Victims’ Services Unit

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Mission Statement:

The Victims’ Services Unit (VSU) is dedicated to serving, and empowering victims and survivors and their families, and connecting them with relevant and tailored resources.

Our Work:

  • Providing victim-centered and trauma-informed responses and services to all victims, survivors, and their families.
  • Recognizing that every victim, survivor, and their family deserves to be heard, believed, and supported through their journey navigating the criminal justice system.
  • Connecting victims, survivors, and families with resources and services that meet their needs.

Vision Statement:

To deliver compassionate and comprehensive services to victims, survivors, families, and next-of kin.

About Us

The Victims’ Services Unit (VSU) was created in 1999 to better serve crime victims and their families. Victims have rights and the California Department of Justice is committed to ensuring those rights are protected. VSU offers support and information to victims and their families at every stage of the criminal process.

VSU works to provide victim-centered, trauma-informed, and culturally sensitive services to all crime victims, including underserved, at-risk, underrepresented, and vulnerable populations. Through the unit’s services, victims can track the status of appeals, recusal cases, and other matters being handled by DOJ’s prosecutors. VSU has a dedicated and well-trained team of advocates who provide appeal notifications to victims and their families. These updates allow victims and their families to exercise their rights to address the court or otherwise participate in parole, clemency, and execution proceedings.

VSU also supports service providers and members of the public in tracking the progress of sexual assault evidence kits as they are processed both at the state and local level through the Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence Tracking (SAFE-T database). Importantly, VSU’s advocates work to help victims and their families acccess available resources that are a critical part of the healing process, such as mental health services, safety net services, and assistance through the California Victim Compensation Board for related crime expenses.

VSU liaises with service providers, community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, and government agencies in all of California’s 58 counties to assist victims and their families navigate the oftentimes complex criminal justice system. Connecting with local communities and sharing with them the services we provide is of the utmost importance. As a result, our team takes steps to participate in outreach, roundtables, and trainings in each of these counties wherever possible.

To receive information on resources, notification of an appeal, or notification on a case the Attorney General's Office is prosecuting, please visit https://oag.ca.gov/victimservices/notification, call VSU at (877) 433-9069 or fill out the Victims' Service Unit Contact Form. To learn more about the work of VSU, please watch our Demystifying the DOJ Presentation on the Victims’ Services Unit.

Publications from the Victims' Services Unit are available on our VSU Resources page. If you would to request any publications, please use the Publications Request form.