RESOURCES

Glossary of Terms

Annual Victim Target: The annual target refers to the number of direct service victims the program anticipates serving during the current grant year by each service objective. These targets are submitted with the grant application each year.

Child: A child is a person under the age of 18.

Continuance Notification: Any system used to assist victims in minimizing unnecessary trips to court (e.g., a 24- hour docket line, procedures that encourage victims to call the day before trial, or criminal justice professionals who notify victims personally).

Crime: An act committed in violation of a law.

Crisis: Crisis is defined as a state of emotional distress (often characterized by crying or being irate).

Direct Services: Direct services are program services provided to victims which go beyond the provision of generic services. Such services seek to alleviate problems or inconveniences arising from the commission of a particular crime. Examples of direct services include: crisis intervention, assistance with compensation claims, court accompaniment, etc. For example, with restitution, if a staff person helps a victim to determine the amount of restitution and then monitors payments, count that victim under “Direct Service”.

Direct Service Victim: A direct service victim receives the services described in the “Direct Services” category.

Direct Service Witness: A direct service witness receives any or all of the required and optional services listed in section XII.

Directory of Services: A compilation of social services and community resources available to crime victims.

Elder: An elder is a person aged 60 and over.

Elder Abuse: The abuse of vulnerable adults the age of 60 and over. “Vulnerable adults” are those individuals who do not have the mental and/or physical capacity to manage their daily needs, and who are subjected to abuse by a guardian or caretaker.

Family or Household Member: Family or household member means the persons: spouse, former spouse, parents, stepparents, children, stepchildren, siblings (includes half-siblings), grandparents and grandchildren, regardless of whether such persons reside in the same home with the person. Family or household member also means the persons: In-laws who reside in the same home with the person, any individual who has a child in common with the person, whether or not the person and that individual have been married or have resided together at any time, or any individual who cohabits or who, within the previous 12 months, cohabited with the person, and any children of either of them then residing in the same home with the person.

“Cohabit” in this section means a couple who resides together in an intimate relationship (includes same-sex couples).

Generic Services: Generic services include, and are limited to, the provision of pre-printed information, routine contact related to the advanced notice of judicial proceedings, restitution, and case dispositions. Routine contacts are brief, limited encounters with a victim. For example, with restitution, if a staff person mails a restitution check to a victim, and that is the only contact with that victim, count that victim under “Generic Service”.

Generic Service Victim: A generic service victim receives only the services described in the “Generic Services” category.

Generic Service Witness: A generic service witness receives only pre-printed information or routine contact related to case dispositions.

Separate Waiting Areas: Designated places for victims to wait during court proceedings to afford them privacy and protection from intimidation (this could include a jury room, the victim/witness program office, etc.)

Victim: According to Virginia’s Crime Victim and Witness Rights Act, “Victim” means a person who suffered physical, psychological or economic harm as a direct result of: the commission of any felony, or certain misdemeanors (Assault and battery; assault and battery against a family or household member; stalking; sexual battery; attempted sexual battery; or driving while intoxicated).

The definition of “victim” includes: spouses and children of all victims, and parents and guardians of minor victims, and parents, siblings or guardians of mentally or physically incapacitated victims and/or victims of homicide, and foster parents or other caregivers, under certain circumstances.

Note: The actual deceased victim of a homicide is never counted as a direct service victim.

Programs may continue to offer services to crime victims not included in the Act’s definition. This is at the discretion of the staff, and largely depends on the available resources of the locality. Any victim served by the program should be counted in the Quarterly Progress Report.

Appendix A

American Indian or Alaska Native” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America) and who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment. This category includes people who indicated their race(s) as “American Indian or Alaska Native” or reported their enrolled or principal tribe, such as Navajo, Blackfeet, Inupiat, Yup’ik, or Central American Indian groups or South American Indian groups.

Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam. It includes people who indicated their race(s) as “Asian” or reported entries such as “Asian Indian,” “Chinese,” “Filipino,” “Korean,” “Japanese,” “Vietnamese,” and “Other Asian” or provided other detailed Asian responses.

Black or African American” refers to a person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa. It includes people who indicated their race(s) as “Black, African American, or Negro” or reported entries such as African American, Kenyan, Nigerian, or Haitian.

Hispanic or Latino” refers to an individual who self-reports in one of the specific Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino categories listed on the Census 2010 questionnaire: “Mexican,” “Puerto Rican,” or “Cuban.” This also refers to those who indicate that they are “another Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin.” People who do not identify with one of the specific origins listed on the questionnaire but indicate that they are “another Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin” are those whose origins are from Spain, the Spanish-speaking countries of Central or South America, or the Dominican Republic. The terms “Hispanic,” “Latino,” and “Spanish” are used interchangeably.

Multiple Races” refers to a person who may self-identify in more than one race or ethnicity category. “Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands. It includes people who indicated their race(s) as “Pacific Islander” or reported entries such as “Native Hawaiian,” “Guamanian or Chamorro,” “Samoan,” and “Other Pacific Islander” or provided other detailed Pacific Islander responses.

White” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. It includes people who indicated their race(s) as “White” or reported entries such as Irish, German, Italian, Lebanese, Arab, Moroccan, or Caucasian.

Some Other Race” includes all other responses not included in the White, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander race categories described above.

Victimization Types

  1. Adults Sexually Abused/Assaulted as Children: Adult survivors of sexual abuse and/or assault suffered while they were children.
     
  2. Adult Physical Assault/Aggravated Assault: an unlawful attack by one person upon another for the purpose of inflicting severe or aggravated bodily injury. This type of assault usually is accompanied by the use of a weapon or by means likely to produce death or great bodily harm.
    1. Simple Assault: assaults and attempted assaults where no weapon was used or no serious or aggravated injury resulted to the victim. Intimidation, coercion, and hazing are included.
       
  3. Adult Sexual Assault: includes a wide range of victimizations; crimes that include attacks or attempted attacks generally involving unwanted sexual contact between victim and offender. Sexual assaults may or may not involve force and include such things as grabbing, fondling, and verbal threats. Also included is rape, which is defined as penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration of a sex organ by another person, without the consent of the victim; may also include penetration of the mouth by a sex organ by another person.
     
  4. Arson: any willful or malicious burning or attempting to burn, with or without intent to defraud, a dwelling house, public building, motor vehicle or aircraft, personal property of another, and so on.
     
  5. Bullying (cyber, physical, or verbal): repeated, negative acts committed by one or more children against another. These negative acts may be physical or verbal in nature—for example, hitting or kicking, teasing or taunting—or they may involve indirect actions such as manipulating friendships or purposely excluding other children from activities. Implicit in this definition is an imbalance in real or perceived power between the bully and victim. Examples of cyber bullying include mean text messages or e-mails, rumors sent by e-mail or posted on social networking sites, and embarrassing pictures, videos, web sites, or fake profiles.
     
  6. Burglary: the unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or theft. The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program includes three sub-classifications: forcible entry, unlawful entry where no force is used, and attempted forcible entry. The UCR definition of “structure” includes apartment, barn, house trailer or houseboat when used as a permanent dwelling, office, railroad car (but not automobile), stable, and vessel (i.e., ship).
    1. Campus Sexual Assault: Sexual offense: the act of forcible rape, attempted rape, statutory rape, sexual harassment, prostitution, or other unlawful sexual contact and other unlawful behavior intended to result in sexual gratification or profit from sexual activity that takes place on a campus of colleges, universities, and primary and secondary education campuses.
       
  7. Child Physical Abuse and Neglect: this may include physical abuse that is non-accidental physical injury (ranging from minor bruises to severe fractures or death) as a result of punching, beating, kicking, biting, shaking, throwing, stabbing, choking, hitting (with a hand, stick, strap, or other object), burning, or otherwise harming a child, that is inflicted by a parent, caregiver, or other person. Such injury is considered abuse regardless of whether the caregiver intended to hurt the child. Physical discipline, such as spanking or paddling, is not considered abuse as long as it is reasonable and causes no bodily injury to the child.
     
  8. Child Sexual Abuse and Assault: this may include activities such as fondling a child’s genitals, penetration, incest, rape, sodomy, indecent exposure, and exploitation through prostitution by a parent, caregiver, or other person. Includes teen sexual assault.
     
  9. Child Pornography: any visual depiction, including any photograph, film, video, picture, drawing, or computer or computer-generated image or picture, which is produced by electronic, mechanical, or other means, of sexually explicit conduct, where: (1) its production involved the use of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct; (2) such visual depiction is, or appears to be, of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct; (3) such visual depiction has been created, adapted, or modified to appear that an identifiable minor is engaging in sexually explicit conduct; or (4) it is advertised, distributed, promoted, or presented in such a manner as to convey the impression that it is a visual depiction of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
     
  10. Domestic and/or Family Violence: a crime in which there is a past or present familial, household, or other intimate relationship between the victim and the offender, including spouses, ex-spouses, boyfriends and girlfriends, ex-boyfriends and ex-girlfriends, and any family members or persons residing in the same household as the victim. Involves a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over another intimate partner. Domestic violence can be physical, sexual, emotional, economic, or psychological actions or threats of actions that influence another person. This includes any behaviors that intimidate, manipulate, humiliate, isolate, frighten, terrorize, coerce, threaten, blame, hurt, injure, or wound someone.
     
  11. DUI/DWI Incidents: driving or operating a motor vehicle or common carrier while mentally or physically impaired as the result of consuming an alcoholic beverage or using a drug or narcotic.
     
  12. Elder Abuse/Neglect: also known as elder mistreatment generally refers to any knowing, intentional, or negligent act by a family member, caregiver, or other person in a trust relationship that causes harm or creates a serious risk of harm to an older person. Elder abuse may include abuse that is physical, emotional/psychological (including threats), or sexual; neglect (including abandonment); and financial exploitation. This is a general definition; state definitions of elder abuse vary. Some definitions may also include fraud, scams, or financial crimes targeted at older people.
     
  13. Hate Crime (Racial/Religious/Gender/Sexual Orientation/Other): a criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, ethnic origin, or sexual orientation.
     
  14. Human Trafficking: Sex/Labor: inducing a person by force, fraud, or coercion to participate in commercial sex acts, or the person induced to perform such act(s) has not attained 18 years of age. It also covers obtaining a person through recruitment, harboring, transportation, or provision, and subjecting such a person by force, fraud, or coercion into involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery (not to include commercial sex acts).
     
  15. Identity Theft/Fraud/Financial Crimes: identity theft occurs when someone wrongfully obtains another’s personal information without their knowledge to commit theft or fraud. Fraud and financial crimes include illegal acts characterized by deceit, concealment, or violation of trust and that are not dependent upon the application or threat of physical force or violence. Individuals and organizations commit these acts to obtain money, property, or services; to avoid the payment or loss of money or services; or to secure personal or business advantage.
     
  16. Kidnapping (noncustodial): occurs when someone unlawfully seizes, confines, inveigles, decoys, abducts, or carries away and holds for ransom or reward, by any person, except in the case of a minor by the parent thereof.
     
  17. Kidnapping (custodial): occurs when one parent or guardian deprives another of his or her legal right to custody or visitation of a minor by unlawfully taking the child. The definition and penalties of custodial kidnapping vary by state. In some states, kidnapping occurs only if a child is taken outside of the state and/or if an existing custody order is intentionally violated. In all cases, international custodial kidnapping is a federal offense.
     
  18. Mass Violence: Domestic/International: an intentional violent criminal act that results in physical, emotional, or psychological injury to a sufficiently large number of people to significantly increase the burden of victim assistance and compensation for the responding jurisdiction.
     
  19. Other Vehicular Victimization: may include hit-and-run crimes, carjacking, and other vehicular assault.
     
  20. Robbery: taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of force or violence and/or by putting the victim in fear.
     
  21. Stalking/Harassment: individuals are classified as victims of stalking or harassment if they experienced at least one of the behaviors listed below on at least two separate occasions. In addition, the individuals must have feared for their safety or that of a family member as a result of the course of conduct, or have experienced additional threatening behaviors that would cause a reasonable person to feel fear. Stalking behaviors include making unwanted phone calls; sending unsolicited or unwanted letters or e-mails; following or spying on the victim; showing up at places without a legitimate reason; waiting at places for the victim; leaving unwanted items, presents, or flowers; and posting information or spreading rumors about the victim on the Internet/social media, in a public place, or by word of mouth.
    1. Strangulation: §18.2-51.6. Strangulation of another; penalty any person who, without consent, impedes the blood circulation or respiration of another person by knowingly, intentionally, and unlawfully applying pressure to the neck of such person resulting in the wounding or bodily injury of such person is guilty of strangulation, a Class 6 felony.
       
  22. Survivors of Homicide Victims: survivors of victims of murder and voluntary manslaughter, which are the willful (intent is present) killing of one human being by another.
     
  23. Teen Dating Victimization: teen dating violence is defined as the physical, sexual, psychological, or emotional violence within a teen dating relationship, including stalking. It can occur in person or electronically and might occur between a current or former dating partner. [Teen: OVC describes a teen (for purposes of this report) as a youth, ages 13–17. Use this definition to capture youth ages 13–17 who present for services for a primary and/or additional victimization where applicable: for example, teen dating victimization].
     
  24. Terrorism: Domestic: the term terrorism means an activity that…(1) involves a violent act or an act dangerous to human life that is a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State, or that would be a criminal violation if committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or any State; and (2) appears to be intended…(a) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, (b) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion or (c) to affect the conduct of a government by assassination or kidnapping (18 U.S.C. 3077).
     
  25. Terrorism: International: the Antiterrorism and Emergency Reserve Fund Guidelines for Terrorism and Mass Violence Crimes refers to the term terrorism, when occurring outside of the United States, as international terrorism to mean an activity that…(1) involves a violent act or an act dangerous to human life that is a violation of the criminal laws of the United States of any State or that would be a criminal violation if committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or of any State; (2) appears to be intended…(a) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (b) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (c) to affect the conduct of a government by assassination or kidnapping; and (3) occur primarily outside the territorial jurisdiction of the United States, or transcend national boundaries in terms of the means by which they are accomplished, the persons they appear intended to intimidate or coerce, or the locale in which their perpetrators operate or seek asylum (18 U.S.C. 2331).
     
  26. Violation of a Court Order: this is defined by state or jurisdiction.

 

Helpful Links

FY 2025 Victim Witness Grant Program Guidelines: fy-2025-victim-witness-grant-program-guidelines.pdf (virginia.gov)

DOJ Grants Financial Guide: DOJ Grants Financial Guide (ojp.gov)

OGMS Training and Resources:  https://www.dcjs.virginia.gov/grants/ogms-training-resources

DCJS Publications Directory: Publications | Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services

Victims Services Training Opportunities:  https://www.dcjs.virginia.gov/victims-services/training

Virginia Office of the Attorney General Victim Services: Victim Notification Program (state.va.us)

Virginia Victim Assistance Network:  http://vanetwork.org/

Virginia Victims Fund:  Home | Virginia Victims Fund

Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance:  www.vsdvalliance.org/#/member-services

Virginias Judicial System:  www.courts.state.va.us

Virginia Parole Board:  https://vpb.virginia.gov/victim-services

Virginia Department of Corrections:  Victim Services — Virginia Department of Corrections

VOCA Rule:  www.federalregister.gov/documents/2013/08/27/2013-20426/voca-victim-assistance-program

Federal Victim Assistance:


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