Online Guides from OVC: Resource Guide for Serving U.S. Citizens Victimized Abroad

Publication Date: April 2008

Victim Services: An International Outlook

Responding to Victimization Abroad

Coordinating Victim Services

International Terrorism

Victim Assistance Checklists

Special Considerations for Homicide

Accept survivors’ reactions in a nonjudgmental, empathetic manner.

Exhibit empathy for survivors’ pain and suffering, but do not say “I understand” when you most likely cannot.

Show respect for survivors’ personal and religious or nonreligious understandings of death.

Assist relatives who are not U.S. citizens who want to travel with the survivors.

Encourage survivors to be supportive of one another.

Help survivors cover expenses and coordinate transportation of the victim's remains and survivors’ travel to the funeral.

Resources:

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
www.uscis.gov

Social Security Online
www.ssa.gov/ww&os1.htm

“Working with Grieving Children After Violent Death”
www.ovc.gov/publications/infores/grieve/welcome.html