Crime Survivors Speak: Pennsylvania Victims' Views on Safety and Justice

Millions of Pennsylvanians have been victims of violence in the past ten years. They have experienced many hardships at alarming rates including post-traumatic stress, anxiety, bankruptcy, job loss, demotions, serious illness, eviction, and arrest. But until now they have not been systematically asked for their views about safety and justice or how Pennsylvania’s state and local governments should allocate the $9 billion they spend each year on the criminal justice system.

Recognizing that the people most affected by violence are best equipped to develop real solutions, Just Safe and Crime Survivors Speak commissioned a statewide survey of 1,800 Pennsylvania residents to identify victims of violence and ask for their policy preferences on issues relating to safety and justice. This report presents the findings from that survey.

The experiences and views of victims of violence offer a clear vision of what lasting public safety could look like. Victims of violence in Pennsylvania support a path forward that prioritizes preventing harm, supporting healing for victims, and making communities stronger and safer. Our survey reveals broad support among survivors for criminal justice reforms that focus on public safety risk, fairness, and rehabilitation. Victims consistently support alternatives to incarceration, individualized sentencing, and shifting resources toward prevention, mental health and substance use treatment, and community-based programs that reduce future violence.

We also asked victims of violent crime about the consequences violence had on their lives. We asked whether being a victim had caused them to lose a job or be demoted and if they wanted to move because of their victimization. This survey is the first to ask victims in Pennsylvania whether violent crime caused them to be evicted. The findings make clear that victims of violence in Pennsylvania support a public safety strategy centered on prevention and healing. Survivors are sending a clear message to policymakers that investing in community-based solutions and rehabilitation is essential to reducing violence and building safer communities across Pennsylvania.

Key Findings

• Violence directly impacts more than 1 in 4 Pennsylvanians and causes major hardships.

  • Twenty-eight percent of Pennsylvanians have been victims of violence in the past ten years. 

  • Only 10% of Pennsylvania violent crime victims said that the justice system was “very helpful” in the aftermath of crime, with another 22% indicating it as “somewhat helpful.” Forty-six percent said the justice system was unhelpful, with 28% saying it was “very unhelpful” in helping them get the help or support they needed.

  • Violence has major consequences on survivors’ lives. Twelve percent of Pennsylvania violent crime victims reported being forced to move because of their violent victimization and another 22% feared being evicted because they were victims. One in 5 violent crime victims reported losing a job or being demoted as a result of their experience of crime and 45% reported difficulties at school and work.

  • Pennsylvanians who were victims of violence in the past ten years experienced major hardships at alarming rates. Victims of violence were 3.6 times more likely to experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), 2.5 times more likely to experience bankruptcy, 90% more likely to suffer from anxiety or depression, and 47% more likely to have experienced a life-threatening illness than people who were not victims of violence.

• Victims of violence support trauma-informed responses and investments that help survivors heal.

  • Seventy-two percent of victims of violence support changes to the criminal justice system that allow courts to sentence people who committed a crime in direct response to being a victim of violence, such as domestic abuse, to a shorter sentence or probation instead of incarceration. Eighty percent support similar alternatives for veterans with PTSD who committed a crime because of a mental health problem resulting from their military service to a shorter sentence or probation with treatment instead of incarceration. 

  • Over 90% of victims of violence support allowing victims of violent crime to end a lease early so that they can move or allowing them to change their locks for safety. 

  • Eighty-eight percent of victims of violence support increasing the number of Trauma Recovery Centers for victims of crime.

• Victims of violence want a justice system that allows for discretion, individualized decision-making, and second chances.

  • Seventy-six percent of victims of violence support determining the length of a parole term based on the risk the person poses to public safety instead of the offense they were convicted of. 

  • Over 90% of victims of violence agree that the decision to release someone with a court date or hold them in jail until their trial should be based on whether they pose a risk to public safety, not on their ability to pay money bail.

  • Nearly 7 out of 10 victims of violence (69%) prefer releasing people in local jails who can safely await trial in the community or serve their sentences through diversion, community supervision, or treatment over keeping people in jail while they await trial. 

  • An overwhelming majority of victims of violence (67%) prefer policies that authorize the parole board to consider earlier release for people who participated in rehabilitation, education, and job training.

  • By a margin of 6 to 1, victims of violence say that in felony murder cases, judges should be authorized to weigh individual circumstances rather than being required to impose a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for everyone convicted of felony murder.

• Victims of violence want investments in prevention and rehabilitation more than punishment

  • A clear majority of victims of violence (63%) prefer shorter prison sentences and using money saved to fund youth violence prevention, mental health and addiction treatment over longer sentences and maintaining the prison budget to keep people incarcerated for the full length of their sentence. 

  • By a margin of nearly 3 to 1, victims of violent crime prefer shorter incarceration sentences and spending more on prevention and rehabilitation programs over prison and jail sentences that keep people incarcerated for as long as possible. 

  • A strong majority of victims of violence (67%) prefer addressing disorder in neighborhoods with policies that focus on expanding neighborhood cleanup programs, crisis assistance, and treatment for people with substance use disorder and mental illness to stop them from going into jail. 

  • By a margin of 3 to 1, victims of violence say the best way to hold people accountable when they commit crimes is with options beyond prison, such as rehabilitation, mental health treatment, drug treatment, or community service, over putting them in prison. 

The findings of this report make clear that victims of violence in Pennsylvania share a powerful vision of public safety. Victims overwhelmingly support a strategy that prioritizes prevention, healing, and communities rather than relying on approaches that have failed to stop cycles of violence. 

Their experiences reveal the far-reaching consequences of violence, including job loss and housing instability, underscoring the need to align Pennsylvania’s criminal justice spending with solutions that help the people most affected by violence recover. Across regions and backgrounds, victims in Pennsylvania prefer reforms that focus on public safety risk, fairness, and healing, including alternatives to incarceration and increased investment in prevention, trauma-informed policies, mental health and substance use treatment, and community-based programs. Listening to victims and leveraging their insight offers a path to safer and stronger communities across Pennsylvania. 

Read more in the full report below.