Preventing violence: from tragedy to solutions.

• Author: Good, Julie

When 20-year-old Nancy Spungen was stabbed to death by British punk-rocker Sid Vicious in a New York hotel room in 1978, few people could have imagined the profound effects her murder would have on her family. No one could have predicted how that tragic incident would be the catalyst for the development of a multifaceted organization providing victim services, violence prevention, and therapeutic counseling to thousands of Philadelphia adults and children each year.

Devastated by the violent death of their daughter, Philadelphia residents Deborah and Frank Spungen sought help, but found none. Procedures and policies of the criminal justice system and other social organizations were based on the premise that the only victim of this horrible crime was dead. Surviving family members were left on their own to deal with the complexities of these procedures while faced with a myriad of emotions and traumatic experiences -- grief, nightmares, guilt, blame, anger, fear, isolation, and stigma.

A few months after Nancy Spungen's death, her mother was watching a syndicated talk show and learned about Parents of Murdered Children, a national organization that sponsors support groups for family members of homicide victims. On discovering that there was no chapter in the Philadelphia area, Deborah, Frank, and several other bereaved family members started a local group dedicated to providing support to those who had lost a family member to murder. These individuals began to call themselves "co-victims" to indicate as strongly as possible that the savage act of murder leaves many live victims in its wake. In 1983, the members of the support group formed Families of Murder Victims, a private, nonprofit organization. The scope of this new agency expanded beyond the support group to include many other services to assist co-victims, including court accompaniment, criminal justice system information, informal counseling, media relations, and case and system advocacy. No longer did a grieving parent, child, or sibling in Philadelphia need to endure confusing criminal justice procedures or face the killer of their loved one alone and unassisted.

After nearly 10 years of providing services to families and friends of homicide victims, the volunteer and staff leadership of Families of Murder Victims felt compelled to be more proactive. The homicide rate in Philadelphia was high and growing each year. The number of homicides in Philadelphia averaged well over 400, some years climbing above 500. Services such as court accompaniment, crisis intervention, support groups, and case advocacy were needed by an ever-increasing number of people. In addition, assistance was required for longer than initially expected; as the courts swelled with homicide cases, the time required for homicide prosecution from arrest to conviction stretched to as long as 24 months. Even after the completion of criminal prosecution, co-victims still came to Families of Murder Victims for supportive counseling and information about offenders' probation or parole status.

Perhaps more distressingly, Families of Murder Victims court staff were seeing younger and younger people involved, both as defendants and victims. One particularly poignant example was revealed when I met the mother of David, a Latino youth who had been murdered, as she sat huddled on a courtroom bench. She was physically and emotionally supported by a young woman who had been David's classroom teacher. As David's...