Crime Victim Compensation: We Can Do Better for Our Children.

Abstract

Background: Interpersonal injury disproportionately impacts marginalized communities. Crime Victim Compensation (CVC) was developed in Canada and the United States to help individuals and their families following violent injury. In Illinois, the CVC program offers up to $27,000 per claim to assist with mental health, relocation, and burial expenses. Pediatric claimants are inherently vulnerable and may need assistance filing claims. We aimed to study disparities in CVC claim outcomes for Illinois children.

Methods: We filed a Freedom of Information Act claim with the Office of the Illinois Secretary of State from 2012 to 2021. We used descriptive statistics to analyze CVC claim requests in children ages 17 and under.

Results: On average, 3677 claims were filed annually, 13.2 % for youths (Table 1). The most common crimes for which compensation was requested were assault/battery (47.1 %) and homicide (20.8 %). 39.7 % of claims were awarded, 53.6 % were denied, 3.4 % remained open, and 3.3 % were closed without payment. Claims for homicides were the most likely to be awarded, at 69.4 % overall and 70.7 % of youth claimants. The median award following homicide was $7500 (IQR 5460-7500) and similar in children (P = 0.11). The median award following assault/battery was $1564 (IQR 638-4179), although less for children $900 (250-2749, P < 0.0001). Children were less likely to be awarded after filing a claim (P < 0.0001) and were awarded less money for successful claims (P < 0.0001).

Conclusion: CVC was created to support injured persons, however, most claims in Illinois are rejected with children being even less likely to benefit. Further action is needed to increase the proportion of successful claims.

Level of evidence: IV.