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Using Victims of Crime Act Dollars for Restorative Justice

In 1984, Congress passed the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA), which established the Crime Victims Fund to allocate funding for crime victims’ compensation and victims’ services. The fund is financed solely through fines and penalties paid by people convicted of federal offenses; no taxes are used to support the Crime Victims Fund. When the fund was first established, Congress placed a cap on it to ensure the funds would not be depleted; over time, because of the rise of corporate criminal penalties, the funds grew exponentially. In 2018, the VOCA fund was over $12 billion. Congress partially lifted the cap three years ago giving states an influx of money to put towards victims’ services and programs. Soon after this lift, in August of 2016, the Administration released new, more flexible, regulations governing the use of these dollars.