NCJ Number
102411
Date Published
1983
Length
105 pages
Annotation
This study reviews the history of victim involvement in response to crime, the compensation means available to violent crime victims, and the rationale for state compensation to victims.
Abstract
Preliterate societies and early systems of law in Western civilization provided for crime victims and their families to take the initiative in obtaining restitution from offenders and their families. As the king's compensation share increased, crime victims' benefits decreased until the state replaced the victim as the prosecuting party. State proceedings focused on punishing the criminal and away from remediation for harm done to crime victims. Contemporary systems of financial relief for crime victims include private insurance, civil remedies, third party litigation, public assistance, restitution, and public crime victim compensation. Most of these remedies depend upon the offender's being identified. State victim compensation compensates the victim for physical harms suffered regardless of whether the offender is caught or the financial resources of the offender. The rationale for state victim compensation is based on the state's responsibility to protect citizens from harm. If the state is responsible for the cost of providing police protection for citizens, then it should be equally responsible for bearing the cost of harm done to victims whom the state did not successfully protect from injury. 71-item bibliography and chapter footnotes.