Invisible Victims: Stories of Engaging the Victim Services System

There is scant research exploring the experiences of people who use victim services. This exploratory study used a narrative approach to examine the experiences of five community members who have engaged the victim services system in the Greater Vancouver area in Canada. The main theme that emerged from participants’ stories centred on the experience of invisibility, where participants described feeling unheard, unseen, and unacknowledged in their interactions with the victim services system and with individuals working within it. In contrast, they often described helpful experiences as those where they felt supported and acknowledged. These findings are discussed in relation to the extant literature surrounding victim services, clinical implications, and directions for further research.