California ‘failing victims’ of violent crime as financial support plummets

Victims of violent crime in California are finding it increasingly hard to get support from the state, a new analysis has found, a development that has locked some of the most vulnerable people out of funds to help cover crime scene cleanup, relocation costs, funerals and therapy. California established the nation’s first victims’ compensation program in 1965, aimed at helping victims of violent crimes and their families cover some of the costs sprung onto them by the violence. A new report from Californians for Safety and Justice (CSJ), a non-profit that advocates for communities that are overrepresented as victims of crime and in the criminal justice system, has found that since 2019, the California Victim Compensation Board (CalVCB) has been awarding less to victims and denying more applications for relief, despite having more money in the fund. The amount of money distributed by CalVCB has dropped from about $65m in fiscal year 2019 to 2020, to about $50m in the 2024 to 2025 fiscal year, a decrease of more than 30%, a CSJ analysis of CalVCB’s annual reports concludes. The award amount hit a five-year low in 2021, when $46m was allotted to victim reimbursements. Meanwhile, the number of people applying for awards but being turned down has gone up. In 2019, CalVCB denied almost 5,000 of the nearly 47,000 applications it received. In 2024, the most recent year data is available for, CalVCB denied about 10,250 of 25,000 applications. …