2005 Case Record Data Requirements

 

Question 5 of the application form requests information on the capacity of the four agencies in each of the participant-communities to contribute to a coded, case record database containing basic information which captures characteristics of the perpetrator and of the assault but protects victims' privacy and cannot be used to identify them. The purpose of this data is to track the progress of individual cases through the system allowing each community, and the overall project, to evaluate its effectiveness.

 

The purpose of Questions 25-29 is to have victims provide direct feedback about their satisfaction rather than have professionals tell us whether they feel a survivor was satisfied with the services and responses. We recognize collecting this data is difficult and that it is not typically collected by all agencies in a consistent way. How this goal may best be accomplished may vary among the participant communities. At the conference, each of the selected communities will have an opportunity to work with the evaluators and the other communities to consider the options that are available, and the procedures that are appropriate for their local situation. For example, one alternative may be to provide each survivor with a survey they can return independently to the evaluators. Although the strategies to be used for collecting satisfaction data will be decided upon by the participant-communities themselves, the selection committee would like assurance that the agencies share the goal, commitment and capacity to obtain direct measures of the effectiveness of their work.

 

 

Variable	Description
1. Sequential Record Number	Assigned by the national evaluators with no reference or direct link to local records.
2. Entry Point  (Agency of first contact)	Advocate/Medical/Police
3. Entry Date	Year/Month/Day
4. Age of Victim	Actual or Estimated Age
5. Gender of Victim	Male/Female
6. Gender of Accused	Male/Female
7. Victim/Accused Relationship	Stranger /Brief Encounter/Acquaintance/Family
8. Violence	Ø      Weapon used or Threatened Ø      Physical Force or Restraint Ø       Verbal Threat or Warning Ø      None of the above Ø      Unknown
9. Accused Employed	Yes/No/NA
10. Accused Criminal Record	Yes/No/NA
11. Contact with Advocate Agency	Yes/No/
12. Reported to Police	Yes/No
13. Founded by Police	Yes/No
14. Arrested & Charged (sent to Prosecutor)	Yes/No/NA
15. Disposition	Case rejected for Prosecution/Charges dropped/Plea Bargain/Trial/NA
16. Plea	Guilty of Original Charge/Guilty of Plea Bargined Charge/Not Guilty/NA
17. Verdict	Guilty/Guilty of a Lesser Charge/Not Guilty/NA
18.Sentence	Conditional/Less than 2 Years/More than 2 Years/NA
19.Appeal by Defense	Yes/No/NA
20. Appeal by Prosecution	Yes/No/NA
21. Recency of Report to agency of first contact	Delay in Reporting: Hours/Days/Weeks/ Months/ Years
22. Received Medical Attention	Yes/No/NA
23. Forensic Exam Given and Processed	Yes/No/NA
24. DNA Evidence Collected and Processed	Yes/No/NA
25. Victim Satisfaction with Police	Five Point Scale/NA
26. Victim Satisfaction with Medical	Five Point Scale/NA
27. Victim Satisfaction with Prosecution	Five Point Scale/NA
28. Victim Satisfaction with Advocate	Five Point Scale/NA
29. Victim Satisfaction with “Other”	Five Point Scale/NA
30. Exit Date (No continuing involvement by any agency)	Year/Month/Day
* Additional Participant-Community Defined Variables	Scheduled topic at evaluation session of workshop

 

* At the time of the Conference, each participant-community will have an opportunity to work with the evaluators and the other participant-communities to refine and finalize the minimum basic case record file above, and to include optional additional case record information in statistics collected by the agencies in their own participant-communities for 2005 Project Year.