Violent Crime Victims Are Voicing Out Their Stories To Reform The States Compensation Programs

Violent crime victims are using their experience to pressure the state to reform the compensation programs that support them pay with medical bills, relocation, funerals, or other payments.

Violent Crime Victims Are Voicing Out Their Stories To Reform The States Compensation Programs (PHOTO: ABC News)

Violent Crime Victims Are Voicing Out Their Stories For Their Compensation Programs Rights

Violent crime victims aros the county are using their experience of cruelty to push for reforms to state compensation programs implied to assist them with medical bills, relocation, funerals, or other expenses.

Vanessa Martinez one of the violent crime victims who survived a gunshot wound to the head, has turned to speak at rallies supporting legislation to fund a pilot trauma-recovery center in Arizona that would direct getting people more help.

Dion Green testified about the fatal experience of his father who was shot to death in a mass shooting that occurred in a bar in Ohio and served on a committee providing input on changes to federal victim compensation guidelines,  trying for removing existing barriers.

Bernice “Tammi” Ringo’s son was also a victim of a gunshot and was injured in 2019, also testified before lawmakers in Michigan, which subsequently enacted legislation that increases the money available to victims, eliminates police reporting deadlines, and makes other changes.

The victim’s advocacy has produced numerous modifications in recent years when dozens of states passed bills changing their compensation programs such as extending the amount of money awarded, lengthening deadlines, and extending eligibility, among other changes.

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Legislatures in more than half of A, American states have enacted measures to improve their programs in recent years.

The modifications vary widely: A victim’s criminal history is no longer an automatic disqualifier in Illinois. The time limit for that application to avail of assistance was increased from three to seven years in California. In Michigan, the cap on help will nearly double to $45,000 this 2023 and more people like caretakers of crime victims will be eligible for survivor benefits.

States have also trimmed back on denials to families based on the behavior of homicide victims and loosened requirements that crime victims must have cooperated with or reported the crime to the police.

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