Crime Victims Rights Week

Fairness. Dignity. Respect.

This is the theme of the 2010 National Crime Victims Rights Week.

I think that these three words say a lot. I feel that there needs to be fairness, dignity and respect for all crime victims, even White Collar Crime victims like the ones we help at Scam Victims United. Too often these victims are seen as not really needing help or services because they are "just paper crimes". Since we do not have any physical encounter with the person that victimized us, we are seen as less of a victim.

I for one can tell you that we go through the same emotional rollercoaster that a victim of other types of crime. Just because I was not stopped at gunpoint on the street corner does not mean that I don't have emotion scars from what happened to me. And we suffer the same financial weight that other crime victims suffer . . . and some victims even more so if they are criminally charged with trying to defraud the bank by presenting a counterfeit check. Can you imagine finding out that you have lost thousands of dollars, then being arrested and having to find a lawyer to prove that you are innocet?

Fairness. Dignity. Respect.

We all deserve it.