A university partnership for victim service professional development: Model standards for serving victims and survivors of crime.

Source: (2014) Journal of Criminal Justice Education.25(4): 421-434.

This paper describes processes and products of a partnership to promote
professionalization of the field of victim services. The National Victim Assistance
Standards Consortium was established by the federal Office for Victims
of Crime in partnership with the University of South Carolina. The
Consortium reached across geographic, philosophical, and disciplinary
divides to forge a common ground in professional development, including a
definition and mission for the field as well as three sets of model standards
for serving victims and survivors. The project included a review of literature
on victim services, town hall meetings across the country, and layered
review and refinement of standards by approximately 50 professionals working
at the local, state, and national levels. The online document, Achieving
Excellence: Model Standards for Serving Victims t Survivors of Crime, will
provide standards for promoting competence and ethical integrity as well as
quality and consistency of service. (author’s abstract)