[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 79 (Tuesday, April 23, 1996)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 18045-18046]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-10176]



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  Federal Register / Vol. 61, No. 79 / Tuesday, April 23, 1996 / 
Presidential Documents  

[[Page 18045]]


                Proclamation 6888 of April 19, 1996

                
National Crime Victims' Rights Week, 1996

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                On April 19, 1995, millions of Americans witnessed the 
                chaos and anguish wrought by a single bomb blast in 
                Oklahoma City that took 168 lives and injured scores of 
                others. For days afterwards, our Nation joined the 
                survivors in a grim vigil as somber work crews entered 
                the wreckage again and again to locate victims.

                That bomb blast in Oklahoma City was a devastating 
                reminder that too many Americans have become victims of 
                crime. Although violent crime has decreased every year 
                for the last 3 years, 83 percent of our citizens 12 
                years of age and above will experience violent or 
                attempted violent crime in their lifetimes. And worse, 
                52 percent will be victimized more than once. Added to 
                these grim statistics is the reality that violent crime 
                is increasingly a problem of our youth. For 12- to 19-
                year-olds, the chance of being assaulted, robbed, or 
                raped is two to three times higher than for adults, and 
                perpetrators of crime are both younger and more 
                violent. In 1994, for example, about 33 percent of all 
                violent crimes were committed by those under 21 years 
                of age.

                There is another, more positive, dimension to the 
                aftermath of crime: the multitude of dedicated 
                professionals and volunteers who support and assist 
                crime victims. They are emergency medical technicians 
                and firefighters, law enforcement officers and rescue 
                teams, victim assistance providers and shelter workers. 
                At the darkest of moments, these selfless men and women 
                renew our Nation's faith in humanity, and their 
                advocacy embodies the time-honored American traditions 
                of compassion and service. They constitute a community 
                of caring whose healing work helps victims to become 
                survivors. As a Nation, we owe these generous 
                individuals our deepest gratitude for making our 
                communities better and safer places in which to live 
                and work.

                While 1995 brought tragedy, it also brought the 
                implementation of one of the most comprehensive crime 
                laws ever enacted. The Violent Crime Control and Law 
                Enforcement Act of 1994 furthered the rights of victims 
                in the Federal justice system and targeted resources 
                for criminal justice improvements. The Crime Act's 
                provisions include truth-in-sentencing provisions that 
                ensure longer sentences for violent offenders and 
                allocution rights for victims that give them the right 
                to speak in court before the imposition of a sentence. 
                The Crime Act also provides hundreds of communities 
                around the Nation with increased law enforcement 
                personnel, and its Violence Against Women Act is the 
                first comprehensive Federal effort to combat violence 
                against women.

                The Crime Act is just one landmark in a crime victims' 
                movement that has spanned 20 years and brought many 
                hard-won reforms. A victims' bill of rights--once a 
                novel idea--is now a reality in virtually every State. 
                Victim assistance programs, which were few in the 
                1960s, now number in the thousands. Every State has a 
                compensation program to help reimburse victims for 
                mental health, medical, and other expenses resulting 
                from the crimes committed against them. And in 1995, 
                the Crime Victims Fund

[[Page 18046]]

                in the U.S. Treasury, which supports many of these 
                programs, surpassed the one-billion-dollar mark in 
                funds collected and distributed to the States.

                As we reflect on the events of 1995, let us remember 
                both the horror and the compassion we felt last April. 
                Let us not slip into complacency when we hear or read 
                about another crime victim. Whether we are business 
                owners or teachers, clergy or physicians, neighbors or 
                colleagues, we must join the community of caring and 
                lessen the burdens on our Nation's crime victims. Let 
                us join together to build safe and responsive 
                communities and to promote justice and healing for all 
                who have suffered from violent crime.

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the 
                United States of America, by virtue of the authority 
                vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United 
                States, do hereby proclaim April 21 through April 27, 
                1996, as National Crime Victims' Rights Week. I urge 
                all Americans to pause and remember crime victims and 
                their families by working to reduce violence, to assist 
                those harmed by crime, and to make our homes and 
                communities safer places in which to live and raise our 
                families.

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                nineteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord 
                nineteen hundred and ninety-six, and of the 
                Independence of the United States of America the two 
                hundred and twentieth.

                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 96-10176
Filed 4-22-96; 11:22 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P