Reducing the barriers to victim compensation to ensure that all survivors can access the necessary support to heal from the effects of trauma

Creating a barrier-free, trauma-informed pathway to victim compensation is a necessary step toward prioritizing survivors’ healing

Victim compensation programs provide direct financial assistance to survivors to cover a wide variety of crime-related expenses, including medical costs, mental health counseling, lost wages and funeral and burial costs. These programs are critically important to helping survivors reckon with and heal from the effects of trauma. However, barriers to receive this support are often insurmountable, due to narrow eligibility requirements, complicated applications, challenging timelines, discriminatory practices and lack of transparency. Furthermore, given the realities of recovering from trauma, including medical and mental health issues, it can be extremely difficult for survivors to have the necessary time, space and energy to pursue complicated application processes.

In our work to clear the rape kit backlog, we have interacted with countless survivors whose rape kits have been tested well after the crime and have then been asked to interact with the same criminal justice system that failed them in the first place. Many survivors of sexual assault and abuse suffer from life-altering mental health conditions including depression, PTSD and anxiety, among others. 

Anger, fear, guilt, shame, embarrassment, hyper-vigilance and other reactions that disrupt survivors’ lives are common post-assault. These reactions can resurface years or decades later, especially if a survivor is compelled to testify in a sexual predator hearing or is notified of a DNA identification of the offender as a result of delayed testing due to the rape kit  backlog, or other delays. Sexual assault survivors deserve to receive victim compensation after they are asked to re-engage with the criminal justice process years or decades after the assault.

Ensure Fair Access to Compensation for Rape Kit Backlog Survivors

Victims whose kits were not tested for decades, through no fault of their own, can be shut out of compensation because short application deadlines have passed. It is unacceptable for survivors to be cut off from support due solely to the passage of time.

Necessary actions:

• Ensure survivors of the rape kit backlog are eligible to apply for victim compensation past the application deadlines.
• Comply with the Fairness for Rape Kit Backlog Survivors Act by 2025, which would ensure necessary funds for victim compensation on a national level.

Extend or Eliminate Deadlines to Apply

Tight timelines (of 1-2 years or less) put compensation out of reach for many survivors and must be eliminated or extended. Navigating the complex compensation paperwork while dealing with trauma after a crime is extremely difficult, and it can be years before survivors are able to engage in such a complicated process.

Necessary actions:

• Extend or eliminate deadlines to help ensure trauma-informed access to victim compensation.

Expand Eligibility

Current eligibility requirements in many states exclude certain populations of survivors.

Necessary actions:

• Extend compensation to a broader variety of relationships to the victim, including domestic partners and others in the person’s nontraditional family structure.
• Remove and eliminate all language that blames victims for their victimization and focuses on their alleged role in the crime that harmed them (referred to as “contributory conduct”).

Remove Requirements to Report To Law Enforcement

Mandatory reporting serves as a barrier to communities with complicated relationships with law enforcement. Many states require victims to report the crime to law enforcement and “cooperate” with the investigation. Nationwide, only 40% of survivors of violence report their harm to law enforcement. Removing these reporting barriers would expand compensation support to more survivors.

Necessary actions:

• Allow alternative means to prove the crime, including reporting to a mental health professional, a victim advocate or a medical facility.

Expand Coverage

Compensation programs have not kept up with the current needs of survivors, who need coverage for more of the issues they face in the aftermath of crime.

Necessary actions:

• Expand allowable medical, mental and culturally appropriate services.
  
• Increase payments for lost wages.
  
• Update funeral expense payments to current realistic costs.
  
• Cover crime scene cleanup.
  
• Cover tattoo removal for trafficking victims.

All survivors deserve the support they need to heal

Substantial, trauma-informed reform to victim compensation policies in every state are a necessary step in supporting every survivor on their diverse journeys to healing and seeking justice.