Origins of VOCA

President’s Task Force on Victims of Crime

On April 23, 1982, President Ronald Reagan created the President’s Task Force on Victims of Crime to address the urgent need of millions of Americans and their families who are victimized by crime every year. In a Rose Garden Ceremony, during Crime Victims Week, President Reagan explained,

“…the innocent victims of crime have frequently been overlooked by our criminal justice system. Too often their pleas have gone unheeded and their wounds—personal, emotional, and financial—have gone unattended. They are entitled to better treatment, and it is time to do something.”

Chaired by Lois Haight Herrington, the nine-member Task Force held public hearings in six cities and heard from crime victims, advocates, and criminal justice officials. It issued its Final Report in December 1982, which contained 68 recommendations for Federal and State action as well as steps that criminal justice agencies, other public and private professionals, and agencies should take. It also recommended amending the U.S. Constitution to recognize crime victims’ rights.

Among the recommendations were:

1. Congress should enact legislation to provide Federal funding to assist State crime victim compensation programs; and,
2. Congress should enact legislation to provide Federal funding, reasonably matched by local revenues to assist in the operation of Federal, State, local and private nonprofit victim/witness assistance agencies that make comprehensive assistance available to all victims of crime.

The Task Force grappled with two important public policy issues:

1. Federalism – The Reagan Administration strongly believed in States’ Rights and that the Federal Government should not impinge on State jurisdictions. How then to justify a Federal program to respond to crime, which is almost primarily a state responsibility?

First, they recognized that most state compensation programs already covered victims of federal crimes, but because of funding difficulties, they might be unable to continue doing so.  Even though creating a federal crime victim compensation program had been introduced in Congress since 1964, none had been enacted. The Task Force determined that rather than create a new federal program, it would be more cost-effective and less confusing to rely on state compensation programs by helping to subsidize those programs with federal funds. Second, the federal government had already made substantial sums of money available to states for state prisons as well as education and rehabilitation of state prisoners. “If the federal government will step in to assist state prisoners, it seems only just that the same federal government not shrink from aiding the innocent taxpaying citizens victimized by those very prisoners the government is assisting.”

2. Costs/new spending – The Reagan Administration and Republicans in Congress were averse to creating new, taxpayer-funded programs. In fact, VOCA became the only new spending program created during that session. The Task Force, therefore, recommended the creation of a Crime Victim’s Assistance Fund that relies, in part at least, on federal criminal fines, penalties, and forfeitures that were previously paid directly into the general fund. “Not only is it appropriate that these monies collected as a result of criminal activity be used to help victims, but this method of funding also ensures a program that is both administratively efficient and self-sufficient, requiring no funding from tax revenues,” the Task Force stated. In order to increase revenues, the Task Force also recommended that certain criminal fines be doubled or tripled; and that the Fund be augmented with a fee assessed in addition to fines and other penalties, a percentage of all federal forfeitures, and revenues collected through the excise tax on the sale of handguns.

In 1983, acting on a recommendation of the President’s Task Force on Victims of Crime, the Administration established a Federal focal point for victims’ issues within the Department of Justice. Task Force Chair Lois Haight Harrington was appointed as Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Assistance, Research and Statistics (OJARS; now OJP).  She advocated for VOCA’s adoption and oversaw its initial implementation, and she also administratively established the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC).

Enactment of VOCA

After considerable collaboration between the Department of Justice and Congress, on March 13, 1984, Senator Strom Thurmond, joined by co-sponsors Senators John Heinz, Paul Laxalt, Charles Grassley, and Joseph Biden, introduced the Administration’s bill, which addressed the assistance and compensation needs of crime victims, S. 2423, the Victims of Crime Act of 1984. Similarly, in the House, Representative Hamilton Fish introduced H.R. 5124 on March 14, 1984. This legislation received bipartisan support in both houses of Congress. The program of Federal financial assistance that evolved from the passage of the Victims of Crime Act clearly reflected the President’s Federalism policy and disinclination to create new, taxpayer-funded programs.

Thus, on October 12, 1984, less than two years after the Final Report was released, Congress enacted the Victims of Crime Act of 1984. As enacted, VOCA created the Crime Victims Fund to be supported entirely by offender revenues. Although it has frequently been amended, VOCA originally awarded grants only for State crime victim compensation and victim assistance programs.

The Act established the Crime Victims Fund in the U.S. Treasury, which could initially receive up to $100 million in criminal fines, forfeited bail bonds, penalty fees, and a special assessment on criminal convictions, as the amount of these revenues was uncertain. In 1986, the cap on deposits increased by $10 million (after the Children’s Justice Act was enacted), increased again to $125 million in 1988, to $150 million in 1990, and was eventually removed entirely in 1993. Again, reflecting concerns about then-unknown costs, Congress originally set the Fund’s deposits to “sunset”, or expire, after four years. In 1988, that expiration date was extended to 1994, but Congress eliminated it entirely in 1992.

As originally enacted, VOCA allocated 50 percent of Fund deposits for crime victim compensation grants, although each grant would be based on 35 percent of state funds awarded during the previous year. Fifty percent of Fund deposits, plus any amount not used for State crime victim compensation grants, would be used for State crime victim assistance grants, with each state receiving a base amount of $100,000 and the remaining amount distributed based on population. The Attorney General was permitted to deduct up to 5 percent of the victim assistance allocation to provide services to victims of Federal crimes.

After allowing the Crime Victims Fund’s coffers to fill up during 1985 with $68 million in deposits, the first state victim assistance and State crime victim compensation grants were awarded in 1986.