A brief history of the Victims of Crime Act

The early 1980s saw a transformative shift in the federal government’s approach to serving victims of crime in America.

In December 1982, President Ronald Reagan’s Task Force on Victims of Crime released its final report which concluded that the neglect of crime victims in America was a “national disgrace.”

The task force described victims as forgotten by the criminal justice system, reporting that their pleas for justice and wounds from their victimization – personal, financial and emotional – had all gone unattended.

After traveling to six cities and hearing from more than 1,000 people, the task force recommended changes at the federal, state and local levels to improve how the needs of crime victims were addressed by the criminal justice system.

Most importantly, though, the report challenged the reader to “confront the human reality of victimization … You must know what it is to have your life wrenched and broken, to realize that you will never really be the same.” The task force members believed that if a person is unable or unwilling to do that, then they can never truly empathize with a survivor. 

Regarded as a historic moment in the victims’ rights movement, the task force’s final report included 68 recommendations for action to the federal government.

Among its recommendations, the task force called for federal funding to support crime victim compensation programs and local victim assistance programs. Acting on that recommendation, Congress created the Crime Victims Fund in 1984 through the Victims of Crime Act, also known as VOCA.

VOCA was signed into law by President Reagan 40 years ago on October 12, 1984. In 1988, an amendment to the Victims of Crime Act authorized the Office for Victims of Crime to administer the Crime Victims Fund.

Efforts to Support Victims Before President Reagan’s Task Force

On April 23, 1982, President Reagan issued an executive order creating the task force to determine what the federal government could do to improve the criminal justice response to crime victims, a function generally carried out at the state and local levels.

However, efforts to support crime victims started long before the President’s Task Force on Victims of Crime.

California initiated the first state victim compensation program in 1965 to cover lost income, medical costs and other expenses. In 1967, New York established a victim compensation program and other states would launch similar programs in the following years. 

By 1979, there were 28 state compensation programs. In 1982, 37 States had victim compensation programs which paid roughly $50 million to victims. 

However, not all victim compensation programs were equal. The President’s task force reported that some worked well while others were only programs on paper. 

VOCA’s Impact on Victims of Crime

The creation of the Crime Victims Fund was one of the most consequential developments to arise from VOCA. 

First established to support state victim compensation and local victim assistance programs, the Crime Victims Fund is financed by criminal fines, penalties and bond forfeitures from convictions in federal cases – not tax dollars.

State victim compensation programs reimburse victims for out-of-pocket expenses resulting from crimes, such as medical care, mental health counseling, lost wages and funeral expenses. VOCA allows victims to apply to their state to be reimbursed for the costs of expenses they’ve incurred.

Each year, VOCA funding is distributed to thousands of programs throughout the nation supporting victims who have suffered physical, emotional and financial harm. In fiscal year 2023 (pictured), VOCA subgrantees served 7.9 million victims, including new and returning individuals. 

Since 1984, VOCA has been amended several times to support additional victim-related activities, including federal, state and Tribal victim-service programs, discretionary grant programs for local victim service providers and more. 

OVC also administers funds from the Crime Victims Fund for a Tribal Victim Services Set-Aside program that supports the efforts of Tribal communities to create, enhance and improve services for victims of crime.

Cap on Available Funds

When the Crime Victims Fund was authorized in 1984, Congress placed a cap on how much could be deposited into it for the first 8 years. During this time, the annual cap varied from $100 million to $150 million. 

Congress lifted the cap on deposits in 1993, allowing all criminal fines, bail forfeitures, penalties and special assessments authorized by VOCA to be deposited into the Fund to support crime victim program activities.

For the first 15 years of the Fund's existence, the total deposits for each fiscal year were distributed the following year to support services to crime victims. 

However, in response to large fluctuations in deposits, starting in Fiscal Year 2000, Congress placed a cap on funds available for distribution – also known as obligations. These annual caps were intended to maintain the Fund as a stable source of support for future victim services.

The obligation cap stayed between $500 - $700 million between the years 2000 and 2014 before tripling in 2015 to more than $2.3 billion available for victim services. The cap has remained in the billions to this day.

Antiterrorism Emergency Reserve

In 1995, a car bomb destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people. Congress responded by carving a $50 million Antiterrorism Emergency Reserve out of the Crime Victims Fund to support victims of terrorism and mass violence. This reserve fund now supports the following programs:

• Antiterrorism and Emergency Assistance Program,
• International Terrorism Victim Expense Reimbursement Program,
• Crime Victim Emergency Assistance Fund at the FBI, and
• Victim Reunification Program.

With the Antiterrorism and Emergency Assistance Program, OVC supports victims and jurisdictions that have experienced terrorism or mass violence. The program supplements available resources and services to help ensure that resources are available to serve these victims without diverting support from other crime victims.  This is a reimbursement program for which eligible jurisdictions are encouraged to apply.

For example, following the 2017 shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas, AEAP supplemented resources to cover the costs of counseling and therapy, vocational rehabilitation, and trauma recovery for victims and emergency responders.

Efforts to Supplement the Crime Victims Fund

As the total balance of the Crime Victims Fund has fluctuated and deposits into the fund have varied from year to year, Congress amended VOCA to provide more funding to victims and victim assistance programs.

2001 USA Patriot Act

In 2001, an amendment to VOCA through the USA PATRIOT Act allowed for gifts, donations, and bequests by private parties to be deposited into the Crime Victims Fund. Since 2002, hundreds of thousands of dollars have been deposited into the fund through this provision.

VOCA Fix 2021

Congress passed the VOCA Fix to Sustain the Crime Victims Fund Act of 2021 in response to steady declines in deposits since 2018.   

The VOCA Fix requires any proceeds collected pursuant to federal deferred prosecution and non-prosecution agreements to go into the Crime Victims Fund. Previously, such revenues had been deposited into the general fund of the Treasury. 

President Biden signed the VOCA Fix into law on July 22, 2021. 

As of August 2024, over $1.45 billion has been deposited into the Crime Victims Fund from non-prosecution agreement and deferred prosecutions—a direct result of the VOCA Fix.

Updating VOCA Compensation Guidelines

To help break down barriers to  comprehensive care and financial compensation for victims of crime and their families, OVC published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on February 5, 2024 to amend the existing Victims of Crime Act Victim Compensation Program Guidelines.

The rule proposed changes that would enhance fairness and increase accessibility to victim compensation by:

• expanding access to compensation for allowable services and expenses,
• clarifying statutory program requirements,
• increasing outreach to Tribal communities, and
• strengthening victim confidentiality protections.

At the conclusion of the public comment period on April 5, 2024, OVC had received over 3,800 separate comments on the proposed rule. The revised rule is expected to be published before the end of the calendar year.