Crime victims’ safety net unraveling with continued cuts
Memphis Child Advocacy Center Executive Director Virginia Stallworth spoke in 2019 in front of her organization’s newest facility. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian file)
The organizations behind the community’s crucial but mostly invisible safety net — crisis hotlines, domestic violence shelters and help for victims of child abuse — say they are in trouble.
For the past two years, they’ve been a casualty of funding cuts. And July 1 the next hammer will fall, decimating services another 25% at least, unless Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee steps in.
Services for crime victims are largely funded through fees paid by people found guilty in federal criminal cases through the Victims of Crime Act, or VOCA. But since 2018, that funding has fallen more than 75% as both the Trump and Biden administrations focused on getting plea deals instead of taking cases to court.
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Jane Roberts
Jane Roberts has reported in Memphis for more than 20 years. As a senior member of The Daily Memphian staff, she was assigned to the medical beat during the COVID-19 pandemic. She also has done in-depth work on other medical issues facing our community, including shortages of specialists in local hospitals. She covered K-12 education here for years and later the region’s transportation sector, including Memphis International Airport and FedEx Corp.
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