Hearing of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee - Addressing the Need for Victim Services in Indian Country

Hearing

"Today the Committee's hearing is on "Addressing the Need for Victim Services in Indian Country.'

"This Committee has examined crime and justice in Indian communities for several years, and I have made criminal justice a priority as Chairman. Federal data shows that Indian communities face some of the highest victimization rates in the country.

"Native youth experience violent crime rates up to 10 times the national rate. Violence is pervasive and tied to 75% of deaths among American Indian and Alaska Natives between the ages of 12 and 20.

"American Indian women are murdered at a rate of more than 10 times the national average on some reservations. It is clear that tribes lack the resources and capacity to provide basic services to victims of crime on their lands.

"The primary source of victim assistance funding is the Crime Victims Fund. Unfortunately, the way this fund is currently administered is not working for native victims of crime.

"Under the current system, only a portion of this money reaches the states, and far less ever reaches Indian Country. Instead of accessing victim assistance and compensation grants directly from the Crime Victims Fund like other states and territories, tribes must apply to the states for these resources.

"Despite the exceedingly high crime rates and great need for victim services in Indian Country, over the last 5 years, tribes have never received more than 0.7% of the Crime Victims Fund available for victim assistance.

"We will hear today that one underlying problem is that most tribes lag far behind the rest of the nation when it comes to baseline crime victim infrastructure and capacity. For example, most tribes do not have emergency shelters for crime victims. Most tribes do not have facilities or personnel for the delivery of critical services, such as medical care and counseling. Most tribes cannot provide temporary or transitional housing, even when perpetrators live in the same home as the victim.

"This gap must be addressed, as it severely limits tribes' ability to deliver even the most basic crime victim services, and in turn limits opportunities to restore safety and security to native communities.

"We must expand tribal access to resources for crime victim services, improve the way these federal dollars are administered, and ensure that tribes have the flexibility to develop programs that meet the needs of their respective communities.

"I look forward to hearing from our witnesses on how to best accomplish these goals, and will be releasing a plan in the near future to change the status quo for native victims of crime."

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