This Pocket Guide is designed particularly for community-based advocates as a quick reference guide to better assist victims as they navigate the criminal legal process. This Pocket Guide contains things such as a quick review of the general criminal legal process and victim rights with an emphasis on safety planning at every juncture. While this Pocket Guide is designed primarily for community-based advocates, it may be useful for other professionals who work with victims.

The Domestic Violence Advocacy Policy Toolkit inventories the 50 states’ unauthorized practice of law restrictions and exceptions to those restrictions and explores the impact of unauthorized practice of law (UPL) on legal services for domestic violence survivors.

While organizations providing support services to domestic violence (DV) survivors may refer survivors facing civil legal issues to legal aid organizations, 88% of low-income survivors receive inadequate or no legal help. Survivors may receive legal navigation assistance from DV advocates, but DV advocates are trained to give legal information, not legal advice, in order to comply with unauthorized practice of law restrictions. To chart the national domestic violence legal service landscape under the current UPL regime, this Toolkit addresses five research questions.

Tribal Legal Code Resource: Victim’s Rights, Condensed Guide for Drafting Tribal Victim’s Rights Codes is designed to assist tribal governments with the development of victim right’s codes. This resource was written with the belief that tribal governments have the ability to draft victim right’s laws centered on their tribal beliefs that convey compassion for those harmed by crime and the importance of protecting the rights of victims, and to prevent revictimization.

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This publication has not yet been updated to reflect the changes VAWA 2022 made to the scope of tribal jurisdiction including recognition of inherent tribal criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians who are charged with committing nine “covered crimes” – both the three initial covered crimes in VAWA 2013 (domestic violence, dating violence, and protection order violations) and six additional covered crimes (sexual violence, stalking, sex trafficking, child violence, obstruction of justice, and assaults against tribal justice personnel). For more information concerning VAWA 2022 please visit the VAWA 2022 webpage on the Tribal Court Clearinghouse www.TLPI.org.

The Strengthening Tribal Response to Violence Against Native Women Initiative provided training, technical assistance and resources for Tribal governments and programs that did not have Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) grant funding. The goal of initiative was to enhance victim services and assist tribal criminal justice systems to more effectively address victim safety and offender accountability. The website houses comprehensive resources on Coordinated Community Response, Shelter and Safe Housing, Legal Response, and more.

Victim Services: Promising Practices in Indian Country (November 2004), describes 12 programs of services for crime victims being conducted by various Tribes throughout the United States.

Some examples of promising practices are the use of technology to provide victim assistance and education, the development of tribal college curricula and distance learning to train victim service providers, and curriculum development to promote safety and provide support for victims.

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This resource identifies Apache Violence-Free Living Program as a promising practice in victim services. The model developed by Shelley Miller, Executive Director of the Native Alliance against Violence.

Vision 21: Transforming Victim Services Final Report presents a cohesive and comprehensive framework for strategic change in the victim services field and addresses ways to overcome political, policy, and philosophical challenges in the field. This report discusses major challenges to the integration of research into victim services; the need for crime victims to have access to legal assistance to address the wide range of legal issues that can arise following victimization; the impact of advances in technology, globalization, and changing demographics on the victim assistance field; and the capacity for serving victims in the 21st century along with some of the infrastructure issues that must be overcome to reach that capacity. Further outlined are recommendations for beginning the transformative change, which fall into the following four broad categories: conducting continuous rather than episodic strategic planning in the victim assistance field to effect real change in research, policy, programming, and capacity building; supporting research to build a body of evidence-based knowledge and generate, collect, and analyze quantitative and qualitative data on victimization, emerging victimization trends, services and behaviors, and victims' rights enforcement efforts; ensuring the statutory, policy, and programmatic flexibility to address enduring and emerging crime victim issues; and building and institutionalizing capacity through an infusion of technology, training, and innovation to ensure that the field is equipped to meet the demands of the 21st century. Appendixes and references