Justice Information Center
The Justice Information Center (JIC) is a searchable database of the research and evaluation work of the Justice Information Resource Network's staff, members, and partners. The JIC also includes other open-access and public-domain research-based materials. The JIC's contents are from the national, state, and local levels covering a range of crime and justice topics grouped into several Communities and Collections based on our projects.
Communities
Select a community to browse its collections.
- This community contains open access and public domain research-based resources about victims of crime.
- This community contains resources related to the Death in Custody Reporting Act Program.
- This community contains state Incident-Based Reporting Systems (IBRS) and the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) resources.
- Resources in this collection provide supplemental information to course offerings featured in Justice Information Resource Network's Justice Research Academy.
- This community contains research publications, projects, and activities conducted by state Statistical Analysis Centers (SACs).
Recent Submissions
An evaluation of crime victim compensation in West Virginia: Part of a National Study of Victim Compensation Programs
(NORC at the University of Chicago, 2024-07) Dusenbery, Malore; Fording, Joshua; Yahner, Jennifer; Hussemann, Jeanette; Dembo, Robbie
Victims of crime can experience serious harms and face significant costs with long-term implications for their economic security and safety. All US states and territories have crime victim compensation programs that provide financial assistance to cover out-of-pocket expenses associated with the financial, physical, and psychological burdens of victimization. From 2022 to 2024, the Urban Institute and NORC at the University of Chicago conducted a National Study of Victim Compensation Program Trends, Challenges, and Successes, which included evaluations of four state crime victim compensation programs. This brief presents the findings of the evaluation we conducted of West Virginia’s victim compensation program to understand its utilization and professionals’ and victim claimants’ perspectives on its ability to meet victims’ needs.
An evaluation of crime victim compensation in New York: Part of a National Study of Victim Compensation Programs
(NORC at the University of Chicago, 2024-07) Dusenbery, Malore; Fording, Joshua; Yahner, Jennifer; Hussemann, Jeanette; Dembo, Robbie
Victims of crime can experience serious harms and face significant costs with long-term implications for their economic security and safety. All US states and territories have crime victim compensation programs that provide financial assistance to cover out-of-pocket expenses associated with the financial, physical, and psychological burdens of victimization. From 2022 to 2024, the Urban Institute and NORC at the University of Chicago conducted a National Study of Victim Compensation Program Trends, Challenges, and Successes, which included evaluations of four state crime victim compensation programs. This brief presents the findings of the evaluation we conducted of New York State’s victim compensation program to understand its utilization and professionals’ and victim claimants’ perspectives on its ability to meet victims’ needs.
An evaluation of crime victim compensation in Delaware: Part of a National Study of Victim Compensation Programs
(NORC at the University of Chicago, 2024-07) Dusenbery, Malore; Fording, Joshua; Yahner, Jennifer; Hussemann, Jeanette; Dembo, Robbie
Victims of crime can experience serious harms and face significant costs with long-term implications for their economic security and safety. All US states and territories have crime victim compensation programs that provide financial assistance to cover out-of-pocket expenses associated with the financial, physical, and psychological burdens of victimization. From 2022 to 2024, the Urban Institute and NORC at the University of Chicago conducted a National Study of Victim Compensation Program Trends, Challenges, and Successes, which included evaluations of four state crime victim compensation programs. This brief presents the findings of the evaluation we conducted of Delaware’s victim compensation program to understand its utilization and professionals’ and victim claimants’ perspectives on its ability to meet victims’ needs.
An evaluation of crime victim compensation in Arizona: Part of a National Study of Victim Compensation Programs
(NORC at the University of Chicago, 2024-07) Yahner, Jennifer; Fording, Joshua; Dusenbery, Malore; Hussemann, Jeanette; Dembo, Robbi
Victims of crime can experience serious harms and face significant costs with long-term implications for their economic security and safety. All US states and territories have crime victim compensation programs that provide financial assistance to cover out-of-pocket expenses associated with the financial, physical, and psychological burdens of victimization. From 2022 to 2024, the Urban Institute and NORC at the University of Chicago conducted a National Study of Victim Compensation Program Trends, Challenges, and Successes, which included evaluations of four state crime victim compensation programs. This brief presents findings from evaluation of Arizona’s crime victim compensation program regarding its utilization by claimants and perspectives of compensation staff and victim service providers on its ability to meet victims’ needs.
Twenty years later: National Study of Victim Compensation Program Trends, Challenges, and Successes
(NORC at the University of Chicago, 2024-06) Hussemann, Jeanette; Dusenbery, Malore; Yahner, Jennifer; Dembo, Robbie; Navarro, Elena; Citrin Ray, Genevieve; Fording, Joshua
State victim compensation programs across the U.S. provide financial assistance to victims of crime to cover expenses associated with the financial, physical, and psychological burden of victimization. In 2022, these programs paid over $230 million to support victims and their families. Given the prevalence of victimization and the high costs associated with crime, state victim compensation programs are essential to helping meet the needs of victims in general, and specifically in racially marginalized, low-income communities. In 2003, the Urban Institute published an NIJ-funded National Evaluation of State Victims of Crime Act Assistance and Compensation Programs: Trends and Strategies for the Future seminal report on state victim compensation and assistance programs. After almost 20 years, the goal of the current study was to update knowledge about victim compensation programs by administering a survey to victim compensation program administrators in each state and partnering with four states for a deep-dive assessment of their programs to examine how different victim compensation program structures, models, funding streams, and policies influence how programs operate and distribute compensation. Findings from the study indicate that compensation programs have not changed significantly since 2003, however victim compensation programs in the current study report providing more training to victim compensation program staff and having more written policies and procedures to guide decision-making. Also, victim compensation programs indicate that they are effectively meeting outreach, claims processing, decision-making, and financial planning goals. The most frequent needs reported by victim compensation programs to sustain and continue to meet their goals over the next 20 years include more staff to better support their programs, improved data collection and case management systems, and increased federal/VOCA and state funding.