Victims of Crime Act Grants

GAO reviewed the Department of Justice's implementation of the Victims of Crime Act victim compensation and victim assistance grant programs. These two programs provide federal monetary compensation to victims and families of victims of violent crime. On the basis of its review of samples of victim compensation claims and assistance applications, GAO found that the four states it reviewed--California, Michigan, New York, and Ohio--generally complied with the act's objectives. GAO did find two weaknesses that impair the ability of Justice's Office for Victims of Crime to evaluate and report program results. First, the Office used inaccurate and inconsistent state performance reports in preparing its 1988 legislatively required biennial report of program effectiveness to the President and Congress. Second, while the Office's program guidelines required that states allocate at least 10 percent of their assistance grants to three priority areas--victims of sexual assault, spousal abuse, and child abuse--the Office had no assurance that the money allocated was spent for each priority area.

GAO found that: (1) a sample of 474 approved or denied victim compensation claims showed that the 4 states reviewed complied with VOCA objectives when they compensated victims for medical expenses, lost wages, and funeral expenses; (2) a sample of 417 approved or denied subgrantee applications for the victims assistance program showed that the 4 states generally complied with VOCA objectives when awarding funds to public and nonprofit service providers; (3) in administering the victim compensation and victim assistance grant programs, VOCA and OVC guidelines allow states to be flexible in how the programs are implemented; (4) although the four states had differing compensation program administration structures, eligibility criteria, compensation limits, assistance program administrative structures and grantee funding determinants, such differences did not appear to affect the states' compliance with VOCA objectives; (5) OVC could not determine and report on the effectiveness of VOCA-supported activities, since it used inaccurate and inconsistent state performance reports in preparing its 1988 legislatively required biennial report of program effectiveness to the President and Congress; and (6) although OVC program guidelines required that states allocate at least 10 percent of their assistance to each of 3 VOCA-designated priority areas, OVC had no assurance that those funds were being spent as required.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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