Originally Posted by Guest

I had been trying to connect that (or something like it) to libraries in the 2000s. Victim Services Directory Had a lot of success with it too. It is far from re-inventing the wheel. And you are probably missing a lot of stuff just using Google. People are the major sources for aid much of the time.

And there are people -- I know some of them-- who do not use the Internet all that much.

Go to a large public law library and see what that law library might have for survivors/victims of crimes which you cannot find readily through a Google Search. I as a librarian do not see Google as being an adequate replacement for someone who knows the community and the people in it who can help a survivor/victim of crime. This will be different in the Villages from Topeka, Kansas to Gainesville, FL to Bushnell, FL to Ocala to St. Paul, MN to Juneau, Alaska.

Crime victims and survivors also readily change with technology as do what is available to them. Facebook and other social media, for instance, offer new ways of helping survivors/victims of crimes. But also create methods that criminals can make new victims/survivors.

For instance, I have had harassers and stalkers on TOTV who make me have to come up with new ways of getting through this kind of contemptible behavior. There are even now laws against cyber harassers and stalkers. I had stalkers/harassers when I was on Findlaw from 2002 through around 2006 as well as tried and succeeded with holding these people accountable in some way or changing the way Findlaw operated.

I also believe in libraries as social hubs for communities. Their having an active role in helping survivors/victims of crimes may make more people report certain kinds of often under-reported crimes and also de-stigmatize mental illness which is also a contributing factor in the creation and the targets of crimes as well. Those seen as different-- like incessantly calling someone a wackadoodle on community message boards-- are more likely than not to be victims/survivors of crimes. I have been involved with many different crimes as a survivor/victim or even as a student lawyer for defendants in these cases. And I did see what the survivor/victim was going through in these.

What is in your library? Remember that people who have not reported crimes yet do not get the help of the government. They get this help after they have reported it or have been forced to report it through various situations like a trip to the Emergency Room and a nurse or doctor asking questions.