Comprehensive Victims and the Media Guides
Now Available Free Online
Justice Solutions (a national non-profit organization) has just published online two comprehensive guides on the subject of victims and the media.
The first, entitled A Media Guide for Victim Service Providers (20011), is intended to help victim service providers advise victims in their dealings with the media. The Guide also includes chapters written to help victim organizations/agencies seeking to build positive working relationships with the media while enhancing the public visibility of their victim organization or agency. It is intended to serve the entire spectrum of the victim services field from professionals who are brand new to their role as “victim media advisor” to those with decades of experience. This Guide contains field-tested techniques and practical state-of-the-art strategies that will help victims steer around the common pitfalls while minimizing typical trauma associated with crime coverage in modern media.
Topics addressed include: “Ethics for victim media advisors/advocates”; “How to advise victims regarding the ‘who,’ ‘what,’ ‘where,’ ‘when,’ and ‘how’ of media interviews, press conferences and talk shows”; “How to create a public education media plan for your organization”; and “How to establish a working relationship with members of the media that will benefit both your victim advisees and your organization/agency.”
The second groundbreaking publication, entitled A Guide for Journalists Who Report on Crime and Crime Victims (2011), is designed to advise and assist journalists who seek to cover crime and victimization in a way that is sensitive to crime victims, yet still allows them to fulfill their role and responsibilities to the public as reporters. This first-of-its-kind Guide is not only intended to encourage more victim sensitive coverage, but it also explains the important role of victim advocates and service providers in regards to members of the media and explores ways that journalists can work with them more effectively to the benefit of both.
The Guide provides journalists with practical tips, techniques and advice from practicing journalists, educators and media advisors, all with the purpose of helping journalists “get the story” without re-victimizing victims. Topics include: “What to say and what not to say to victims in crisis”; “How to approach surviving family members of murder victims”; “The law and ethics regarding reporting and victim privacy”; and “How to enhance your chances of getting an interview (including the victim’s inside story) using simple strategies, policies and practices that respect the needs and concerns of crime victims.”
The Journalists Guide can also be used by victim service providers as an effective educational tool for the media since it can be downloaded, printed and distributed directly to members of the media or incorporated as part of an ongoing media education program.
Both Guides are written in easily accessible style and format laced with numerous internal links and integrated site search engines that allow users to quickly and easily find the topics or issue areas you need, when you need them. Both publications feature a generous number of checklists, samples, and worksheets that you can easily download and print for immediate use. Each also includes extensive links to related resources on the Internet to expand and enhance your learning experience. Both Guides can be downloaded and printed out in their entirety for use as a shelf reference or distributed to colleagues or directly members of the media. Again, all free of charge.
The Guides were co-authored by Anne Seymour and Bonnie Bucqueroux, who together have more than three decades of experience in the victims field during which time they have advised hundreds of victims on media matter and have educated thousands of service providers and members of the media regarding the issue. Both Guides are being published by Justice Solutions (a national non-profit organization) as part of the of the “Victims and the Media Series” and were originally created under a cooperative agreement awarded by the Office for Victims of Crime, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice (grant number: 2002-VF-GX-K013).
For more information about the Guides or for information about Justice Solutions please contact us at info@mediacrimevictimguide.com or info@victimprovidersmediaguide.com.
Look for the link to next publication in the “Victims and the Media series, entitled “Crime Victim Outreach Tips Sheets,” and the “Crime Victim’s Handbooks,” scheduled for publication in the very near future.
Video History of the Crime Victims’ Field Now Available Online
The Oral History of the Crime Victim Assistance Field is now available online at http://www.vroh.uarkron.edu. The website offers users more than 60 hours of video clips which encompass the first hand accounts of more than 50 of the field’s history-making pioneers. The website and video archive represent the world’s most comprehensive and extensive archive of its kind anywhere in the world.
The project, nearly six years in the making, was developed by Justice Solutions (a national non-profit) in partnership with the University of Akron under a grant from the Office for Victims of Crime, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.
The video clips are actual interviews with trail-blazing pioneers and pillars in the victims’ rights and assistance field and include “panel interviews” with the original President’s Task Force members and past Directors of the Office for Victims of Crime
For each interviewee, the project has created a “personal page” that includes a summary of the interview along with a transcript of the interview in its entirety. The transcript is designed to allow the user to directly link to any specific spot in the video interview, just by clicking on any paragraph within the transcript.
You can access transcripts by interviewee or you can use the internal search engine to search all interviewee transcripts by key word. For example, if you are interested in learning about the passage of the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA), you can search by key word “VOCA” and the search engine will identify each transcript that includes that word. Then, by going to the transcript(s) identified, you can search for VOCA within that transcript and the search engine will take you to each paragraph where the word appears.
This online video archive is housed and maintained by the University of Akron, which serves as the host university for the entire historical archive and collection. Apart from the online version of the video archive, the University also hosts an on-site version available to visitors at the University of Akron’s library archive. The on-site version features full screen video viewing and allows users to burn entire video interviews onto DVDs for off-site use.
The library archive is also developing a “hard-copy” collection, which contains documents of historical significance to the crime victims’ field—all of which will be cataloged and made available to users on the same basis as all library holdings.
We invite you to explore the entire site and encourage you to make use of the site and its information for any other educational purposes.
If you have any questions about the website or other aspects of the archive, or would like to discuss how you might use this unique resource, please feel free to contact David Beatty, Project Manager at dbeatty@justicesolutions.org.
In a recent announcement to Justice Solutions’ “Monday Mentoring Missives” listserv, our members were informed of the availability of the Victim Impact: Listen and Learn videotape developed by the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC), U.S. Department of Justice, to provide highly personal insights into the impact of crime on victims. Target audiences for the videotape include adult and juvenile offenders, victim advocates, allied justice professionals and community members. The Victim Impact: Listen and Learn videotape features powerful vignettes of 14 victims/survivors sharing their experiences—how they were victimized, the short- and long-term impact of their victimization on themselves, as well as their families and friends, and their suggestions for holding offenders accountable for their crimes. A range of types of victimization is presented by victims/survivors who are diverse by age, gender, culture and geography. Justice Solutions has created a Discussion Guide that offers questions for individual or group responses, based upon each victim’s experiences and commentary. These are intended to encourage positive discussions among viewers, and encourage them to focus on the impact that crime has on victims, their families, and communities. Simply click on WHAT to access your copy of the Victim Impact: Listen and Learn Discussion Guide.
“Victim Impact: Listen and Learn” Discussion Guide
Now Available
The video/DVD can be ordered from the NCJRS web site at www.ncjrs.gov. Select Publications/Products from the top of the page and then click on the “V” to be taken directly to the “Victim Impact: Listen and Learn” link. The DVD order number is NCJ 202905 and the VHS order number is NCJ 202904. There is a $12.25 fee, per copy, which includes shipping and handling.
We hope this important resource will be beneficial to you in your efforts to promote greater awareness of the impact of crime on victims.Click here to read the Victim Impact: Listen and Learn Videotape Discussion Guide Introduction
Click here to access the Victim Impact: Listen and Learn Videotape Discussion Guide in . pdf form.
National Crime Victim Advocates Promote Cell Phones as a Safety Tool
“Put It On ICE”September 1, 2005, Washington, D.C.
Cellular phones can be a powerful tool to promote individual and community safety, particularly in times of personal emergency or national disasters. Advocates for victims of crime, led by the Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization Justice Solutions, urge all cellular phone users in America to “put it on ICE” – “in case of emergency” – and include pertinent contact information for family members and other emergency contacts in their cell phone’s address book or directory.
The “ICE Campaign” was first initiated by Bob Brotchie of Great Britain’s East Anglian Ambulance Service in April of 2005. The simple concept was in response to the need for first responders to a crisis or disaster to be able to save valuable time in contacting family members and friends of someone who is in crisis, injured or deceased.
There are over 150 million people in America who own cell phones. In cases of emergency, first responders – including police, fire officials, paramedics, or concerned citizens – seek critical, timely and sometimes life-saving contact information by scrolling through cell phone directories for the telephone numbers of family or friends.
Click here for complete article and details regarding the "ice" program.
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Last Modified:
August 2, 2011