Implementing Law Enforcement-Based Victim Services: A Research Note on Considerations for Rural Communities

Law enforcement’s response to victims is pivotal in mitigating the significant and long-term physical, psychological, and financial consequences of victimization, and law enforcement agencies (LEAs) are increasingly dedicating personnel or programs focused on victims. For example, law enforcement-based victim services (LE-VS) specialists are LEA personnel whose primary responsibility is to focus on the rights and needs of victims. Recognizing the need to expand the use of LE-VS specialists, the Office for Victims of Crime developed the Law Enforcement-Based Victim Services (LEV) program to develop new or enhance existing victim services programs. There is a dearth of research on the outcomes and effectiveness of LEV programs or empirical evidence of best practices, and even less is known about LEV programs in rural areas. The current paper is part of a larger formative evaluation of LEV programs. Using surveys of 73 LEV programs and intensive data collection in a subset of 10 programs, we explored differences among LEV programs by rurality and identified promising practices for implementing victim services and considerations for rural communities. Results suggest that rural LE-VS specialists may be expected to have a broader set of skills and expertise than those in other communities to meet their job demands. Moreover, although all LE-VS specialists need to understand their community context, the implications for victim assistance are different in rural and urban communities.