NCVLI’s efforts to enhance fairness and justice for victims are grounded in the idea that meaningful social change is built upon three cornerstones: legal advocacy, education, and public policy.  Our updates most often focus on the first two (legal advocacy & education), however, this spring as legislatures nationwide consider a variety of victims’ rights laws, we highlight a few public policy efforts; each of which is a collaboration among many victim service organizations. 

• In Oregon we are working to secure access to justice for child-victims of sexual crimes by eliminating the criminal statute of limitations for certain offenses, and also working to ensure that every sexual assault victim has the right to exclude certain types of media coverage during his or her case.   
• In West Virginia we are supporting efforts to enhance protections for child-victims by increasing access to testimonial accommodations.   
• In New Jersey we are supporting efforts to ensure that crime victims need not pay to receive a copy of law enforcement records in their own case.  

These laws may seem like small steps, but each step is a step toward increased protections for victims! We’ll keep you posted on each of these efforts and more!