This week, current NAVRA members received the latest NCVLI Crime Victim Law Update in electronic form. This informative publication is a quarterly release which features up-to-date court opinions from various jurisdictions which directly affect victims’ rights across the country. The current issue covers opinions issued from April through June 2011 with topics ranging from specific victims’ rights and related constitutional issues to standing and enforcement.

On October 1, 2012 the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals found that victims depicted in child abuse imagery have a right to restitution when a defendant is found in possession of the images, regardless of whether the defendant created or distributed them.  This ruling is significant for victims of these crimes, whose images are often spread widely among networks of criminals who view their abuse, resulting in thousands and thousands of viewings.  Imagine knowing that images of your abuse as a child are being viewed around the world for years, with no way to halt this re-victimization.  The rea

ENVISION JUSTICE Too often victims of crime are treated merely as a piece of evidence in a case. Yet, the law affords victims rights. Among  these are the rights to be notified, present, and heard at criminal justice proceedings; and the rights to privacy, protection, and restitution.  

On May 12, 2020, the National Crime Victim Law Institute (NCVLI) filed as Amicus Curiae (“friend of the court”) in support of Courtney Wild’s Petition for Rehearing En Banc. For more than ten years, Courtney Wild, a survivor, has challenged the non-prosecution plea that essentially gave Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators immunity for his abuse of more than 30 minor victims, including Wild.