Your Rights as a Victim
Victims of crime are impacted in many ways including physical injury, emotional pain and suffering, and financial loss. Providing a voice for victims in the criminal/juvenile justice process and connecting them with meaningful advocacy and services can be an important part of the healing process, allowing them to transcend their victimization.
The Crime Victims Act provides victims of crime the following rights listed below. Local agencies receive funding to ensure these rights and services are delivered. Based on the individual's needs and preferences, services may be provided by governmental agencies such as the county victim/ witness offices, local non-profit organizations such as local rape crisis and domestic violence centers, legal service agencies, agencies serving homicide survivors, and children's advocacy centers.
The Basics
Legal standing refers to a crime victims' ability to independently assert and enforce their victims' rights.
On July 11, 2022, Governor Wolf signed Act 77 into law amending the Crime Victims Act (CVA). A crucial piece of this legislation makes explicit that crime victims will have legal standing at the statutory level as of September 8, 2022 (effective date of the Act). If a victim's rights are overlooked or violated, Act 77 gives victims expanded protection under the Victims' Bill of Rights.
The passage of this Act not only impacts victim service providers but also law enforcement, prosecutors, the courts, and post-conviction agencies.
Making Victims’ Rights Meaningful: The Role of Advocates after Act 77 of 2022
Target Audience : Advocates (system- based and community based)
Length: 1.5 hours
Overview: Every jurisdiction in this country - including Pennsylvania - has provided victims of crime legal rights in the criminal and juvenile justice systems for decades. These legal rights include the rights to privacy, protection, and fairness. Sadly, when these rights are not protected victims experience re-victimization, which can have tremendous negative impacts on the victim's mental and physical health and on the functioning of our justice systems. When victims' rights are protected and their voices are heard, both victims and the justice system benefit: victims can experience more empowerment while the justice system operates more effectively. With passage of Act 77 of 2022, victims now have a clearer path to assert and seek enforcement of their rights in courts. This is often called "standing" – but what is standing? And what is the role of advocates in protecting those rights? Presenters provided an overview of victims' rights assertion and enforcement, and through hypothetical scenarios help advocates ensure rights are protected.
Victims’ Rights and Legal Standing: Understanding Act 77 of 2022
Target Audience: Attorneys and Legal Advocates
Length: 2.5 hours
Overview: With passage of Act 77 of 2022, victims in Pennsylvania now have a clear path to assert and seek enforcement of their rights in juvenile/criminal court. But what does that look like? Presenters will share lessons from jurisdictions across the country that have passed similar laws. Presenters will describe what it looks like when victims with standing in juvenile/criminal courts assert and seek enforcement of their rights. The session reviewed the existing rights of crime victims in Pennsylvania, explore common legal challenges to victims' rights assertion, and successful legal strategies to overcome those challenges.
Victims’ Rights Litigation After Act 77 of 2022
**participants should have taken Victims' Rights and Legal Standing - Understanding Act 77 training or have basic knowledge of rights enforcement training.
Length : 2.5 hours
Overview: Drawing on lessons from jurisdictions across the country, this session will offer practical strategies and guidance on the practice of rights enforcement as a result of the successful passage of Act 77 of 2022. Using case scenarios, the training will help attendees identify trauma-informed legal strategies for representing victims regarding assertion and enforcement of their rights in trial and appellate courts. The session included consideration of creating an effective trial court record to allow for effective, precedent-setting appellate review.
- About basic services available to you in your county;
- About certain court events, including information on bail, escape of the offender, the release of an offender; and
- About the details of the final disposition of a case.
- Notice of the arrest of the offender;
- Information about restitution and assistance with compensation; and
- Accompaniment to all criminal proceedings by a family member, a victim advocate, or a support person.
- Into the sentencing decision and to receive help in preparing an oral and/or written victim impact statement; and
- Into post sentencing decisions.
Complete List of Victims' Rights
- To be provided with basic information on available services;
- To be told about certain significant actions within the justice system pertaining to the victims' case. This includes the granting or denial of bail to an adult offender, the detention or release of a juvenile, the filing of a petition alleging delinquency, and the escape and subsequent apprehension of an adult prior to trial or a juvenile prior to adjudication;
- To receive information of the availability of crime victim's compensation;
- To be notified of the Address Confidentiality Program if eligible to apply;
- To not be excluded from a criminal proceeding unless the court, based on the record before it, determines that testimony by the victim would be materially altered if the victim heard other testimony at the proceeding.
- To offer comment regarding a defendant's bail conditions at the time that bail conditions are imposed or at any subsequent proceeding where bail conditions may be modified.
- To be accompanied at all proceedings by a family member, a victim advocate or other support person;
- To give prior comment on the sentencing decision regarding an adult offender or the disposition of a delinquent child;
- To receive help in preparing an oral and/or written victim impact statement detailing the physical, psychological, and economic effects of the crime, which will be considered by the courts;
- To be restored as one was before the crime, as much as possible, through restitution, have property returned that was seized as evidence but no longer needed for prosecution, and to receive assistance with preparing, submitting, and follow-up with a claim for compensation;
- To be notified of an adult offender's transfer from a state prison to a mental health facility and the discharge, transfer, or escape of the adult offender from that facility;
- To receive immediate notice of the release of an adult offender on bail who is incarcerated in a local prison for a violation of a Protection From Abuse (PFA) order, Sexual Violence Protection Order (SVPO), or Protection From Intimidation (PFI) order, or for a personal injury crime committed against the victim protected by the order;
- To have notice and to provide prior comment on a judicial recommendation that the defendant participate in a motivational boot camp;
- To have notice and provide comment on resentencing decisions regarding an offender;
- To be notified of the disposition and sentence of an adult, including sentence modifications;
- To have notice and provide prior comment on the prosecutor's waiver of eligibility requirement of an offender to enter the Recidivism Risk Reduction Incentive (RRRI) Program;
- To be notified and provide comment if the court considers an offender to be eligible for participation in the State Drug Treatment Program;
- To receive pre-parole notifications 90 days before the parole date of the offender;
- To submit pre-parole statements regarding the offender's parole supervision, including suggestions of special conditions, submit a written petition to deny parole, and appear in person or through representation to provide testimony before the parole panel;
- Receive notice of the parole board's decision before the offender's release;
- To be present at trials and the execution of an offender; and
- To receive notice of the arrest of a defendant for violating a PFA order.
- To receive notice of the arrest of a suspect or the filing or forwarding of a complaint relating to the crime;
- By the victim's request, to receive notice when an adult offender is released from incarceration at sentencing;
- To receive notice of an opportunity to give prior comment on and receive post-sentencing decisions involving an offender's release from a state prison, such as medical release, work release, furlough, parole, pardon, or community treatment center placement;
- To receive notice of and provide prior comment on recommendations sought by the Department of Corrections that an offender may participate in a motivational boot camp;
- To receive notice of the release of an adult offender from a local correctional facility, including work release, medical release, furlough, parole, release from a boot camp or community treatment center placement;
- To receive notice of, including location and time, a dispositional proceeding, if the prosecutor's office has advance notice of said proceeding;
- To receive immediate notice of the escape of an adult offender and subsequent apprehension;
- By the victim's request, to receive notice of the filing, hearing, or disposition of appeals;
- To receive notice of the commitment to a mental health institution from a state or local correctional institution;
- To receive notice of the termination of the court's jurisdiction;
- To provide prior comment on work release or medical release of an offender from a state prison or local correctional facility; and
- To give prior comment on the potential reduction or dropping of charges or any changes of a plea in a criminal or delinquency proceeding or diversion of a case, including an informal adjustment or a consent decree.
- To receive information concerning the availability of protection orders;
- To have the confidential support of a counselor from a rape crisis center at the hospital during and after a forensic rape exam (call 1-888-772-7227 to contact a local rape crisis center);
- To have a sexual assault evidence kit collected and tested anonymously/without a name attached to it;
- To have a sexual assault evidence kit collected and tested even if the exact location of the crime cannot be provided;
- To not be billed or charged for the costs of a forensic exam or sexual assault evidence kit;
- To have sexual assault evidence kept according to the statute of limitations; and
- To be notified of the status of a sexual assault evidence kit, if requested, including at least 60 days prior to the destruction of evidence.
- By the victim's request, to receive notice prior to the release of a juvenile from residential placement, a shelter facility, or a detention center;
- By the victim's request, to be notified and have the opportunity to submit a written objection prior to the transfer or release from a placement facility of a juvenile who has been adjudicated delinquent, when such action is contrary to a previous court order or placement plan approved at a disposition review hearing;
- By the victim's request, to be given immediate notice of a juvenile's escape from residential placement, a shelter facility or a detention center and subsequent apprehension;
- By the victim's request, to submit written comment and oral testimony at a disposition review hearing.
- To receive prior notice of delinquency hearings and notification of hearings about the transfer of a juvenile to and from criminal proceedings; and
- To receive notice of the details of the final disposition of a juvenile's case.
Helpful Information
- Crime Victims Act
- Victims' Rights Brochure
- Victims' Rights One Page Summary
- Victims' Rights Brochure - Spanish (español)
- Victims' Rights One Page Summary - Spanish (español)