Police Officer Perceptions of a Victim-Services Program

Abstract

This study examines how police officers view their victim-services program and on which occasions they call a victim's advocate to a crime scene. The purpose of this study is to enhance the number of referrals to the victim-services program by police officers, as they are the primary means through which those just victimized become aware of services available to them. The eighty-eight police-officer participants offered extremely positive evaluations of the program and their experiences with victim advocates. Calls for an advocate, then, appear to be limited by police officers' individual evaluations of a victim's need for an advocate, victims' declining an officer's offer to request an advocate, and victims' limited knowledge about the program. Social-policy implications include revising police policies to require officers to call an advocate for all eligible crime victims or, minimally, provide all victims with written materials about the victim services available to them.