Victim Services Information for Service Providers

Victim Services and Crime Prevention responds to crime through a comprehensive range of services from crime prevention to support for victims of crime, and women and their children fleeing violence in their relationships.

As the provincial centre of responsibility for victims’ issues, violence against women issues and crime prevention, we:

• Develop legislation, policies and programs
• Provide training and deliver and fund programs that support victims and their families
• Address violence against women
• Provide a restorative justice response to crime
• Enhance public safety and local crime prevention efforts
• Build and maintain safe communities

We are responsible for the Victims of Crime Act, the Criminal Injury Compensation Act and the Crime Victim Assistance Act.

We fund and support over 160 police and community-based victim service programs, as well as VictimLinkBC, a toll-free, 24-hour multilingual victim crisis line.

In addition, we fund and support over 250 programs providing counseling and outreach services to women fleeing violence in their relationships and children who witness abuse.

We also provide direct services to victims, including through:

• The Crime Victim Assistance Program, which provides financial assistance and benefits to victims of violent crime, their immediate family members and some witnesses
• The Victim Safety Unit, which provides victims with ongoing and timely updates about their case and notification of changes to the custodial status of offenders
• Court Support Programs at Vancouver's Downtown Community Court, Port Coquitlam, and Surrey that assist victims of crime through the justice process by providing information, court accompaniment, and referrals to other justice and community services