Beyond Advocacy: Mapping the Contours of Victim Work

Abstract

In contrast to works on victim advocacy in specific organizational contexts, this article introduces the term "victim work" to capture the vast array of victim-related roles and tasks that have proliferated in recent decades. Data are derived from in-depth interviews with 30 "victim workers" in public and private agencies in two Midwestern states. The interviews revealed diverse work experiences that spanned hotlines, crisis response, legal proceedings, and postconviction support. Three themes emerged that characterize "victim work": flexibility, emotions, and the challenge of "fit"-the multifaceted difficulties of interacting with victims and agents of the justice system. Based on the findings, we offer a revised model of criminal justice vis-à-vis victims and implications for practice and future research.

Conscience and convenience: American victim work in organizational context

“…Dedicated and concerned workers in a variety of roles and in both the public and private sectors described genuine care for victims and providing assistance and advice that sometimes extended beyond their job duties. However, publicly employed workers were constrained in the support they could offer as they balanced concern for victims with conflicting needs of their home agencies, such as the obligation to share confidentially provided victim information or statements with the prosecutors 12 (Globokar et al, 2016) and other limitations of their position. This paradox in allegiance underscores concerns about unintended effects of the professionalization and 'institutionalization' of human services with their incorporation into the criminal justice system, documented elsewhere in regard to victim advocacy (McDermott and Garofalo, 2004;Moylan, 2017), probation (Globokar and Toro, 2017;Rothman, 1980Rothman, /2002, and restorative justice mediation (Christie, 2009).…”

“…Those with such varied roles as answering hotlines, accompanying victims to court, providing referrals to other agencies, or notifying victims of case updates are all often titled 'advocates'. 5 'Victim worker' has been offered as an alternative term to more adequately reflect the significant variation in duties and loyalties among those in this population, acknowledging for example that some 'advocates' serve the interests of, and are primarily accountable to, prosecutors (Globokar et al, 2016).…”

“…Retitling publicly employed victim advocates as 'liaisons' may help better manage victims' expectations (Erez et al, 2014) and enhance transparency about their limited services and dual loyalties (Globokar et al, 2016). Police and prosecutors' offices should be informed about and equipped to refer victims to NGO agencies.…”

“…Chelimsky, 1981; Maguire and Corbett, 1987) have been met with expanded assistance, services, legal rights (O’Hara, 2005), and opportunities for victim participation in justice processes (Beloof, 1999; Erez and Roberts, 2013). There has been a corresponding expansion of paid and volunteer positions focused on victim needs inside and outside the justice system (Globokar et al, 2016), spurring a new ‘victim industry’ (Best, 1997) reinforced by a growth in ‘victim capital’ (Hall, 2017).…”

“…The victim rights movement of the 1970s and 1980s spurred the integration of victims into justice proceedings in the United States and elsewhere (Booth and Carrington, 2007;van Dijk, 1988) and led to a growth of roles that provide victims with support, information, services, referrals, and advocacy in the criminal justice infrastructure and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) (Globokar et al, 2016). Despite the expansion and diverse manifestations of victim work in the USA, research about the field's occupational mosaic and the experiences of victim workers across organizational contexts has been relatively under-developed (Globokar et al, 2016). Scholarship in this area has instead largely focused on underlying ideologies (van Dijk, 1988), service organizations (e.g.…”