Joye Frost, director of the U.S. Justice Department’s Office for Victims of Crime in the Obama administration, was named winner of the American Society of Criminology President’s Award by outgoing President James Lynch of the University of Maryland. Lynch said Frost’s work at the agency would have a “profound” impact on the delivery of aid to crime victims in the United States. He cited Frost’s use of evidence-based research and practices to benefit an expanded group of crime victims.
During her tenure as acting director of the agency in Obama’s first term, Frost started the initiative called Vision 21: Transforming Victim Services, which is aimed at expanding the reach of the victim assistance field. The final report of Vision 21 in 2013 recommended “vast changes needed to move the field forward.” Among many initiatives, Frost oversaw a partnership between her agency and the Department of Defense to strengthen support to military victims of sexual assault and greatly expanded OVC’s work to assist victims in Indian Country. She promoted training of sexual assault response teams and projects to help victims of crime with disabilities and victims of human trafficking. She began her career as a Child Protective Services caseworker in South Texas.