Evaluation of Victim Services Programs Funded by "Stop Violence Against Women" Grants in the United States, 1998-1999

Resource Information

The work Evaluation of Victim Services Programs Funded by "Stop Violence Against Women" Grants in the United States, 1998-1999 represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Bates College. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Evaluation of Victim Services Programs Funded by "Stop Violence Against Women" Grants in the United States, 1998-1999

Creator

• Smith, Barbara E
• Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor]

Contributor

• Davis, Robert C.

Author

• Smith, Barbara E
• Davis, Robert C.

Contributor

• Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor]

Subject

• sexual assault
• stalking
• survey
• battered women
• victims
• victim services
• crime prevention
• domestic violence
• law enforcement agencies
• program evaluation

Genre

• survey

Summary

This project investigated the effects of Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) STOP (Services, Training, Officers, Prosecutors) funds with respect to the provision of victim services by criminal justice-based agencies to domestic assault, stalking, and sexual assault victims. Violence Against Women grants were intended "to assist states, Indian tribal governments, and units of local government to develop and strengthen effective law enforcement and prosecution strategies to combat violent crimes against women, and to develop and strengthen victim services in cases involving violent crimes against women." Domestic violence and sexual assault were identified as primary targets for the STOP grants, along with support for under-served victim populations. Two types of programs were sampled in this evaluation. The first was a sample of representatives of STOP grant programs, from which 62 interviews were completed (Part 1, Criminal Justice Victim Service Program Survey Data). The second was a sample of 96 representatives of programs that worked in close cooperation with the 62 STOP program grantees to serve victims (Part 2, Ancillary Programs Survey Data). General questions from the STOP program survey (Part 1) covered types of victims served, years program had been in existence, types of services provided, stages when services were provided, number of victims served by the program the previous year, the program's operating budget, and primary and secondary funding sources. Questions about the community in which the program operated focused on types of services for domestic violence and/or sexual assault victims that existed in the community, if services provided by the program complemented or overlapped those provided by the community, and a rating of the community's coordinated response in providing services. Questions specific to the activities supported by the STOP grant included the amount of the grant award, if the STOP grant was used to start the program or to expand services and if the latter, which services, and whether the STOP funds changed the way the program delivered services, changed linkages with other agencies in the community, increased the program's visibility in the community, and/or impacted the program's stability. Also included were questions about under-served populations being served by the program, the impact of the STOP grant on victims as individuals and on their cases in the criminal justice system, and the program's impact on domestic violence, stalking, and sexual assault victims throughout the community. Data from the ancillary programs survey (Part 2) pertain to types of services provided by the program, if the organization was part of the private sector or the criminal justice system, and the impact of the STOP program in the community on various aspects of services provided and on improvements for victims