Remarks by John W. Gillis
Director, Office for Victims of Crime  

30th Annual NOVA Conference
Sacramento, California

August 23, 2004

"Putting Victims First: In Pursuit of the Gold Standard"

Good morning. My staff and I are pleased to join you for the 30th Annual North American Victim Assistance Conference. You will have an opportunity to meet OVC staff and see our latest products at the OVC Tech Expo, where OVC's Web Forum will be premiered this week. We are delighted to be presenting our Professional Development Institute, or PDI, for the 5th year, along with several workshops on trafficking in persons, identity theft, and capacity-building for victim service providers. I would also like to welcome individuals who were able to join us through the OVC-funded Survivor Scholarship Program. Thank you NOVA for holding this conference in California and thank you Sacramento for being such a hospitable host.

It's always good to come home, especially when you are greeted by friends and colleagues who understand where you've come from and where you want to go. As the famous German poet Christian Morgenstern said, "Home is not where you live but where they understand you," and fortunately for me whenever I am in the presence of the NOVA family I feel at home, even if it's not in Sacramento.

As many of you know, 25 years ago, while I was a member of the Los Angeles Police Department, my daughter Louarna was brutally murdered. This horrific event put me at the proverbial crossroad of life. There was a choice to make. Which path should I take? I chose to take the road to Victim Justice—a road that puts victims first, a road that seeks the same standard of treatment that our Constitution protects for those accused of crime, a road seldom selected, but all too frequently traveled, and the road that binds us together as victims and survivors of crime, advocates and policymakers, witnesses of the past and agents for change in the future. I could have done nothing and resorted to feeling sorry for myself, but instead, with the support of my wife Patsy, I opted to pursue justice, not just for me and my family, but for all victims of crime. And thanks to President Bush, I am able to continue that work as Director of the Office for Victims of Crime.

The State of California has the distinction of being among the first to recognize and address the rights and needs of crime victims. In 1965, California was the first state in the Nation and the third in the world, preceded only by New Zealand in 1963 and England in 1964, to create a crime victim compensation program to reimburse victims for out-of-pocket expenses related to their victimization. The California victim compensation program is one of the most generous in its award of benefits to victims and consistently has the highest total payouts among all state crime victim compensation programs. It is also the place where, in 1972, one of the first victim service programs—the Bay Area Women Against Rape—was established in San Francisco.

The road to victim justice did not end there. In 1982, California voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition 8, which guarantees restitution and other statutory reforms to crime victims. In 1984, California State University Fresno initiated the first Victim Services Certificate Program offered for academic credit by a university and in 1991 approved the first Bachelors Degree Program in Victimology. In 1987, the California legislature, along with 8 other states, introduced constitutional amendments protecting victims' rights; California voters ultimately passed the proposed state Constitutional amendment by a margin of 56%.

California, the golden state, has set the bar for victim justice. In fact, California has set what we can call the "Gold Standard" for victim justice and victims' rights. And, there are a whole host of Californians who stand or have stood beneath the mantle, straining, toiling, lifting, and sacrificing to raise that standard higher and higher. I see some of you here now. We know who you are, but I wouldn't dare to begin to name all of you. Thank you for what you've done and for what you continue to do for victims.

California also has the distinction of being the home of some of the movement's most remarkable champions for victims' rights. But let me take a few moments to talk about a Californian who is the grand champion of victim justice, the grand master of victims' rights. Let me name some of his accomplishments:

• In 1981 he hosted the first national observance to recognize and honor victims and survivors of crime in what is now referred to as National Crime Victims' Rights Week.

• In 1982 he signed Executive Order No. 12360 establishing the President's Task Force on Victims of Crime.

• He signed into law the Victim and Witness Protection Act of 1982, which delineates certain rights for crime victims in the federal justice system and directs the Attorney General to establish guidelines for the fair treatment of victims.

• He signed the Missing Children Act of 1982, which helps parents guarantee that identifying information about their missing child is promptly entered into the FBI National Crime Information Center computer system.

• He created the Office for Victims of Crime within the U.S. Department of Justice, in 1983. OVC was later authorized in statute by an amendment to the Victims of Crime Act.

• He authorized the creation of the Attorney General's Task Force on Family Violence that, for the first time, examined the scope and impact of domestic violence in America, and developed recommendations to improve our Nation's law enforcement, criminal justice, and community response to offenses that, previously, were considered merely "family matters."

• He declared the first National Missing Children's Day in observance of the disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz who vanished off the streets of New York City in broad daylight.

• He signed the Victims of Crime Act of 1984. This federal legislation created a Crime Victims Fund in the U.S. Treasury made up of fines, penalties, and bond forfeitures collected from convicted federal offenders. It also provides funding for a wide variety of crime victim services and state victim compensation programs, and is a principal source of federal funding for victims of crime.

If you haven't guessed by now, I'm talking about Californian and former President Ronald Wilson Reagan, and there's more:

• He supported and signed into law the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, which provided strong incentives to states to raise their minimum drinking age to 21. We recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of that law.

• He established Crime Prevention Week marked by a White House ceremony with McGruff, the crime-fighting mascot of the National Crime Prevention Council.

• He appointed a group of citizens, representing the business community, private nonprofits, government, and private individuals to form the President's Child Safety Partnership in 1985 to find answers and solutions to the problem of child victimization and other vengeful acts such as abuse, molestation, sexual exploitation, and stranger abduction.

• And, he signed the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act, which earmarks federal funding for programs serving victims of domestic violence.

Unlike others of us in the victim movement who turned tragedy into a cause for action, President Reagan showed extraordinary compassion for and commitment to others well before he became a victim by the attempted assassination on his life.

I am pleased to announce that Attorney General John Ashcroft has agreed to dedicate the Silver Anniversary of National Crime Victims' Rights Week in 2005 to President Ronald Reagan. It is fitting to honor a President whose pioneering efforts have honored so many victims and those who serve them, and whose efforts personified the Gold Standard of treatment for one of America's most vulnerable and overlooked populations—crime victims.

When Reagan's Task Force on Victims of Crime presented its 68 recommendations to improve the treatment of crime victims, they identified the basic, fundamental services and assistance that they believed a responsible society should offer its citizens. Since 1982, we have worked diligently to address the recommendations outlined in their Report. Today, we are in pursuit of comprehensive, quality services, and consistent, equal rights. These ideas are frightening for some. They lament, "Don't they already have enough rights," "This will impede the way we've always done things," "It will bog down the justice system," "It will only make matters more complicated and costly," and on and on. These comments are reminiscent of comments made when similar efforts for justice and equality were pursued. There is no cost too great, no effort too taxing, and no excuses acceptable to delay victim justice.

As we open this 30th Annual NOVA Conference, I challenge you to explore ways to ease the burden and pain of America's crime victims. Putting Victims First is a standard of treatment that does not tolerate subordinate status, or doling out the leftovers, or permit excuses in place of action. Putting Victims First is the Gold Standard that we must strive to achieve if America is going to live up to its creed: One Nation, under God, with Liberty and Justice for all.

Thank you.

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