[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.