Being A Victim Advocate Essay

A victim advocate is someone who helps people who are victims of a crime or sexual abuse. They are usually only referred to as victim advocates, however they can be called victim coordinators, victim specialists, or victim service providers.

There are many duties and work tasks that a victim advocate must complete. They do everything from educate the victim of his or her rights, help victims with their safety plans, help victims find transportation and shelters, and fill out paperwork and reports to law enforcement about the crime committed against them. A victim advocate also is a shoulder to cry on and a listening ear to the victim. They help the victim get through the questioning, the court appearances, the testimony they give, and notify

However, the higher up you start to go in the career, the more education is required and the less you’re getting one-on-one time with the actual victims. The types of organizations that employ victim advocates would be places such as shelters, hospitals, legal offices, police stations and courts, and even non-profit groups. There is no data provided for victim advocates according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, jobs closely related to a victim advocate are “projected to grow 11% from 2014 to 2024, faster than the average for all occupations”. Since “victim advocate” is such a specific job title, it’s hard to portray the potential salary range. However, they’re considered to be lumped into the “social and human service assistants” category. Social workers median annual wage was $30,830 in May of 2015, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The benefits that could be associated with a victim advocate job would vary, depending on the place of employment. If you worked for a government agency, like a police station or court, you would get benefits the same as any other government employee in that office. If you worked for a non-profit group, the benefits would depend on how much that group had to offer to its