Facts and figures about who we help

We made over a million phone calls to victims last year

We made over a million phone calls to victims last year

Since Victim Support first began in 1974, we’ve helped well over 25 million people affected by crime. As we’ve grown, we’ve worked with other parts of the criminal justice system to help us find out who has been a victim and to enable us to get in touch and offer our support. As a result of this, we now speak to over 1.1 million victims of crime every year as well as 268,000 witnesses at court.

Here are a few more statistics about the work we did to help victims and witnesses over the last year:

  • we made almost 74,000 visits to see victims at home or somewhere else convenient
  • we made more than 1,167,700 phone calls to talk to victims of crime
  • we sent 768,600 letters to victims - either with information they needed or because we had trouble reaching them by phone
  • we helped with over 21,000 claims for criminal injuries compensation claims
  • we organised 45,800 pre-trial and 124,034 on-the-day court visits to help witnesses prepare for giving evidence
  • we supported 26,700 witnesses who were vulnerable or intimidated witnesses and identified a further 15,600 people who we felt needed special help at court.

But numbers are only part of the story. Why not hear directly from some of the people we've helped.

We can do so much more with your help

While we’re proud of our achievements, there is so much more we could do to help victims and witnesses. While much of our core work is funded by government, that money does not pay for new developments or for reaching out to more people in need.

Most of the people we support come to us through their contact with the criminal justice system – normally through reporting a crime to the police or being called as a witness. But we know that around half of all victims don’t report the crime to the police – perhaps because they have a fear of the authorities or are afraid of revenge attacks if they involve the police. Others may just not know about Victim Support and the confidential help we give.

Your financial support can help us reach out to more victims and help improve even more lives touched by crime. Or join our volunteers and make a personal difference to the lives of victims and witnesses.