To ease the confusion victims feel after being the target of a crime, the Maryland Department of Public Safety has created the first comprehensive Web site listing victim services statewide.

There had been no single source of this kind of information, according to Leonard A. Sipes, the department's spokesman.

Stuart O. Simms, Secretary of Public Safety and Correctional Services, said the department is trying to restructure its focus so that it deals not only with law enforcement agencies and criminals, but victims, too.

In addition to providing victims with descriptions of services at the local, state and national level -- along with the phone numbers of the agencies involved -- the Web site offers direct links to Hotspots, Break the Cycle, D.A.R.E. and other crime-fighting Web addresses.

The address of the victims Web site is www.dpscs.state.md.us/vsm.

Pub Date: 05/03/99