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Support Services for Victims in England & Wales

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Victims of Crime

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Victims and Victimology ((PSVV))

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Abstract

This chapter will examine the local commissioning framework for victim support services in an effort to assess how local Police and Crime Commissioners have gone about the task of assessing victims’ needs. It will also evaluate how such commissioning appears to have impacted on the general makeup of victim support services in England & Wales. In particular, the chapter will investigate the evidence that local commissioning has achieved its stated aim of delivering more tailored localised services to victims based on a local assessment of needs.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See pp. 53 of this volume.

  2. 2.

    The CAB is a national network of individual charities, ironically similar to the previous arrangement of Victim Support, which provides advice to people on money, consumer, legal, housing and other social issues/concerns.

  3. 3.

    I will discuss those schemes and services left for commissioning by the Ministry of Justice below.

  4. 4.

    Although robust attempts have been made to equate criminal victimisation with economic cost (Loomes 2007).

  5. 5.

    Although they are under no specific duty to do so.

  6. 6.

    See p. 107 of this volume.

  7. 7.

    See, for example, the website of the Nottinghamshire PCC at http://www.nottinghamshire.pcc.police.uk/Our-Work/Supporting-Victims/Victims-Services/Victims-Services.aspx (accessed 02.06.17).

  8. 8.

    See p. 160 of this volume.

  9. 9.

    “Cutting Edge”, Channel 4. See http://www.channel4.com/info/press/programme-information/the-murder-workers-cutting-edge (accessed 02.06.17).

  10. 10.

    The Homicide Service lists these services as: trauma counselling, bereavement counselling, restorative justice, debt advice, housing advice, peer support, advice on domestic homicide reviews/inquests, legal advice, murder or manslaughter abroad, child bereavement support, group bereavement support.

  11. 11.

    Council of Europe Treaty Series No. 197.

  12. 12.

    s.1.

  13. 13.

    See p. 57 of this volume.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lincoln Law School, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK

    Matthew Hall

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  1. Matthew Hall
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Hall, M. (2017). Support Services for Victims in England & Wales. In: Victims of Crime. Palgrave Studies in Victims and Victimology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64589-6_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64589-6_3

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-64588-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-64589-6

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