Crime Victims Service Seeking: Access to Information and Pathways to Service Referrals

Background: In 2020-2021, the rate of violent crime victimization reported to police increased from 40% in 2020 to 46% in 2021. However, this increase in crime victimization did not appear to result in a corresponding increase in crime victim service utilization. Lack of crime victim service utilization commensurate with changes in the crime rate suggests that there are factors impacting people’s decision and ability to seek services. Although there may be an array of services to mitigate the harm caused by crime victimization, multiple factors impact a person’s help seeking behavior, including access to information and pathways for service referrals. This paper reports on two sources of data: (1) findings from a web presence assessment that examined crime victims service information and demographic representation on service provider websites and (2) organizational survey items that pertained to how crime victims learned about available services and their pathways to referral.

Methods: The web presence assessment tool used a comprehensive, systematic protocol to assess agency websites (n=430) for descriptions of crime victim services and services specifically for members of historically underserved and minoritized groups. Additionally, data were collected from an organizational survey of 114 crime victims service providers across the state via a larger electronic survey about the barriers to accessing services among people who experienced crime. Univariate and bivariate descriptive statistics were calculated in Stata.

Results: Most (89%) of crime victims services providers responding to the organizational survey reported that their clients primarily learned about the organization’s services via referrals from another agency or organization. The vast majority of those referrals (88%) came from law enforcement entities. Additionally, 82% of organizations indicted that clients learned of their service via written materials. Despite high reliance on written material, results from the web presence assessment show scant information about how to access support for certain types of crime, including homicide, fraud, robbery, forgery, arson, and more. Further, there was very little representation of historically underserved and minoritized groups available on crime victim service websites.

Conclusion: The primary way service providers receive referrals is through law enforcement. This poses significant challenges for communities reluctant to engage with law enforcement, including those who fear deportation or the threat of state violence. Alternatively, individuals can choose to seek out information on their own through exploring organizational websites; however, they may find limited information about support and services available. Reliance on crime reporting to law enforcement as the de facto pre-requisite to service access, coupled with the lack of diverse representation on service providers’ organizational websites can exacerbate the unmet needs of crime victims from historically underserved and minoritized groups.