President Obama has named Joye Frost Director of the U.S. Justice Department’s Office for Victims of Crime. Frost has worked at the agency since 1997 and has been serving as Acting Director during the entire Obama administration. Frost’s appointment was announced the same week that Karol Mason started as head of the crime victim agency’s parent Office of Justice Programs. (OVC) in the Office of Justice Programs at the Department of Justice. Before joining the Justice Department, Frost was a Social Work Associate for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Mai Fernandez, executive director of the National Center for Victims of Crime, said, “We congratulate Joye on being the President’s choice to head the Office for Victims of Crime. We have been working with Joye for the past five years as the acting administrator. During that time, she has clearly demonstrated her capability and her knowledge of the field.”
The White House did not say why it took so long to name a director for the agency, but it probably had to do with a change in federal law allowing the president to make the appointment without the need for Senate confirmation. A long-awaited report from the Justice Department on strengthening services to crime victims, called Vision 21, may be released this week. It already is being implemented in part through the grant making. One crime victim advocate observed that the Obama proposed budget for fiscal year 2014 is “strong on victim issues, and there has been a lot of good attention to stalking, trafficking, gun violence, sexual assault, and other issues by this administration.”