Session: Democratizing Knowledge: Application of Community-Engaged Methods to Examine Crime Victim Service Accessibility across Underserved and Minoritized Populations (Society for Social Work and Research 28th Annual Conference - Recentering & Democratizing Knowledge: The Next 30 Years of Social Work Science)

In 2021, violent crime victimization occurred at a rate of 16.5 crimes per 1,000 people in the United States. Additionally, there were 90.3 instances of property crime victimization per 1,000 people. Behind these crime statistics are the immediate and longer-term needs of people who experience crimes and their ability to access the services and supports they need. Although ensuring access to crime victims services is critically important for all who experience crime, there has been little focus on how service needs and accessibility vary across populations. This gap is problematic given racial and ethnic disparities in crime victimization. This symposium reports on four papers associated with the North Carolina Victims of Crime Needs Assessment, funded by the Governor’s Crime Commission, that aimed to: 1) identify the needs of crime victims and examine how these needs may vary across underserved and minoritized groups; 2) identify existing crime victim services in counties across the state; 3) examine the capacity of crime victim service organizations, and 4) identify barriers to accessing services and how the salience of these barriers varies across groups. Paper 1 details the mixed-methods, community-engaged approach that guided the work of the research team and how this approach seeks to democratize knowledge from data collection to dissemination. Paper 2 describes the results from 55 interviews conducted with advocates and service providers across the state about the service and support needs across underserved and minoritized groups. The third paper describes how people who experience crime learn about available services and the primary referral pathways for obtaining services. The final paper describes the variation in perspectives on service adequacy across crime victim service providers, culturally specific organizations, and law enforcement. At the close of these presentations, the discussant will provide comments, draw on the themes prevalent across studies, and discuss the impact of government and state-funded initiatives for enhancing equity for crime victim services in local communities.