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Crime Victim Section
Crime Victim Section
Victims of violent crime such as rape, assault, murder, kidnapping, and domestic violence, face many setbacks as a result of their tragic and unexpected circumstances. The Attorney General’s Crime Victim Section offers services to aid victims, trainings for professionals who work with victims and crime prevention programs for Ohio communities.
The Crime Victim Section can be reached at 614-466-5610.
What we do:
Ohio law provides a fund to help innocent victims of violent crime recover financial losses. Through the fund, victims can be compensated for medical and counseling expenses, wage loss, replacement services, and funeral expenses. Victims may apply for up to $50,000 in reimbursement for economic loss.
SAFE
The Sexual Assault Forensic Exam (SAFE) program reimburses medical facilities for the cost of forensic exams of victims of sexual violence. This ensures that a victim will never have to pay for his or her own examination, and that any evidence to be used in an eventual prosecution is collected properly.
The Ohio Missing Children Clearinghouse maintains a statewide database of missing children, assists law enforcement in investigations, educates parents and children, produces missing child posters for distribution and compiles statistics about endangered children in Ohio.
The ID Theft Passport program provides an official state identification to victims of identity theft that can be used to verify that the bearer is in fact a victim.
The Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation publishes comprehensive statewide data about the relationships of those involved in domestic disputes. Agencies throughout the state use this information to better understand domestic violence in Ohio and to develop effective solutions to fight the problem.
The Cut It Out program trains hairdressers and other beauty-industry professionals how to recognize signs of abused clients and provide resources to help.
In partnership with the Ohio Department of Corrections, the Crime Victim Section participates in the Victim Information and Notification Everyday (VINE) system. VINE allows victims of crime to check on their offender’s case, to see whether the offender is in custody, and get automatic notifications whenever there is a change in the offender’s status.
The Crime Victim Section is committed to strengthening Ohio’s capacity to assist older victims of crime by training law enforcement professionals on assisting victims of elder abuse, raising awareness, and boosting research on elder abuse. In 2009, the Attorney General established an Elder Abuse Commission to identify older Ohioans’ needs, find funding and establish programming.
The Crime Victim Section sponsors trainings about online safety for children, parents, administrators and parent-teacher associations across the state. The training includes topics such as cyberbullying, online predators and social networks.
The Crime Victim Section administers federal and state grants to local crime victim assistance programs. Rape crisis centers, domestic violence shelters, guardian ad litem programs, victim advocates in prosecutors' offices are among 230 agencies supported that serve more than 345,000 Ohioans each year.
The Crime Victim Section provides workshops, training, and other education to communities, law enforcement, and to victim advocates. Victim services training for accreditation and updates on changes in the law, policy and other advancements are also provided annually through the Attorney General’s Two Days In May Conference on Victim Assistance and Law Enforcement Conference.