Building a National Data Collection on Victim Service Providers: A Pilot Test

• NCJ Number: 251524
• Author(s): Barbara A. Oudekerk; Lynn Langton; Heather Warnken; Sarah M. Greathouse; Nelson Lim; Bruce Taylor; Vince Welch; Susan Howley
• Date Published: February 2018
• Length: 64 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2012-VF-GX-K025
• Sponsoring Agency: Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)
• Corporate Author: Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS); National Opinion Research Center (NORC); RAND; National Center for Victims of Crime
• Publication Format: Document; Document (Online)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Findings, opinions, or points of view expressed in this report are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect official findings, positions or policies of the Bureau of Justice Statistics or the U.S. Department of Justice.

Annotation

This Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) funded report describes the development of the National Census of Victim Service Providers (NCVSP).

Abstract

This Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) funded report describes the development of the National Census of Victim Service Providers (NCVSP), including the development of the national roster of entities potentially serving crime victims, the NCVSP data collection instrument, and the implementation and results of a pilot study conducted with 725 entities from the national roster. The development of a statistical data collection on victim service providers (VSPs) in the United States strengthens the victim service field and addresses the field's need for information; specifically, on activities and resources of VSPs, the number of existing providers, their locations, services offered, crime types served, staffing, and funding. The pilot study results examine the feasibility of obtaining high response rates from different types of VSPs, experimental tests of different procedures for collecting data from VSPs, and the quality and nature of substantive information generated from the NCVSP instrument.