    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 17 (Monday, April 29, 1996)]
    [Pages 694-695]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Proclamation 6888--National Crime Victims' Rights Week, 1996

    April 19, 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
    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

    [[Page 695]]

    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.
                                                William J. Clinton

    [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:22 a.m., April 22,
    1996]

    Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on April
    23. This item was not received in time for publication in the
    appropriate issue.