Throughout history victims of crime have alternately been treated unfairly, overlooked, excluded, and considered to be merely another piece of evidence in a criminal trial. Recognizing these injustices, in 1990 Arizona became one of the first states to write protections for victims into the State Constitution. Yet, injustices for crime victims remain all too common today as the legal community struggles to balance the rights of victims, the rights of the defendant and the interests of the State. Victims’ rights violations can occur by any of the actors in the criminal justice system—the prosecutor, the court, the defendant—and at any time in the criminal justice process, even before the case is scheduled for its first hearing. The only way to be certain that a victim’s rights are properly asserted and enforced is if the victim has legal representation of his or her own. LSCVA aims to do just that. LSCVA, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, provides free legal representation and support to crime victims in Arizona through its attorney and victim advocate.