(1) The general assembly hereby declares that there is a great need to create innovative approaches to prevent persons from becoming victims of crime. In order to encourage the development of such innovative approaches for the primary prevention of crime and to encourage the integration of such innovative approaches with victim prevention methods which have been demonstrated to be effective, the general assembly hereby enacts this section.
The division of criminal justice is hereby authorized to do all things necessary toapply for, qualify for, accept, and distribute any moneys made available from federal, state, or private entities which are to be used for the development of victim prevention programs.
The division of criminal justice shall allocate the moneys obtained pursuant to subsection (2) of this section for the development of victim prevention programs which meet the following criteria:
The program shall have as its principal purpose the reduction or prevention of theincidence of crime in the community.
The program shall be community-based and shall encourage the development of apublic-private partnership to achieve the goals of the program.
The program shall concentrate especially on the prevention of the commission ofcrime by persons between the ages of ten and eighteen years.
The program may employ recognized victim prevention methods, including but notlimited to victim impact panels, but shall be encouraged to develop new and innovative victim prevention methods.
The program shall be operated by agencies or entities which are local in nature, andthe program shall be local in administration and application. The grants of moneys pursuant to this section are intended to be used as a match for federal grant moneys provided pursuant to 42 U.S.C. sec. 3701.
(4) The division of criminal justice shall accept and evaluate applications from local agencies or entities requesting grants of moneys to develop victim prevention programs in accordance with this section. In evaluating such requests, the division shall consider the degree of community participation in each proposed program in determining whether to make any grant.
Source: L. 93: Entire section added, p. 1990, § 23, effective July 1.