DOI: 10.3886/icpsr02467
title: Impact of Constitutional and Statutory Protection on Crime Victims' Rights in Four States in the United States, 1995
title: Archival Version

description: This survey of crime victims was undertaken to determine
 whether state constitutional amendments and other legal measures
 designed to protect crime victims' rights had been effective. It was
 designed to test the hypothesis that the strength of legal protection
 for victims' rights has a measurable impact on how victims are treated
 by the criminal justice system and on their perceptions of the
 system. A related hypothesis was that victims from states with strong
 legal protection would have more favorable experiences and greater
 satisfaction with the system than those from states where legal
 protection is weak. The Victim Survey (Parts 1, 4-7) collected
 information on when and where the crime occurred, characteristics of
 the perpetrators, use of force, police response, victim services, type
 of information given to the victim by the criminal justice system, the
 victim's level of participation in the criminal justice system, how
 the case ended, sentencing and restitution, the victim's satisfaction
 with the criminal justice system, and the effects of the crime on the
 victim. Demographic variables in the file include age, race, sex,
 education, employment, and income. In addition to the victim survey,
 criminal justice and victim assistance professionals at the state and
 local levels were surveyed because these professionals affect crime
 victims' ability to recover from and cope with the aftermath of the
 offense and the stress of participation in the criminal justice
 system. The Survey of State Officials (Parts 2 and 8) collected data
 on officials' opinions of the criminal justice system, level of
 funding for the agency, types of victims' rights provided by the
 state, how victims' rights provisions had changed the criminal justice
 system, advantages and disadvantages of such legislation, and
 recommendations for future legislation. The Survey of Local Officials
 (Parts 3 and 9) collected data on officials' opinions of the criminal
 justice system, level of funding, victims' rights to information about
 and participation in the criminal justice process, victim impact
statements, and restitution.
description: In 1990, the federal government adopted the
 Victim's Rights and Protection Act to protect victims' rights in
 federal crimes. By 1998, all 50 states had passed some form of a
 statutory crime victims' bill of rights, and 29 states had amended
 their constitutions to include rights for crime victims. Despite this
 widespread adoption of legal protection for the constitutional rights
 and civil liberties of victims, the implementation of such protection
 and its impact on victims had not been widely studied, nor had much
 research been directed at how this legislation influenced victim
 perceptions of the criminal justice system. To address these issues,
 the largest survey of crime victims to date was conducted to determine
 whether state constitutional amendments and other legal measures
 designed to protect crime victims' rights had been effective. This
 study sought to answer the following questions: (1) Do victims' rights
 statutes work? (2) Do these statutes foster fairness and respect for
 the rights and interests of crime victims? This study was designed to
 test the hypothesis that the strength of legal protection for victims'
 rights has a measurable impact on how victims are treated by the
 criminal justice system and on their perceptions of the system. A
 related hypothesis was that victims from states with strong legal
 protection would have more favorable experiences and greater
 satisfaction with the system than those from states where legal
 protection is weak. In addition to the victim survey, criminal justice
 and victim assistance professionals at the state and local levels were
 surveyed because these professionals affect crime victims' ability to
 recover from and cope with the aftermath of the offense and the stress
 of participation in the criminal justice system. It was hypothesized
 that criminal justice and victim services professionals would have
 greater awareness of victims' rights issues in states with stronger
 protections. This survey was also used to explore the reasons why
 victims' rights laws might or might not produce satisfaction among
victims.
description: The first step in the study was identifying two
 states that were weak in protecting victims' rights and two that were
 strong. From the four selected states, adult crime victims' names and
 locational information were obtained from departments of corrections
 and victims' compensation agencies. All crime victims selected had
 reported crimes to the police, most had substantial exposure to the
 criminal justice system through the progress of their case, and most
 had fairly recent experiences with the criminal justice
 system. Targeted for inclusion were victims of physical assault,
 robbery, and sexual assault, as well as surviving family members of
 homicide victims. Researchers attempted interviews with all such crime
 victims who acknowledged their victimization. Phone interviews were
 conducted with 1,308 of these crime victims. In addition to the
 victim survey, state and local criminal justice officials and victims'
 advocates were surveyed in these same four states to determine the
 extent to which they were aware of the legal rights of victims, their
 views of how victims' rights are ensured, and their thoughts about
 what further steps may be necessary to strengthen the protection of
 victims' rights. State officials included agency directors,
 legislators, victim coalition directors, and other government
 officials. Local officials included judges, prosecutors, parole and
 probation officers, victim assistance coordinators, victim-witness
 staff, defense attorneys, and police and sheriffs. About half of the
local officials surveyed were judges.
description: The Victim Survey (Parts 1, 4-7) collected
 information on when and where the crime occurred, characteristics of
 the perpetrators, use of force, police response, victim services, type
 of information given to the victim by the criminal justice system, the
 victim's level of participation in the criminal justice system, how
 the case ended, sentencing and restitution, the victim's satisfaction
 with the criminal justice system, and the effects of the crime on the
 victim. Demographic variables in the file include age, race, sex,
 education, employment, and income. The Survey of State Officials
 (Parts 2 and 8) collected data on officials' opinions of the criminal
 justice system, level of funding for the agency, types of victims'
 rights provided by the state, how victims' rights provisions had
 changed the criminal justice system, advantages and disadvantages of
 such legislation, and recommendations for future legislation. The
 Survey of Local Officials (Parts 3 and 9) collected data on officials'
 opinions of the criminal justice system, level of funding, victims'
 rights to information about and participation in the criminal justice
process, victim impact statements, and restitution.
description: Response Rates: For the Victim Survey interviews were completed
 with 83 percent of victims who could be located and who disclosed
 their victimization. The response rate for the Survey of Local
 Officials was 70 percent and the response rate for the Survey of State
Officials was 80.3 percent.
description: Presence of Common Scales: Several Likert-type scales were used.
description: Two weak and two strong states were selected from a
 ranking of the strength of states with respect to protecting crime
 victims' rights. The selected states provided researchers with lists
 of adult crime victims, who were then contacted for the victim
 survey. State and local criminal justice officials were selected from
a list compiled by the National Center for Victims of Crime.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Victim Survey
DS2: Survey of State Officials
DS3: Survey of Local Officials
DS4: Verbatim Responses to Victim Survey in Strong State 1
DS5: Verbatim Responses to Victim Survey in Strong State 2
DS6: Verbatim Responses to Victim Survey in Weak State 1
DS7: Verbatim Responses to Victim Survey in Weak State 2
DS8: Verbatim Responses to Survey of State Officials
DS9: Verbatim Responses to Survey of Local Officials
description: Crime victims, criminal justice officials, and victim
assistance professionals in the United States.
description: (1) ICPSR was unable to verify the meaning of all of
 the variables and values in the data files prior to releasing this
 study. ICPSR will continue to work with the principal investigators to
 clarify all undocumented information in the files, and the collection
 will be updated when all unanswered questions have been resolved. (2)
 ICPSR has blanked all geographic identifiers, including state names,
 in all files in order to protect respondent confidentiality. Names and
 profanity were deleted as well. (3) Parts 4-9 are ASCII text files
 that consist of verbatim responses to open-ended survey questions. (4)
 The user guide, codebook, and data collection instruments are provided
 as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file. The PDF file format was
 developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated and can be accessed using PDF
 reader software, such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on how
 to obtain a copy of the Acrobat Reader is provided through the ICPSR
Website on the Internet.