2002 National Crime Victims' Rights Week: Bringing Honor to Victims

Accessing Information: OVC Resource Center and Other Services

Victims' Resources in the Information Age

The advent of information technologies, especially the enormous growth of the Internet, has changed the way in which information about crime victims' issues is being made available to researchers, advocates, and practitioners. Today, victims and victim service providers can instantly access an enormous amount of information specific to their needs, including the latest research findings, statistical reports, program descriptions, grant and funding sources, evaluations on victim issues, promising practices, and referrals to professional organizations in the victim-serving community.

For victims and victim service providers, information access begins with the Office for Victims of Crime Resource Center (OVCRC), a component of the National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS). Established by the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC), U.S. Department of Justice, OVCRC is your primary source for crime victim information. OVCRC is accessible 24 hours a day through the NCJRS web site and Fax-on-Demand where menus provide information and publications from all Office of Justice Programs (OJP) agencies—Office for Victims of Crime, National Institute of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Bureau of Justice Statistics, and Bureau of Justice Assistance—as well as from the Office of National Drug Control Policy. In addition to the Web site, victim assistance professionals can benefit by taking advantage of various online services, such as the Justice Information (JUSTINFO) Electronic Newsletter, e-mail inquiries, the Conference Calender Database, and the On-line Ordering Store. NCJRS also has highly trained information specialists to personally answer questions and direct individuals to the best resources available. Furthermore, NCJRS offers allied professionals an opportunity to be placed on its mailing list to receive up-to-date information via the NCJRS Catalog. Together with online services, Fax-on-Demand, and personal assistance, NCJRS and OVCRC can help victim advocates better serve victims of crime.

Accessing OVCRC and NCJRS

To contact OVCRC, call 800-627-6872. To contact NCJRS, call 800-851-3420, or access on-line in the following ways:

NCJRS Web Site. The NCJRS web site provides criminal and juvenile justice information and links to other criminal justice resources from around the world. The NCJRS web site provides information about NCJRS and OJP agencies, grant-funding opportunities, full-text publications, key-word searching of NCJRS publications, access to the NCJRS Abstracts Database, the current NCJRS Catalog, and a topical index. The address for the NCJRS web site is www.ncjrs.gov.

NCJRS On-line Ordering System. Publications, videos, and other materials that pertain to criminal justice, juvenile justice, and drug control policy can now be ordered at any time. The on-line store is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and can be accessed from the NCJRS web site.

Justice Information (JUSTINFO) Electronic Newsletter. This free, on-line newsletter is distributed to your Internet e-mail address on the 1st and 15th of each month. JUSTINFO contains information concerning a wide variety of subjects, including news from all Office of Justice Programs (OJP) agencies and the Office of National Drug Control Policy; criminal justice resources on the Internet; criminal justice funding and program information; and announcements about new NCJRS products and services. To subscribe, send an e-mail to listproc@ncjrs.gov with the message subscribe justinfo [your name].

E-Mail: Information and Help. Users requiring technical assistance or having specific questions on criminal and juvenile justice topics can send an e-mail to askovc@ojp.usdoj.gov. To place an order for publications, users may go on-line to www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/AlphaList.aspx.

National Center for Victims of Crime Website (www.ncvc.org) This unique resource for crime victims and service providers contains more than 70 information bulletins on a wide range of crime issues. From the website, victims can be directly connected to e-mail support at gethelp@ncvc.org and a comprehensive referral service database of 7,400 local service agencies in the United States. Service providers can find information on best practices, legislative developments, and resources to use with crime victims. The National Center’s website also includes an on-line stalking resource center, a virtual library, a press room, and an on-line ordering system for publications and other materials. The site also links to the National Crime Victim Bar Association website, as well as the National Center’s unique September 11th site. (This site is not associated with OVC or NCJRS).

Other NCJRS Electronic Information Services

Fax-on-demand. NCJRS has established a "fax-on-demand" service that allows the user to obtain copies of selected NCJRS documents directly through their own fax machine, using a toll-free telephone number. To access the fax-on-demand menu, simply call 1-800-851-3420, and follow the prompts.

CD-ROM and On-line Access to the Abstracts Database. Users with CD-ROM capability can also obtain the NCJRS Abstracts Database on CD-ROM. This disc features citations and abstracts of more than 90,000 criminal justice books, research reports, journal articles, government documents, program descriptions, program evaluations, and training manuals contained in the NCJRS Research and Information Center library collection. The disc also contains search software that supports retrieval, using any combination of words to search individual fields or all fields globally. The disc can be searched using "free text" methods, or in combination with the National Criminal Justice Reference Services Thesaurus. In addition, the NCJRS Abstracts Database is available on the NCJRS web site.

Victim-Related Internet Sites

This list does not constitute an endorsement of opinions, resources, or statements on any of the web sites by the Office for Victims of Crime, U.S. Department of Justice, or the National Center for Victims of Crime.

Federal Agencies/Resources

Bureau of Justice Assistance
Bureau of Justice Statistics
Center for Substance Abuse Prevention
Center for Substance Abuse Treatment
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Community Oriented Policing Services Office (COPS)
FBI Uniform Crime Reports-Statistical Data
Federal Judicial Center
Govbot Database of Government Web sites
Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention
National Archive of Criminal Justice Data
National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information
National Domestic Violence Hotline
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
NCJRS Justice Information Center
National Institute of Corrections
National Institute of Justice
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
National Institute on Drug Abuse
National Maternal and Child Health Clearinghouse
NonProfit Gateway
Office of Justice Programs
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
Office for Victims of Crime (OVC)
Office of National Drug Control Policy Information Clearinghouse
THOMAS: Federal Legislation
U.S. Department of Education: Campus Security
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services GrantsNet
U.S. Department of Justice
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for PTSD
U.S. Parole Commission
U.S. Supreme Court
Violence Against Women Office