Bill Clinton

“ Every day, our Nation's peace is shattered by crime. Violent crime and the fear it provokes are crippling our society, limiting our personal freedom, and fraying the ties that bind us. No corner of America, it often seems, is safe from increasing levels of criminal violence. And more and more, the victims of these crimes are random targets of assaults stemming from a serious breakdown of values in our families and our communities. ”

“ National Crime Victims' Rights Week is a time when our Nation pauses to seriously reflect on these innocent victims of crime and on those who are working all across this country in their behalf. Thousands of people-many of them volunteers who have been victims themselves-are tirelessly striving at the Federal, State, and local levels to provide emotional support, guidance, and financial assistance to help crime victims recover from their trauma and to ensure that they are treated equitably and sensitively as their cases progress through the criminal justice system. ”

“ Those who give of themselves to assist victims are helping immeasurably in this effort. They are there for their neighbors. They are there to provide comfort when someone has lost a child to random gunfire, when the sanctity of someone's home has been invaded by an intruder, when someone has been robbed, brutalized, or beaten. ”