Victim Support

Victim Support is a charity in England and Wales that aims to help victims and witnesses of crime.

History

Victim Support was set up in 1972 in Bristol and became a charity in 1974. It was started because there was little or no help on offer for victims of crime. The charity's founders were a group of people, who included members of the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders (now NACRO) and others from the police and probation service. The first Victim Support group was organised in Bristol in 1974 and other groups followed around the UK. In 1979 these groups came together under an 'umbrella body’ – the National Association of Victims Support Schemes. In 2008 all local Victim Support groups merged to create one national federation in England and Wales. The charity ran a Witness Service from 1989 until April 2015. The service supports people who testify in criminal trials in England and Wales, notably those in Operation Yewtree. The service continues to be funded by the Ministry of Justice. Since 1985 the charity has run the Homicide Service, supporting people bereaved by murder or manslaughter. The Ministry of Justice funded that work from 2010, awarding the contract to run the service to Victim Support from 2010 to at least 2017. The charity is a founding member of Victim Support Europe which was established in 1990.