1984 Victims of Crime Act
In 1984, the federal Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) was passed, establishing the Crime Victims Fund. This fund is contributed to by fines, fees, and assessments in federal criminal cases, as well as by private donations. The U.S. Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) administers the fund, which supports thousands of programs nationwide. Each year OVC focuses on initiatives such as human trafficking, identity theft and fraud, international terrorism, sexual violence, and victims’ rights and services. According to the OVC (n.d.), as of 2013 more than $9 billion has been deposited to help fund victims’ recovery. This money goes to federal, state, and tribal agencies who administer the fund locally. As discussed earlier, these funds help victims with medical and mental health costs, lost wages, and burial costs for families of homicide victims. This was not a new act for the federal government; the 1925 Federal Probation Act allowed restitution to be ordered as part of the probation conditions, although these were not mandatory and the language was vague (Munster Sever, 1985). The VOCA expanded the 1925 act to sentences that were not just given probation and created the dedicated fund for the process.