Veterans are not characteristically criminals prior to military service. Nevertheless, because of what they have seen and done in the military, it can lead some to involvement in the criminal justice system. Veterans can often have a unique set of circumstances and underlying issues that criminal justice professionals are frequently ill-equipped to deal with unless they receive additional training and education.
The Veteran-Informed Care Training on Responsivity (VICTOR) courses are a two-part series focusing on responsivity issues related to working with justice-involved veterans. The target audience for the training is criminal justice practitioners such as judges, attorneys, case managers, corrections and law enforcement staff, clerks, and more who interact with veterans. The audience may also include practitioners who work on a veteran’s treatment court (VTC) team and those who work with the non-treatment court population. The objective of these courses is to give participants a basic understanding of the needs of veterans involved in the criminal justice system and to explore how criminogenic and influential risk factors among justice-involved veterans can be identified through screening and assessment tools.
Part 1 of the VICTOR courses focuses on military and veteran culture and veteran mental health issues. Part 2 in the VICTOR courses focuses on case management and veteran resources. These courses are valuable education on the road to improving veteran care within the justice system. Enroll in the VICTOR e-courses by logging onto the NIC Learn Center and finding them in the Corrections Topics category in the catalog.
