If you are a victim of violent crime (Sexual Assault, Physical Assault, Robbery, Murder) you have rights to protect you from further harm and to allow you to participate in the criminal justice system when they prosecute your offender(s). In Texas, victims/survivors have both statutory rights and constitutional rights.

Mandamus is a judicial remedy which is in the form of an order from a superior court to any government subordinate court, corporation or public authority to do or forbear from doing some specific act which that body is obliged under law to do or refrain from doing, as the case may be, and which is in the nature of public duty and in certain cases of a statutory duty.

The other day, I had the opportunity to chat with a few long-term victim advocates and one of them told me that one of her colleagues worried that victims’ rights enforcement might get her fired. She is afraid that since she has limited funding and resources that she might violate a victims’ right, and it might lead to her being terminated.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a serious condition that evokes strong emotional, physical, and psychological responses resulting from trauma, and in this situation trauma associated with being victimized. Victims of trauma related to physical and sexual assault face the greatest risk of developing PTSD

We are often asked what a victims’ rights violation is.  A violation is an infringement of the rules or activities or an encroachment on a right or privilege (Webster, 2010).  Therefore, failure to inform and provide victims’ rights to victims/survivors of crime is a violation and public officials and private entities working with victims/survivors should be held more accountable. The following is a brief outline by victims’ rights categories and examples of potential rights violations. 

Texas criminal justice agencies cannot meet even the basic needs of victims or ensure that victims’ rights are met due to a lack of funding (Texas Attorney General, 1998). As we move forward towards victims’ rights compliance and enforcement, it is likely that lack of funding will emerge as one reason victims’ rights violations occur.

Since the beginning of the crime victims’ rights movement, crime victims and advocates have joined forces to develop legal protections aimed at identifying victims’ needs, improving treatment of crime victims by the criminal justice system, increasing access to the criminal justice system, and improving the types and delivery of direct services.

No one wants or expects to become a victim of crime, but it can happen to anyone. There are over one million reports of crime in Texas each year. Victim’s suffer many losses and are not prepared for the realities of the criminal justice system.

Victims’ rights laws are often not adequately funded making compliance difficult. They do not mandate procedures or processes for the administration of victims’ rights, so victims’ rights violations can and do occur. There are limited remedies for victims’ rights violations until now. Crime Victims First is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt nonprofit that provides free services statewide in Texas.