In 1981, Ronald Reagan signed an executive order establishing National Crime Victims Rights Week (NCVRW). This week marks the 32nd annual celebration of the week, which promotes victims’ interests and recognizes those who work on behalf of victims. NCVRW is managed by the federal Office for Victims of Crime, but people throughout the U.S. – for example in Oklahoma, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Arizona, Florida, and New York – are holding their own commemorations. Even Canada has begun to recognize the week.

Right On Crime will have coverage of NCVRW throughout the week, focusing on several core principles, among them:

  • Victims must be given the choice to participate, receive restitution, and even be reconciled with first time, non-violent offenders;
  • In appropriate cases, enable crime victims to choose pretrial victim-offender conferencing;
  • Victims must be notified about developments in the case against the offender; and
  • The amount and share of the restitution a victim collects should be used as a performance measure for probation and parole systems.

For a better sense of how sensible criminal justice reform would approach the interests of crime victims, read Right On Crime’s page on victims’ issues or read this Daily Beast piece which RoC signatory Pat Nolan penned about NCVRW just one year ago.