Understanding the Impact of COVID-19 on Victim Service Provision: Challenges, Innovations, and Lessons Learned, 8 U.S. counties, 2022-2023 (ICPSR 39019)

Version Date: Aug 18, 2025

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Principal Investigator(s):
Hannah Feeney, RTI International; Rebecca Pfeffer, RTI International

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR39019.v2

Version V2 ()

  • V2 [2025-08-18]
  • V1 [2025-07-10] unpublished
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Summary

The COVID-19 pandemic had a disproportionate impact on victims of crime and community-based victim service provider (VSP) agencies were tasked with maintaining accessibility to their critical services. This research study sought to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on service provisions for victims of gender-based violence, including survivors of sexual assault/abuse, IPV, or sex trafficking in eight U.S. counties that vary in geography, urbanicity, and sociopolitical settings.

Citation

Feeney, Hannah, and Pfeffer, Rebecca. Understanding the Impact of COVID-19 on Victim Service Provision: Challenges, Innovations, and Lessons Learned, 8 U.S. counties, 2022-2023. [distributor], 2025-08-18. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR39019.v2

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Funding

United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice (15PNIJ-21-GG-00997-NONF)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

State

Restrictions

Access to these data is restricted. Users interested in obtaining these data must complete a Restricted Data Use Agreement, specify the reason for the request, and obtain IRB approval or notice of exemption for their research.

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Time Period(s)

2022 -- 2023

Date of Collection

2022-11 -- 2023-09
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Study Purpose

The specific objectives of the study were to document and understand (1) the challenges posed by the pandemic -including related societal changes, such as social distancing, court closures, and legislative mandates; (2) how agencies pivoted to address these challenges; and (3) which innovations were successful in ways that warranted lasting changes in practice. Also investigated was which changes in practice were discontinued as COVID-19 restrictions eased and how it was determined that these changes were not worth sustaining beyond the pandemic.

Study Design

A parallel mixed-methods design for multilevel data was used in which the project conducted state and local policy assessments, web-based surveys of all victim service providers in each project county, and eight in-depth agency case studies to explore more deeply the impacts of COVID-19 on individual agencies.

Sample

A sampling approach stratified by geographic region (West, South, Midwest, and Northeast), urbanicity, and presence of gender based violence victim service providers was used across 8 U.S. counties.

Time Method

Cross-sectional

Universe

Rural and urban county level sites in Washington, Texas, Illinois, and Massachusetts.

Unit(s) of Observation

Organization

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Description of Variables

The data includes variables about victim service providers and their urbanicity, services provided, staffing, service populations, victims served, location served, mask requirements, and funding mechanisms.

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Original Release Date

2025-07-10

Version History

2025-07-10 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Performed consistency checks.
  • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.

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Notes

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.

  • One or more files in this data collection have special restrictions. Restricted data files are not available for direct download from the website; click on the Restricted Data button to learn more.