
teen-related resources.

This document was prepared by the National
Center for Victims of Crime and supported by
grant 2003-CK-WX-K002, awarded by the U.S.
Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, and
conclusions or recommendations are those of the
authors and do not necessarily represent the
official position or policies of the U.S. Department
of Justice.


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Office of Community Oriented Policing 
Services (COPS Office)

U.S. Justice Department

(www.cops.usdoj.gov)

The mission of the COPS Office is to advance 
community policing in jurisdictions of all 
sizes across the country. Community policing 
represents a shift from more traditional law 
enforcement because it focuses on preventing 
crime and the fear of crime at the local level. 
Community policing puts law enforcement professionals 
on the streets so they can build mutually 
beneficial relationships with the people they 
serve. By earning the trust of community 
members and making those individuals 
stakeholders in their own safety, community 
policing makes law enforcement safer and more 
efficient. The COPS Office provides grants 
to tribal, state, and local law enforcement 
agencies to hire and train community policing 
professionals, acquire and deploy cutting-edge 
crime-fighting technologies, and develop and 
test innovative policing strategies.


U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Community Oriented Policing Services
1100 Vermont Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20530

To obtain details on COPS programs, call the
COPS Office Response Center at 800.421.6770