[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]
Presidential Documents
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
