Report: Colorado Victims Services Programs Lack Diversity

A report by the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition found a stark lack of diversity among the people making decisions about what organizations receive funding for victim services programs and among the organizations that are ultimately funded, with groups and funders led and staffed largely by white people, reports the Denver Post. In addition, victim services in Colorado are mostly provided to white people, even though Black, Hispanic, and Latino people are nationally more likely to be victims of crime.

The Office for Victims Programs, which is part of the Colorado Department of Public Safety and distributes 95 percent of funding for victim services in the state, is about 74 percent white, while the Crime Victim Services Advisory Board, which recommends what organizations should receive grant money, is about 85 percent white, the report found. In the 2019 fiscal year, the agency dispersed about $70 million in grants to various organizations. Of the just over 116,000 victims of crime helped by the Office of Victims Programs in the 2019 fiscal year, about 58 percent were white, 24 percent were Hispanic and 8 percent were Black, and still other victims’ races were not recorded. And although Colorado’s overall population is about 65 percent white, 22 percent Hispanic or Latino, and 4.1 percent Black, nationally people of color are victims of crime at higher rates than white people.