2016 Canadian Victim Services Indicators: Pilot survey evaluation and recommendations

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Annex 2: Questionnaire Reporting guide

Canadian Victim Services Indicators, 2016: Questionnaire Reporting Guide

The survey consists of five questions:

• Description of delivery of victim services in your jurisdiction
• Victim demographics and type of offence (questions 2-3)
• Victim services caseload characteristics (question 4)
• Information on Victim Impact Statements and Community Impact Statements (question 5)

Most of the questions in this survey are followed by:

• A table to be completed by the respondent;
• A section for the respondent to describe how the data reported deviates from the survey definitions.

Respondents are asked to provide a figure in all boxes. If there is no amount for a particular box, enter one of the following:

• 0 – when the amount is zero
• X – when the figure is not available
• N – when the figure is not applicable or not appropriate

A separate document is available providing information on the offence categories for question 3.

Question 1: Survey coverage

This question asks for a description of the data sources used to complete this survey and the type of victims included in the data.

Please note:

• If you are unable to limit your responses to victims as defined below, please explain. For example, there may be data sources where you are unable to distinguish victims where no crime occurred, secondary victims (such as friends) or witnesses who do not meet the Victim Rights definition.
• Some jurisdictions include in their data both ‘family member(s) of victim’ and other secondary victims (such as friends) who do not meet the Canadian Victim Bill of Rights’ (CVBR) definition of a victim. Exclude these other secondary victims if possible. If unable to distinguish between ‘family member(s) of victim’ and other secondary victims, please report counts as ‘family member(s) of victim’ and explain count in comments section.

Definitions

• Data sources: include (but are not limited to) police-based, court-based and community-based victim/witness assistance programs and system-based victim services.
  • Police-based: municipal, provincial and federal police departments that provide victim services.
  • Court-based victim/witness assistance program: mandated programs purposed to provide services to victims and witnesses who are involved in the court process.
  • Community-based victim/witness assistance program: not-for-profit, community-based programs that provide services to victims. For example, crime victims assistance centres (CAVACs).
  • System-based: victim services that assist individuals throughout the criminal justice system, but are independent from the police, courts and crown-attorneys.
• New referrals: a total count of new clients (victims) who were referred to or sought assistance from victim services within the reported calendar or fiscal year. If possible, do not include victims from on-going cases opened in previous years and who are currently still accessing services.
• Reference year: all data should refer to calendar year 2016. If this is not possible, please provide what you have (such as fiscal year 2016/2017) and explain in the comments section.
• Direct victim: an individual who has suffered physical or emotional harm, property damage or economic loss as the result of the commission of an offence.
• Family member(s) of victim: individuals (such as a parent or sibling) with familial ties to the direct victim of an offence. The following individuals will also be able to exercise their rights when a victim is deceased or incapable of acting on his or her own behalf:
  • The victim’s spouse or common-law partner;
  • A relative or dependant of the victim; and
  • Anyone who has custody of the victim, or is responsible for the care or support of the victim’s dependant.

Question 2: Victim demographics

This question asks for a count of victims assisted by age and gender.

Please note:

• Some jurisdictions include in their data both ‘family member(s) of victim’ and other secondary victims (such as friends) who do not meet the Canadian Victim Bill of Rights’ (CVBR) definition of a victim. Exclude these other secondary victims if possible.

“X” example

If your jurisdiction counts direct victims of an offence (or family member(s) of victims) but does not have data for their age or gender, enter “X” for ‘not available’ into the appropriate box and report their age and gender as unknown.

Definitions

• New referrals: a total count of new clients (victims) who were referred to or sought assistance from victim services within the reported calendar or fiscal year. If possible, do not include victims from on-going cases opened in previous years and who are currently still accessing services.
• Victim type: includes individuals who are able to access victim services as defined above. Some victim services will only accept direct and not secondary victims. Some victim services will only provide assistance to victims of violent crime (homicide, other offences causing death (excluding traffic violations), sexual assault, physical assault, robbery, uttering threats or criminal harassment and other violent offences), non-violent crime (break and enter, motor vehicle theft, other theft, fraud and other non-violent offences) or victims of incidences where no criminal offence occurred (domestic dispute, fire, sudden death, suicide or attempted suicide, serious injury, natural or community disaster or other). Additionally, some victim services may only provide access to victims of a particular age group (children, adults or seniors) or gender (male, female or another). Please note any similar limitations in question 1.
  • Domestic dispute: an argument between (common law or married) partners.
• Business victim: a business or employee(s) who had an offence committed against them.
• Victim gender:
  • Female: this category includes persons who reported being female.
  • Male: this category includes persons who reported being male.
  • Other (specify): this category is provided for counts of victims who do not identify as male or female. Please provide a description of the type of information you collect in the comments section.
  • Unknown: includes the number of persons where gender is not available.
• Victim age (refers to the victim’s age at the time of service as opposed to the time of offence):
  • Children and Youth: number of clients aged 17 and under who received service during this reporting period.
  • Adults: number of clients aged 18 years of age and over who received service during this reporting period.
  • Unknown: this category includes the number of clients whose age not available.

Question 3: Types of offences

This question asks for the number of victims assisted by type of offence in calendar year 2016.

Please note:

• Some jurisdictions include in their data both ‘family member(s) of victim’ and other secondary victims (such as friends) who do not meet the Canadian Victim Bill of Rights’ (CVBR) definition of a victim. Exclude these other secondary victims if possible.
• Provide counts by victim type at whatever detail you have available. If you have general categories such as “spousal abuse” that you cannot match to a specific offence, please include these in the appropriate “other” (such as other violent offences) section and provide an explanation in the comments section below.

“X” and “N” examples

If your jurisdiction offers services to theft or robbery victims but does not have data for the number of theft or robbery victims assisted, enter “X” for ‘not available’ into the appropriate box and report the most serious offence type as unknown. If your jurisdiction does not offer services to motor vehicle theft victims, enter “N” for ‘not applicable’ into the appropriate box.

Definitions

• New referrals: a total count of new clients (victims) who were referred to or sought assistance from victim services within the reported calendar or fiscal year. If possible, do not include victims from on-going cases opened in previous years and who are currently still accessing services.
• Most serious offence: please provide a count of victims according to the most serious offence against the victim. The most serious violation is determined by criteria in the following order of priority: violations against a person take precedence over violations not against a person; the greatest maximum penalty prescribed by law; violations causing death take precedence over other violations with the same maximum penalty. Additional information to assist you in identifying offences is provided in a separate document (see most serious violation concordance guide).
• Criminal Code Violent Offences: crimes against a person. They include homicide and other offences causing death (excluding impaired driving), sexual assault, sexual violations against children (such as sexual interference and luring a child (online)), assault, uttering threats and criminal harassment, abduction/forcible confinement, uttering threats or criminal negligence, robbery, human trafficking.

Question 4: Victim Services Caseload

This question asks for the number of services offered to and/or provided to victims in calendar year 2016 (not limited to new referrals).

Please note:

• Because victims may be offered or receive multiple services, we do not expect individual items to sum to totals.
• Some respondents can only provide information on services offered, others on services actually provided to victims and some both. Please report as you are able.

“X” and “N” examples

If your jurisdiction offers a service type such as medical support to victims but does not have data for this service type provided, enter “X” for ‘not available’ into the appropriate box and report the service type as unknown. If your jurisdiction does not offer a service type such as liaison services to victims, enter “N” for ‘not applicable’ into the appropriate box.

Definitions

• Referrals: includes referrals to police, counselling programs, restorative justice programs and other referrals.
• Counselling services: includes conflict resolution, couple/family, group and individual counselling services, psychological assistance and self-help/peer support groups.
• Restorative justice: according to section 6(b) of the CVBR, victims have the right to access programs and services specifically for victims of crime, this includes restorative justice programs. Restorative justice entails a victim and offender meeting to resolve the impact of the crime committed against the victim.
• Crisis services: includes critical stress debriefing, crisis/debrief line, crisis counselling, crisis intervention/response and emergency and disaster responses.
• Safety planning and risk assessment: includes prevention training for victims, risk assessment, child protection services and immediate and long term planning.
• Emotional support: includes short-term and trauma counselling and providing emotional support to deal with victimization and the court process.
• Medical support: includes first aid/health/medical services and hospital accompaniment.
• Liaison services: includes liaising with other agencies on behalf of the client.
• Shelter assistance: includes housing assistance, basic needs provision (such as food and clothing), longer term and emergency housing and transportation.
• Justice system information:
  • Case/trial updates: according to section 7 of the CVBR, victims have the right to information about the status and outcome of their investigation, and the location, date and time and the progress and outcome of the proceedings related to the offence.
  • Court orientation/information: includes explaining to victims the structure of the courtroom (such as where the judge, crown attorney, defence counsel and accused are located), courtroom procedures (such as standing and bowing when the judge or justice of the peace arrives to the courtroom) and courtroom etiquette (such as explaining the prohibition of talking, cell phones and food and drink inside the courtroom).
  • Information on criminal justice system: according to section 6(a) of the CVBR, victims have the right to information about the criminal justice system and the role they play within it.
  • Legal information: legal information victims should be aware of includes their right to file a complaint acknowledging the infringement or denial of their rights as outlined in the CVBR (CVBR section 6(c)). In addition, victims should be made aware of legal information detailing their right to have their privacy considered by the appropriate criminal justice system authorities (CVBR section 11), and their right to request identity protection in the event that they are a complainant or witness of an offence brought before the court (CVBR section 12).
  • Victim notification: according to section 8 of the CVBR, victims have the right to know when the offender of their case has been released, the timing and conditions of that release and disposition hearings.
• Participation:
  • Court accompaniment: includes a criminal justice system authority (such as a victim/witness assistance program caseworker) or volunteer accompanying a victim to court for support during case proceedings.
  • Victim/witness preparation: according to section 13 of the CVBR, victims have the right to testimonial aids when appearing as a witness before the court. Testimonial aids include (but are not limited to) therapy dogs, sign language interpreters and translators.
  • Assistance with victim impact statements: according to section 15 of the CVBR, victims have the right to write and present a victim impact statement and to have it considered by the appropriate criminal justice system authorities when prosecuting the offender. Victim impact statements give victims the ability to express how the offence committed impacted their lives, and the right to access resources that will help them write this statement.
• Compensation support: includes claims assistance and financial and other (such as compensation for professional counselling) compensation.

Question 5: Victim and Community Impact Statements

This question asks for the number of Victim Impact Statement and Community Impact Statement forms that are provided by victim services, and for the number of Victim Impact Statements and Community Impact Statements filed to the police, prosecution (crown), courts or victim services.

Definitions

• Victim Impact Statement: a written statement from a victim that describes the physical or emotional harm, property damage or economic loss which the victim of an offence has suffered. The Court must take the statement into account when an offender is sentenced.
• Community Impact Statement: a written statement made by a person on behalf of a community. It describes the harm or loss suffered by that community as a result of an offence. If a community chooses to submit a community impact statement, the Court must take it into account when an offender is sentenced.

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