Victim liaison service
Walsall Youth Offending Service (YOS) has a responsibility to ensure that the victims of youth crime have their views about the offences heard in the criminal justice process. We listen to victims of crime to discover the effect the crime has had on them and also to encourage the offender to understand the effects of their actions and to make amends to those harmed by the crime.
Why get involved?
·Many victims of crime have found that becoming involved in the justice process helps them deal with anger or anxiety resulting from the offence.
What are my options?
As the person most affected by the crime we would like to offer you the opportunity to be involved in our work. There are a number of different ways you could get involved. You might:
- Attend a youth offender panel where you give your views so they can be taken into account.
- Take part in a victim-offender conference. This can happen in a variety of ways. You could simply pass on your views to the young offender through the Youth Offending Service, or you could have the opportunity to talk with the young offender at a meeting supervised and carefully controlled by trained people.
- Receive a letter of apology written by the young offender and addressing your concerns. (The letter would be passed on to you by the Youth Offending Service and not sent directly by the offender.)
- Have the offender make amends by carrying out some practical jobs on your behalf or for the community (this activity would be supervised by workers from the Youth Offending Service).