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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2017 - 2018
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | February 28, 2018 11:46 AM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Guy Reschenthaler |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Crime Victims' Rights Week |
| In the near future, I will be introducing a resolution designating the week of April 8-14, 2018 as Crime Victims' Rights Week in Pennsylvania. In 2015, nearly 845,000 crimes were reported to police in Pennsylvania. One third of these were in the group including murder and non-negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. While this is an improvement over the previous year, this statistic means at least three-quarters of a million Pennsylvanians were victimized by crime, and more than three hundred thousand were victims of violent crime. The survivors of crime and their families are no less deserving of justice, rights, resources, restoration, and rehabilitation than the violent offenders who victimize them. Over the past two decades, crime victims and their advocates in every county of this Commonwealth have made unparalleled progress towards balancing the scales of justice in the criminal justice system. Pennsylvanians are well served by the Office of Victims Advocate, which was established by the General Assembly nearly 20 years ago to assist crime victims and promote justice and healing for all victims of crimes. For many years, the Office of Victim Advocate has helped lead communities throughout this state in its observance of "National Crime Victims' Rights Week" to bolster public awareness about the challenges crime victims face and to celebrate the hard-won progress in victims' rights and services. Please join with me as well as the service providers, criminal justice officials, and concerned citizens throughout the Commonwealth as we recognize Crime Victims' Rights Week in Pennsylvania. |