Victim Compensation for Violent Crimes

Victim compensation is a direct reimbursement from the state to, or on behalf of, a crime victim for losses sustained at the hands of a criminal. The crime victim may be reimbursed for crime-related expenses, including medical costs, funeral and burial costs, mental health counseling, lost wages, or loss of support. Other compensable expenses may include the replacement or repair of eyeglasses or other corrective lenses, dental services and devices, prosthetic devices, and crime scene clean-up.

Victim compensation by government is a concept that can be traced back as far as 1775 B.C., to the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi wherein territorial governors were instructed to replace a robbery victim's lost property if the criminal was not captured. In the case of murder, the governor was to compensate the heirs from the treasury. During the Middle Ages, this practice ceased, and victims had to recover losses by suing the offender in civil court.

Margery Fry, an English magistrate, is credited with renewing interest in victim compensation in the late 1950s. Her advocacy resulted in the first victim compensation laws in New Zealand and Great Britain. Shortly thereafter in the United States, [Page 490]California was the first state to initiate compensation to crime victims, followed by New York and Hawaii. Currently, all 50 states and several U.S. territories operate compensation programs. Worldwide, a number of European countries, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan have victim compensation programs fairly similar to those in the United States. The federal government became involved in victim compensation in the 1960s and in 1984 passed the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA), which mandates that the federal government provide victim compensation for federal offenses and federal funds for state compensation programs.

Victim compensation is generally available to three categories of victims. The first group consists of victims who suffer physical injury as the result of a violent criminal act, and family survivors and the estates of victims who suffer death. Few states provide compensation to victims of property crimes. The second group includes persons who are hurt or killed during an attempt to prevent a crime from taking place or while attempting to capture a suspected criminal. Finally, the third group includes any person who is injured while coming to the aid of a law enforcement officer.

To be eligible for compensation, a victim must meet certain requirements. Eligibility requirements vary somewhat from state to state, but all programs have the same basic criteria. The victim generally must (a) report the crime promptly to a law enforcement agency, (b) cooperate with police and prosecutors in the investigation and prosecution of the case, (c) submit an application to the compensation program, (d) have a cost or loss not covered by insurance or some other source, and (e) be innocent of criminal activity or significant misconduct that caused or contributed to the victim's injury or death.