Victim Compensation - Cure or Placebo? (From Victimization of the Weak - Contemporary Social Reactions, P 136-152, 1982, Jacqueline Scherer and Gary Shepherd, ed. - See NCJ-90231)

• NCJ Number: 90235
• Author(s): W Macauley
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 17 pages
• Sale Source: Charles C. Thomas
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Victim compensation programs actually accomplished very little toward aiding most individuals who suffer losses from crime.

Abstract

Although most compensation programs aim to reduce victim suffering, many of these programs may have the opposite effect and lead instead to an increased sense of rejection and bitterness. Most programs are so restricted that they actually provide little relief for those eligible to benefit; they function more as a cosmetic that obscures the victims' losses. Virtually all programs are limited to providing benefits only in personal injury cases. Of this large number of injured persons, only 64 percent required medical attention and only 1 percent missed sufficient work time to qualify for compensation, according to 1974 FBI statistics. Politically, compensation programs may serve a symbolic function in that they present a facade of true concern for victims. However, in reality, these programs may simply be placebos. Compensation makes the public, fearful of crime, feel better but does not really help most victims. Fifteen references are supplied.