Dame Helen May Reeves DBE (born 22 August 1945) is a former Chief Executive of Victim Support in the UK. She retired in 2005 after 26 years with the organisation.
She has said that "[W]e believe an entirely new way of thinking about crime is needed – one that recognises the needs of victims of crime as the responsibility of the whole community, rather than leaving people to suffer in silence while we focus our attention on offenders." [1] She wrote the afterword to Victims of Crime: A New Deal? [2]
On 2 November 2004, she received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Southampton Institute, in recognition of her 'outstanding contribution' to victims' services. [3]
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was a court-like restorative justice body assembled in South Africa in 1996 after the end of apartheid. Authorised by Nelson Mandela and chaired by Desmond Tutu, the commission invited witnesses who were identified as victims of gross human rights violations to give statements about their experiences, and selected some for public hearings. Perpetrators of violence could also give testimony and request amnesty from both civil and criminal prosecution.
Helen Prejean is a Catholic religious sister and a leading American advocate for the abolition of the death penalty.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is an American crime drama television series created by Dick Wolf's own production company, Wolf Entertainment, for NBC. The first spin-off of Law & Order, it starred Christopher Meloni as Detective Elliot Stabler until Meloni left the series in 2011 after 12 seasons, and Mariska Hargitay as Detective Olivia Benson, now the commanding officer of the Special Victims Unit after originally having been Stabler's partner in a fictionalized version of the New York City Police Department. Meloni reprised his role as Stabler in 2021 in the spin-off series Law & Order: Organized Crime. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit follows the style of the original Law & Order in that some episodes are loosely based on real crimes that have received media attention.
Restorative justice is an approach to justice where one of the responses to a crime is to organize a meeting between the victim and the offender, sometimes with representatives of the wider community. The goal is for them to share their experience of what happened, to discuss who was harmed by the crime and how, and to create a consensus for what the offender can do to repair the harm from the offense. This may include a payment of money given from the offender to the victim, apologies and other amends, and other actions to compensate those affected and to prevent the offender from causing future harm.
Dame Helen Mirren is a British-American actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, she is the only performer to have achieved the Triple Crown of Acting in both the United States and the United Kingdom. She received an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen, a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award for the same role in The Audience, three British Academy Television Awards for her performance as DCI Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect, and four Primetime Emmy Awards including two for Prime Suspect.
Dame Silvia Rose Cartwright is a New Zealand jurist who served as the 18th Governor-General of New Zealand, from 2001 to 2006. She was the second woman to hold the office, after Dame Catherine Tizard.
Dame Vera Baird, is a British barrister serving as Victims' Commissioner for England and Wales.
Patricia Janet Scotland, Baroness Scotland of Asthal,, is a British diplomat, barrister and politician, serving as the sixth secretary-general of the Commonwealth of Nations. She was elected at the 2015 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and took office on 1 April 2016. She is the first woman to hold the post. She was elevated to the House of Lords in 1997 and, as a British Labour Party politician, served in ministerial positions within the UK Government, most notably as the Attorney General for England and Wales and Advocate General for Northern Ireland. She is a dual citizen of the United Kingdom and Dominica, where she was born.
Ann Elizabeth Oldfield Butler-Sloss, Baroness Butler-Sloss, GBE, PC, is a retired English judge. She was the first female Lord Justice of Appeal and was the highest-ranking female judge in the United Kingdom until 2004, when Baroness Hale was appointed to the House of Lords. Until June 2007, she chaired the inquests into the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Fayed. She stood down from that task with effect from that date, and the inquest was conducted by Lord Justice Scott Baker.
Dana Charles Reeve was an American actress, singer, and activist for disability causes. She was the wife of actor Christopher Reeve and mother of television reporter and anchor Will Reeve.
Victim Support is an independent charity in England and Wales that provides specialist practical and emotional support to victims and witnesses of crime.
Jeanine Ferris Pirro is an American television host, author, and a former New York State judge, prosecutor, and politician. Pirro was the host of Fox News Channel's Justice with Judge Jeanine until 2022 when she became a co-host of The Five. She was a frequent contributor to NBC News, including regular appearances on The Today Show. She was also the first female judge elected in Westchester County, New York.
Howard J. Zehr is an American criminologist. Zehr is considered to be a pioneer of the modern concept of restorative justice.
Dame Helen Frances Ghosh, DCB is a former British civil servant who has been Master of Balliol College, Oxford since 2018. She was previously Director-General of the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty from November 2012 to April 2018.
Restorative practices is a social science that studies how to improve and repair relationships between people and communities. The purpose is to build healthy communities, increase social capital, decrease crime and antisocial behavior, repair harm and restore relationships. It ties together research in a variety of social science fields, including education, psychology, social work, criminology, sociology, organizational development and leadership.
Rachel Jane Reeves is a British politician and economist serving as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer since 2021. A member of the Labour Party, she has been Member of Parliament for Leeds West since 2010.
Helen Grant is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Maidstone and The Weald since 2010. A member of the Conservative Party, she succeeded Ann Widdecombe, who was first elected in 1987.
Helen Margaret Newlove, Baroness Newlove is a Warrington-based community reform campaigner who was appointed as the Victims' Commissioner by the UK government in 2012. She is currently serving as a Deputy Speaker in the House of Lords. Helen Newlove came to prominence after her husband, Garry Newlove was murdered by three youths in 2007. After his death she set up a number of foundations that aimed to tackle the UK drinking culture as well as providing support to young people. Newlove was given a peerage in the 2010 Dissolution Honours list and sits in the House of Lords as a Conservative.
Louise Casey, Baroness Casey of Blackstock, is a British government official working in social welfare.
Virginia Louise Giuffre is an American-Australian campaigner who offers support to victims of sex trafficking. She is an alleged victim of the sex trafficking ring of Jeffrey Epstein. Giuffre created Victims Refuse Silence, a non-profit based in the United States, in 2015, which was relaunched under the name Speak Out, Act, Reclaim (SOAR) in November 2021. She has given a detailed account to many American and British reporters about her experiences of being trafficked by Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.