The United States Crime Victims Fund, administered by the

Office for Victims of Crime The Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) is a part of the Office of Justice Programs, within the U.S. Department of Justice. The OVC's mission is to provide aid and promote justice for crime victims. The office was created in 1988 in an amendment ...

, is used to recompense victims of offenses against U.S. law. The fund was established as part of the 1984 Victims of Crimes Act. The

special assessment on convicted persons The special assessment on convicted persons is part of the sentence of all offenders convicted of federal crimes in the United States. It applies on a per-count basis;, comment. (n.3) thus, an offender convicted of 14 counts of bank robbery would ne ...

is paid into this fund, as are certain other criminal fines and penalties, and forfeited bail bonds. As of September 2013, the unspent balance of the fund was almost $9 billion. Each state is entitled to disburse funds for a multitude of different reasons such as compensation for pain and suffering, property replacement, money for loss of wages, property restoration and or cleaning of the crime scene. Office of Victim Services (OVS) helps victims in a number of ways as a family member, or friend cope with victimization from a crime. OVS can point victims to other service providers who may also be able to assist them. The National Crime Scene Cleanup Associationhttp://www.crimescenecleanup.com (NCSCA) performs all clean crime scene cleaning for this fund at no charge to the victim or family.

References

{{authority control Government agencies of the United States 1984 establishments in the United States Compensation for victims of crime