NSVSP OMB Supporting Statement A_Final

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

National Survey of Victim Service Providers (NSVSP), 2019

The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), in consultation with Westat under cooperative agreement (Award 2017-VF-GX-K128), requests clearance to conduct the 2019 National Survey of Victim Service Providers (NSVSP). The NSVSP is part of BJS’s Victim Services Statistical Research Program that aims to develop a statistical infrastructure around victim services and address major gaps in knowledge about the use of services to support victims of crime or abuse and the interplay between victim services and the criminal justice system. BJS is using a two-phased approach to collect data directly from victim service providers (VSPs). The first phase, the National Census of Victim Service Providers (NCVSP), was completed in 2017 under OMB #1121-0355. The NCVSP produced a comprehensive roster of all active VSPs across the U.S., including a broad range of community-, education-, health- and criminal justice- based organizations, and provided basic descriptive information about these VSPs for the purpose of drawing a representative sample for the second phase of this work- the proposed NSVSP. The NSVSP is a longer survey, designed to collect detailed information on services provided, staffing, and organizational constraints.

Definitions

A victim service provider (VSP) is any organization or entity which provides services or assistance to victims of crime or abuse. Key definitions include –

• Crime: An act which if done by a competent adult or juvenile would be a criminal offense.

• Abuse: Includes physical, sexual, emotional, psychological, or economic actions or threats to control another person.

• Victim: Any person who comes to the attention of the organization because of past, on-going, or potential future crimes and other abuse(s). This includes victims who are directly harmed or threated by crimes and abuse(s), but also their…a) Family or household members, b) Legal representatives, or c) Surviving family members, if deceased

• Service: Efforts that…a) Assist victims with their safety and security; b) Assist victims to understand and participate in the criminal justice or other legal process; c) Assist victims in recovering from victimization and stabilizing their lives; or d) Respond to other needs of victims

Data from the NCVSP documented that the majority of VSPs are dedicated staff or programs within government agencies or nonprofit or faith-based organizations. VSPs serve a wide variety of functions for victims and serve many roles within the criminal justice system.

VSPs are grouped into three major categories for the purposes of data collection:

(a) primary function providers: entities that principally function to provide services to crime victims (e.g., domestic violence shelters, rape crisis centers, homicide survivor groups);

(b) providers with dedicated staff or programs: entities that assist crime victims as one of their many functions and have a program, center, or specific staff dedicated to serving crime victims (e.g., prosecutor offices, law enforcement agencies, hospitals, tribal organization); and

(c) incidental providers: agencies that might serve crime victims as part of their regular services but have no designated programs or staff (e.g., homeless shelters, religious organizations,).

The NSVSP will survey VSPs that serve victims as their primary function or through dedicated staff and programs. BJS will not include incidental providers in the survey because (a) at this time there is no way to determine the full sampling frame of incidental providers, as almost any agency might serve a crime victim and (b) without dedicated staff or programs to service victims incidental providers cannot be compared to other VSPs on staffing, victim services, and other resources specifically for victims.

A. JUSTIFICATION

1. Necessity of Information Collection

Title 34, United States Code, Section 10132 of the Justice Systems Improvement Act of 1979, authorizes BJS to collect and analyze statistical information on criminal victimization and the operation of the criminal justice system at the federal, state, and local levels. This authorization covers the collection of information on the capacity of the criminal justice system to provide victim services and partner with community-based victim service agencies to address the needs of crime victims and work to reduce rates of crime (see attachment 1).

The two-phased NCVSP-NSVSP collection was designed to address major rudimentary gaps in knowledge about victim service provision in the U.S., including examining the capacity of VSPs to reach, respond to, and meet the needs of victims and delineating a national picture of the roles that VSPs play in preventing and responding to crime. Despite the billions of dollars that the federal government administers and oversees annually for victim services, limited data are available about VSPs and the role they play within the criminal justice system. Until the NCVSP, there was no nationally representative data collection on VSPs, and resident and law enforcement surveys about crime and victimization have historically included very limited information about victim service provision or interactions with the VSP field. Because the NCVSP was a census, the number of questions included on the survey was limited and focused primarily on identifying active VSPs and providing basic descriptives for the purpose of selecting a representative sample of VSPs in the proposed NSVSP. The NSVSP will, in turn, be used to provide critical information on victim assistance that has been missing to date, including information on the number of victims served by type of crime, victim characteristics, services provided, criminal justice and community relationships, service gaps, and VSP staff size, turnover, and characteristics.

Federal, state, and local government agencies recognize the importance of VSPs and the functions they serve for victims and other aspects of the criminal justice process. Victim service providers are located within all components of the criminal justice system, from law enforcement to courts to correctional facilities, and the juvenile justice system. Funding for VSPs is at an all-time high. In March 2018, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018 raised the obligation amount on the Crime Victims Fund to $4.436 billion, the highest amount in the history of the fund. The current balance of the fund is now more than $11 billion up from $0.5 billion in 2000.¹ Though little is currently known on the national level about how VSPs are structured and resourced to provide victim services or about the victims they serve, the increased funds could result in a further expansion of the VSP field. With the increased funding also comes expectations for increased information and transparency in how the funds are being spent. A routine collection of empirical data from VSPs is needed to understand how VSPs are staffed and resourced to provide services to victims, the types of services provided, where there are gaps in the provision of services, and their role in the criminal justice system.

As the social and financial milieu of the victim service field has developed over the years, a corresponding need for a victim service research and statistical infrastructure has also developed. The need for these data was identified in Office for Victims of Crime’s Vision 21: Transforming Victim Services report, which illustrated the necessity of advancements in research and statistics for victim service provision and the critical role of research and statistics in the continuing development of the victim services field.² The report highlighted the challenges for the victim services field to respond effectively to crime victims without up-to-date, accurate data, particularly when there continue to be major changes in the nature and reach of crimes. It also identified the increasing role of victim service providers in crime prevention, particularly at time when many components of the criminal justice system have been stretched to the limits. The NSVSP will provide nationally representative data to begin to examine these issues.

There are some questions about the victim services field that will always be best answered with data collected directly from VSPs. For example, VSPs are best positioned to provide information about how they are structured (e.g., are they a program within a police department or a community based agency that partners with police, and does this make a difference in their roles and service provision?; etc.), their organizational resources, the stability and turnover in staff, staff qualifications, their capacity to meet the demand for services, and the factors that influence how well they can meet victims’ needs and carry out other important functions, including crime prevention and reduction activities.

Additionally, the NSVSP can provide information about crime types that are difficult to measure through vehicles like the BJS National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) or the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program. Crimes that are relatively rare or that are reported to police at low rates, such as human trafficking and honor violence, will not be captured through a household survey or through police statistics. However, the NSVSP is designed to gather representative data on VSPs that serve victims of human trafficking, providing more details on the number and characteristics of the victims and types of services provided to them. In this way, data from VSPs can provide information on the number and characteristics of victims served by VSPs, and identify the role that VSPs play in bringing these crimes to the attention of the criminal justice system.

With authorization under the Justice Systems Improvement Act and in collaboration with many stakeholders within the criminal justice system and related victim assistance networks, BJS is well-positioned to build an empirical knowledge base about the characteristics and functions of VSPs. The 2017 NCVSP provided the first picture of the VSP field to date, a critical first-step to generating statistical information about the characteristics of the field. The proposed request is to conduct the follow-up NSVSP from February, 2019 through June 2019 (5 months) with a sample of about 7,237 VSPs from the NCVSP frame. The selected sample will be nationally representative of VSPs serving victims as their primary function or through dedicated staff or programs and will generate a detailed national picture of VSPs and the services they provide to crime victims. In addition, this sample was selected to be large enough to produce state-level estimates for government and non-government VSPs in 14 states, increasing the utility of these data for state-level stakeholders responsible for providing victim services and allocating VSP funding. Obtaining state-level data for as many states as possible was also of particular importance to OVC, a key stakeholder and the primary funder the NSVSP, to allow for comparisons between states with different levels of funding allocation and differing organizational structures for providing services to victims.

2. Purpose and Use of the Information Collection

The information to be collected in the NSVSP is one component of the larger BJS effort to gather and analyze multi-level data for a more comprehensive understanding of victimization and access to services in the United States. The NSVSP will allow BJS to collect detailed information about a sample of VSPs to generate national statistics that can be used by BJS, other DOJ entities, and external stakeholders. The data collected will have utility when used both independently and in conjunction with other existing sources of data to generate a more complete national picture of crime and victimization in the United States.

BJS Uses

The NSVSP will contribute new information to BJS’s established portfolio of victimization research, which seeks to integrate knowledge about crime, victimization, the harms from victimization, and the response to victimization from victims and VSPs, including both criminal-justice and other community-based VSPs (Figure 1). There is not one national source of data that can offer a complete picture of the nature and characteristics of crime in the U.S., but taking a multi-level perspective can provide rich data on crimes reported to police, reported to victim service providers, and crimes that go unreported to formal assistance systems. BJS is working to align information from residents, police records, and VSPs to provide a more complete understanding of where victimization occurs, the prevalence of different types of victimization, consequences and correlates of victimization, whether victims access services through criminal justice or other community-based VSPs, and whether these formal assistance systems have the capacity to meet victims’ needs and fulfill other important functions that help to prevent and reduce crime.

Moreover, this NSVSP collection is designed to provide the first national-level data to date on the VSPs serving human trafficking victims, allowing BJS to release statistics about the average numbers and characteristics of trafficking victims VSPs served in a year. The NCVSP revealed that significantly higher percentages of nonprofit or faith-based and hospital-based VSPs served at least one victim of human trafficking, compared to prosecutor-based and law-enforcement VSPs. Collecting data directly from VSPs that are not embedded within criminal justice agencies allows BJS to compare the victim counts and demographics that come to the attention of particular sectors of the VSP field to those that come to the attention of the criminal justice system.

Figure 1. BJS’s Victimization Conceptual Framework Infrastructure

Using the NSVSP data to develop an empirical knowledge base about VSPs and their roles in responding to victims and crime

On its own, the proposed NSVSP will contribute to BJS’s research program by filling major knowledge gaps about the functions VSPs play in the criminal justice process, characteristics of VSPs, crime types experienced by victims, and number and socio-demographic characteristics of victims served by VSPs. In addition, the NSVSP will provide the first national data about the VSP field on the numbers of direct service staff, staff qualifications and trainings, and staff salaries and benefits, all indicators of VSP resources and capacity. Messages from the field suggest that many VSPs experience high turnover rates, at least in part due to the taxing time and emotional demands placed on staff in return for low wages and few benefits. The information to date about VSP human resources is largely anecdotal, however, as described in Vision 21: “stakeholders shared much anecdotal data but scientific, peer-reviewed studies on victim assistance organizational capacity are largely absent. An analysis of capacity should capture baseline data on types and amounts of funding; staff expertise and diversity; salaries and benefits; the use of volunteers; access to state-of-the-art technology, training, and technical assistance.”

The NSVSP will also capture information about where VSPs deliver services (e.g., do they travel to the scene of the crime, courts, prisons, jails, etc.?) and what services VSP staff most commonly provide to victims. By aligning the NSVSP data with other data sources collected from residents (e.g., the NCVS) and law enforcement (e.g., NIBRS), BJS can build a more complete picture of demand for and supply of particular types of services, and begin to understand how VSPs are integrated within, interact with, or support the criminal justice system in responding to and reducing crime.

Below are examples of the pressing policy, practice, and research questions that can be addressed with data collected through this survey (see attachment 2 for a paper copy of the survey instrument, but this will only be an electronic survey):

1. How many unique victims did VSPs serve in the most recent calendar/fiscal year?

2. What are the demographic characteristics of the victims VSPs serve?

3. What types of crimes do clients tend to experience, and what services do VSPs provide? How does this differ for government-based and nonprofit or faith-based VSPs?

4. What types of agencies refer victims to VSPs (and how often do criminal justice-based VSPs refer to nonprofit VSPs and vice versa)?

5. In what geographical area do VSPs deliver services?

6. What types of service gaps do VSPs identify in their communities?

7. How many staff do VSPs have; what are staff turnover rates; and how do staff characteristics compare to victim characteristics?

8. On what types of activities do VSP staff spend the most time?

9. How many VSPs measure the impact of their service?

Given the richness of the data gathered from the NSVSP, BJS expects to publish a series of reports over time. To begin, BJS plans to release a statistical report summarizing the main findings about the VSP field nationally. This report will provide descriptive statistics about the total field of VSPs and statistics by type of provider (i.e., government-based, non-profit or faith-based, hospital-based, campus-based, or tribal-based) in terms of the services provided; number of victims served by crime type, victim demographics, and other victim characteristics (e.g., gender, age, race/ethnicity, disability status, veteran status, tribal status) and by VSP type; service gaps; staffing numbers, qualifications, trainings, and functions; and agency policies and practices such as in working with other VSPs, traveling offsite to provide services, and measuring impact.

In addition, many of these variables can be analyzed to provide more detailed breakdowns. For example, the types of services provided can also be analyzed by the type of victims served to examine whether the VSPs that served a particular type of victim also provided services known to be needed among these particular victims (e.g., trafficking victims tend to need case management, legal services, and immigration services³). Similarly, information about whether VSP type (e.g., law enforcement, campus/educational, community-based, non-profit, etc.) and type of victim who sought services (e.g., sexual abuse victim, identify theft victim, etc.) can be analyzed to explore the frequency with which certain VSPs come into contact with types of crime victims.

A second planned BJS report or research brief will focus on the characteristics of VSPs serving victims of human trafficking, given that this study will provide a new national source of information on this hard-to-reach population of victims. This report will focus on the types of agencies serving trafficking victims, number of trafficking victims served, demographic characteristics of victims, and types of services provided by these VSPs.

Lastly, the third planned BJS report will use state-level NSVSP data, in conjunction with data from the NCVS and UCR, to examine the relationship among levels of victimization, reporting to police, and availability of victim services within the 14 states with the most VSPs: California, Texas, New York, Ohio, Florida, Virginia, Illinois, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Georgia, South Carolina, Missouri, Indiana, and Massachusetts. Data from the NSVSP will provide information about the number of VSPs operating within specified states, the staff resources available to those VSPs, and the types of services they provide. Subnational data from the NCVS, as well as law enforcement statistics, contribute information on the types of victimizations experienced and reported to police in those areas. These data sources together allow for an analysis of both the demand and supply sides of victims service provision, as well as the role of VSPs in helping to bring crimes to the attention of police.

In addition to releasing special reports summarizing the detailed characteristics of the VSP field, BJS will release the cleaned NSVSP data in multiple formats (e.g., excel, SPSS, or SAS) that make it possible for other researchers, practitioners, policymakers, VSPs, and citizens to access and analyze the information. The dataset, supporting documentation, and BJS reports will be made available for download without charge at the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data at the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR).

Uses by other governmental agencies (OVC, Office for Violence against Women [OVW], Victim of Crime Act [VOCA] administrators)

For OVC, the type of information that can be learned from the NSVSP is critical to developing an empirically-based approach to delivering victim services that is consistent with OVC’s Vision 21 effort to transform the victim services field.⁴ Data collected from this sample survey, and the information collected in future iterations of both the NCVSP and this NSVSP will yield information that government agencies can use to work more effectively in providing assistance to crime victims.

The proposed NSVSP will allow federal and state granting agencies to better understand what victim services they are supporting and what types of victims are being served. In addition, basic descriptors about the size and stability of VSPs, VSP human resources, and gaps in services will allow federal and state entities to better understand how to allocate funding resources, seek future funding for areas of need, and to plan appropriately for potential limitations or barriers to accessing funding. Information gathered from the NSVSP will be an important first step in understanding how well-equipped, particularly in terms of staffing, the victim service field is to respond to crime victims now and in the future.

Other Uses

It is anticipated that academic researchers will use the NSVSP data to prepare reports and scholarly publications looking at the relationship between crime and the availability and delivery of victim services. Public-use data files will be housed at the ICPSR at the University of Michigan and will be available for download.

The data will also have direct utility for VSPs. Currently VSPs lack any systematic way to benchmark their work against that of their peers. Data from the NSVSP will allow VSPs to better understand where they fall in relation to other VSPs terms of VSPs size, the types of victims they serve, and the types of services they provide. VSPs could also use data from the survey to identify areas across the nation where there might be gaps in particular types of services. VSPs can use this information to reallocate funding and resources or argue for additional funding and resources to be used to fill those gaps.

3. Use of Information Technology

The NSVSP instrument and the procedures to collect, clean, and analyze the data have been developed based on technological advances that enhance data quality and minimize burden to survey participants and researchers. The primary mode of data collection is a web-based, self-administered survey instrument. The vast majority of VSPs responding to the NCVSP completed the survey online (86%), thus the decision to administer the NSVSP as a web-based instrument is well-supported. The remaining VSPs completed the NCVSP via phone using CATI (14%).⁵

The web interviewing capabilities are designed to assist respondents in completing their questionnaires by providing a high-quality user experience and by providing features that reduce respondent burden and ensure complete and accurate data. All web transactions will be secured through SSL encryption, and VSPs gain access via unique logins and passwords. The NSVSP instrument has been designed for online data collection using specialized survey software. The software is built to allow for easy conversion of questionnaires from one mode to another when multi-mode surveys are desired. For example, the web instrument may also be used to administer a telephone interview with non-respondents or to complete an interview over the phone. This ability allows significant reductions in development effort and costs when moving from one mode to another.

In addition, the web survey has a user-friendly interface, and is easy to share and navigate to specific sections in the event that multiple people at the VSP need to complete it. The web survey also conducts real-time, automated checking of responses for numeric range and logic error(s) and protects against data entry errors that might occur when transcribing answers given in a telephone interview. The web survey will be programmed to include several value-add features such as (1) the capability to resume work, allowing respondents to stop the questionnaire and return to the point of break-off at a later time without losing previously entered data; (2) a progress bar to illustrate the amount of the questionnaire completed and the amount left; (3) embedded links within the web instrument that make it easy for respondents to submit requests for support using email; and (4) the ability to print a copy of responses to keep on file once the web survey is complete. In addition, staff will monitor the completion of surveys and for those who time out or leave the survey early, will be able to email a link to the individual VSP’s survey asking the VSP to complete the survey.

Although the web will be emphasized as the preferred mode of survey completion, data collected over the phone during the nonresponse follow-up phase of the fielding will be entered into the automatic data file as they are received, noting the date and method of submission.

4. Efforts to Identify Duplication

BJS’s two-phased NCVSP-NSVSP data collection is the only national collection on VSPs. The NCVSP collected high-level descriptive information for the purposes of drawing a representative sample for the NSVSP. The NSVSP will be the first survey collecting standardized data on numbers of victims served by crime type and victim demographics, details about VSP staffing levels and turnover, staff salaries and benefits, job functions, and specific types of services offered from the broad range of VSPs across the nation.

Only one other national data collection related to victim services exists, and it is different from the proposed NSVSP in design, scope, and purpose. Annually since 2006, the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) conducts a 1-day (24 hour) census of U.S. domestic violence shelter programs.⁶ The collection documents the number of individuals who sought services in a 24-hour period, the types of services requested, and the barriers the shelters experienced in providing services to victims of domestic violence including not being able to meet victims’ needs because of a lack of resources. In contrast, the NSVSP will cover a one year time period, include a broader spectrum of all types of VSPs providing services to any victims of crime and broader questions of relevance to all types of VSPs. The research team has maintained communication with the NNEDV team to ensure both studies are not in the field at the same time.

5. Efforts to Minimize Burden

Many steps have been taken to reduce burden to VSPs that will participate in this national survey. First, all proposed data collection instruments were cognitively tested through two rounds of testing, the first with 30 VSPs and a second testing revisions with 9 VSPs. (Cognitive testing reports are available in attachments 3 and 4.) The first round of testing resulted in minor edits to wording of questions or response items, some re-formatting to reduce burden in administration, and the deletion of some items that were unclear and therefore might be burdensome. After round 2 of testing, additional edits were made specifically focusing on reducing the time burden associated with the instrument. Although VSPs did not recommend many substantive changes to the items, there were a few VSPs who took over an hour to complete the survey. To ensure the majority of VSPs will be able to complete the survey in 45 minutes or less the instrument went through another round of review by the project team at Westat and BJS to prioritize data needs and reduce the number of high-burden items.

The instrument was also reviewed and discussed by a panel of experts from the VSP field, leading to additional instructions that the expert panel felt would reduce burden. For example, experts recommended providing respondents with a list of the types of data that will be required to complete the survey before administering the survey to reduce the likelihood they will need to stop and start the survey many times as they find the data or information needed (See attachment 5a-g for the study administration materials.)

The web-based instrument will be programmed using best practices that ease the burden of survey completion (discussed above in #3). The data collection software will store agency information and responses, allowing for multi-session, multi-respondent, non-sequential completion of the survey. Before full administration of the online survey, the web-based instrument will be tested with about nine VSPs to examine issues related to usability. As part of usability testing, the VSPs will complete a short online questionnaire to share perceptions of the look and feel of the survey and the ease or potential difficulties in navigating through the instrument (see part B for more details). The research team will make changes to the presentation and programming of the NSVSP instrument as needed to improve respondents’ experiences.

A helpdesk will be staffed to provide assistance by phone and email to all respondents during normal business hours (Eastern Time) and will be available to all respondents through a toll-free number. Phone numbers and e-mail addresses for the project’s principal investigators will be provided to respondents.

6. Consequences of Less Frequent Data Collection

The two-phased NCVSP-NSVSP is the first data collection effort of its kind, and without this collection on VSPs, there will continue to be no empirical data available to answer rudimentary questions about victim service provision in the U.S. It is important for the NSVSP to be conducted shortly after the NCVSP, for the VSP frame to be up to date in terms of the number of providers and their contact information. One of the major factors prohibiting a national data collection on VSPs in the past was that no comprehensive roster of all active VSPs across the nation existed. Much developmental work went into creating this roster for the NCVSP, and the administration of the first-ever NCVSP was a critical step in cleaning the roster and creating the first VSP frame. Although the stability of the VSP frame is not fully known, based on the frame development work that was conducted to develop the NCVSP roster we know that many VSPs will change leadership, contact information (e.g., point of contact, phone numbers, mailing addresses), and even their status as an active victim service provider. Therefore conducting the NSVSP within 1 or 1.5 years after the NCVSP is necessary to reduce costs associated with having to update contact information and sampling ineligible entities. Of note, for many years BJS has conducted a similar two-phased census-survey approach with law enforcement agencies.

BJS intends to continue fielding both the NCVSP and the NSVSP to keep abreast of changes in the victim services field. Contingent on future funding and resources, both data collection efforts would ideally be conducted every five to six years, with the NSVSP sample survey immediately following the NCVSP administration.

7. Special Circumstances

Not applicable.

8. Adherence to 5 CFR 1320.8(d) and Outside Consultations

The research under this clearance is consistent with the guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.6 and 5 CFR 1320.8(d). Comments on this data collection effort were solicited in the Federal Register, Vol. 83, No. 136 on July 16, 2018 and in Vol. 83, No. 228 on November 27, 2018. In response to the 60 day Federal Register submission, one person expressed concerned that the media or others might attempt to sum across VSPs for a total number of victims served and perhaps not understand or recognize that this would be double counting victims. This is a concern BJS can address when releasing estimates. A few people asked for the NSVSP draft instrument and additional information on the project.

Outside Consultation

Outside consultation has been especially important for the development of the NSVSP because as the first detailed survey of victim service providers, the survey must be applicable to a wide range of VSPs that differ in their size and scope. Early and continuing discussions were held with OVC and OVW to better understand the needs of the field, the current state of reporting, and where the most important gaps in data could be found. BJS has also worked with an Expert Panel to ensure the survey development and implementation is informed by experts in the areas of criminal justice, victim services, and research methodology.

On April 23, 2018, an Expert Panel meeting was held to discuss the content, sampling, and administration of the NSVSP. The Expert Panel was comprised of practitioners and researchers, considered experts in the victim service field. During this meeting, the Expert Panel provided feedback on the scope of the project, data collection procedures, developing drafts of the survey instrument, and strategies for obtaining cooperation and participation from VSPs. The Expert Panel meeting was instrumental in crafting the content and structure of the survey in such a way that it would be accessible and useful to policy-makers and the victim services field. A few expert panel members who were unable to attend the meeting provided feedback via phone at a later date.

Federal stakeholders from OVC, OVW, and the National Institute of Justice were also involved in the Expert Panel meetings and have provided consultation on various aspects of the data collection throughout the development of the project. The expert panel and federal partner contributors included—

• Grace Call, Council of State Governments

• Theodore Corbin, Drexel University

• Steve Derene, National Association of VOCA Assistance Administrators

• Jennifer Hiselman, Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority

• Susan Howley, Justice Research and Statistics Association

• Aviva Kurash, International Association of Chiefs of Police

• Caroline LaPorte, National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center

• Anne Menard, National Resource Center on Domestic Violence

• Chris Newlin, National Children’s Advocacy Center

• Lydia Newlin, Minnesota Department of Corrections

• Bridgette Stumpf, Network for Victim Recovery of DC

• Stephanie Richard, Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Human Trafficking (CAST)

• Rob Valente, Independent Consultant

• William Sabol, Georgia State University

• Nadine Frederique, National Institute of Justice

• Virginia Baran, Office for Violence Against Women

• James Simonson, Office for Victims of Crime

• Heather Warnken, Office for Victims of Crime & Bureau of Justice Statistics

9. Paying Respondents

VSPs will participate voluntarily and will not receive payment.

10. Assurance of Confidentiality

BJS, its employees, and its data collection agents will only use the information provided by VSPs for statistical or research purposes pursuant to 34 U.S.C. § 10134, and will protect it to the fullest extent under federal law. VSPs participation in the survey is voluntary and participants will be informed prior to starting the survey that their responses will be kept confidential, and the data file released to the public will not include the VSP’s identifying information (e.g., name, address).

11. Justification for Sensitive Questions

Not applicable: there are no questions of a sensitive nature.

12. Estimate of Respondent Burden

BJS estimates the respondent burden for the NSVSP at 3,322 hours. This estimate was calculated based on a sample size of 7,237 VSPs, and time estimates based on the results of the cognitive testing. It is expected that about 15% of the 7,237 VSPs in the sample will no longer be eligible (i.e., closed operation, stopped providing services to crime victims, merged with other providers, etc.) and another 30% will not participate. For those 1,086 out of scope entities, the burden will be less than 5 minutes. For the 4,306 active VSPs that participate, results from cognitive testing suggest that the survey will take approximately 45 minutes per VSP to complete.

Out of Scope VSP burden= 1,086*[5 minutes/60 minutes in an hour] = 91 hours

Active VSP burden= (4,306*[45 minutes /60 minutes in an hour] = 3,230 hours

Total = 91+ 3,230= about 3,321 hours.

13. Estimate of Respondent Cost Burden

There are no anticipated costs to respondents beyond the employee time expended during completion of the questionnaire. Respondents are not being asked to purchase anything or maintain any services as part of this data collection.

14. Cost to the Federal Government

The total cost to the Federal government for the NSVSP data collection is $1,371,450, paid by BJS and OVC. This is the cost associated with final cleaning of the NCVSP frame, drawing a representative VSP sample, cognitively testing and finalizing the NSVSP instrument, administering the NSVSP with a sample of 7,237 VSPs, cleaning and analyzing the data, and producing BJS reports of the findings. The contractor costs include the amount spent on data collection, outreach efforts, project management, data monitoring and processing, and data documentation. The project is expected to take about two years, beginning in FY 2017 and ending in FY 2019.

Budget:
Items	Costs	totals
BJS Personnel
GS-13 Statistician (base: 96,970), 30%	$29,091
GS-15 Statistician (base: 134,789), 5%	$ 6,739
GS-14 Editor (base: 114,590), 10%	$11,459
Other editorial staff	$ 5,000
Senior BJS management	$ 6,000
Salaries Subtotal:	$58,289
Fringe benefits (28% of salaries)	$16,321
Salary & Fringe subtotal:	$74,610
Other administrative costs of salary and fringe (15%)	$11,191
Total staff costs	$85,801 x2 years	$ 171,603
Westat cooperative agreement total:	$1,147,592	$1,147,592
Total Estimated Costs:		$1,319,195

15. Reason for Change in Burden

Not applicable, this is the first NSVSP to be fielded.

16. Project Schedule and Publication Plans

Pending OMB approval, the NSVSP data collection is scheduled to begin in February, 2019. The data collection agent will clean and verify data on a continual basis over the course of data collection, and final data cleaning will take place in summer 2019. The data will be delivered to BJS in September 2019.

Analytical work will begin in fall 2019 with plans to release the first BJS summary report by early 2020. The initial report will provide data by type of VSP on the number and characteristics of victims served, relationships with other criminal justice system and community entities, services provided, and VSP policies and practices at both the national and subnational levels, as possible. It will feature data on hard-to-reach victim populations, including victims of human trafficking.

The de-indentified dataset, and supporting documentation, will be made available for download without charge at the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data at the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) and at Data.gov. It is expected the data will be available to the public for download at the time the first report is released. VSP’s information can be used by victim service stakeholders to develop resources (e.g., online directories, electronic apps) for VSPs and the victims in need of VSP services.

The anticipated schedule is as follows:

February, 2019 Data collection begins

June, 2019 Data collection ends

September, 2019 Data delivery to BJS

March, 2020 Initial report release/data file published

17. Display of Expiration Date

Not Applicable. The OMB control number and expiration date are provided to each VSP on the introductory letter and on the first screen of the online survey instrument.

18. Exceptions to the Certificate Statement

Not Applicable. There are no exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions. Collection is consistent with the guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.9.

1 https://www.ovc.gov/pubs/reporttonation2017/crime-victims-fund.html

2 Office for Victims of Crime Vision 21 report: http://ovc.ncjrs.gov/vision21/pdfs/Vision21_Report.pdf

3 Caliber (2007). Evaluation of the comprehensive services for victims of human trafficking: Key findings and lessons learned. https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/218777.pdf

4 Office for Victims of Crime Vision 21 report: http://ovc.ncjrs.gov/vision21/pdfs/Vision21_Report.pdf

5 Only 11 VSPs requested a mailed copy of the survey.

6 All reports are available online: http://nnedv.org/resources/census.html

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