Healing from Harm: Expanding Access to Victim Compensation
An inventory of state legislative changes to victim compensation programs, 2020-2022
The destabilization crime survivors experience in the wake of violence can run deep. Left unaddressed, this painful trauma can have devastating lifelong effects that can make it difficult for people to return to the life they once knew.
Victim compensation programs can play a critical role in survivor healing. Every state has a program, which can cover urgent costs like counseling, funeral expenses, and lost wages. But according to a national poll the Alliance for Safety and Justice conducted in 2022, 96 percent of victims of violent crime did not receive victim compensation to help in their recovery. Often, survivors are not aware that these programs even exist.
In 2022, the Alliance for Safety and Justice (ASJ) released Creating a Model Victims’ Compensation Policy, which outlined model policies states could adopt to strengthen their victim compensation programs. These model guidelines were driven by the voices of marginalized survivors and advocates across the country, and based on ASJ’s work to help pass legislation improving compensation programs in more than eight states.
Our March, 2023 brief Healing from Harm: Expanding Access to Victim Compensation serves as an update and addendum to that report, and includes a comprehensive roundup of positive changes that state legislatures enacted between 2020 and 2022.