The Historical Context for the Alabama Crime Victims Compensation Commission has been posted from the Records Disposition Authority (RDA) approved by the State Records Commission on April 19, 2023. The RDA establishes disposition requirements by designating records as either temporary records which may be destroyed after a specified retention period, or permanent records, which must be preserved in perpetuity. The complete RDAs for close to 175 agencies can be found on the Alabama Department of Archives and History website.
Humans have wrestled with crime and its consequences for millennia, as evidenced by ancient legal texts like the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi, which prescribed punishments for offenses ranging from theft to murder.[1] How societies conceptualize crime victims has also evolved over time. The Alabama Crime Victims Compensation Commission’s enabling legislation supplies a relatively contemporary definition of a victim, as a “person who suffered serious personal injury or death as a result of criminally injurious conduct.”[2] A corporation may also be considered a victim, especially in cases of white-collar crime; however, the specific rights and privileges accorded to corporate victims of crime remain a subject of continuing consideration by the courts. As of 2023, the compensation of corporations falls outside the scope of the Alabama Crime Victims Compensation Commission’s purview.[3]
Prior to the mid-twentieth century, it was common for trial courts to order parties convicted of a crime to pay restitution to victims. If a convicted party could not pay restitution because of incarceration or indigency, no recourse remained for the victim to be compensated. In contrast, the idea that the government, rather than a convicted party, should financially compensate crime victims for their losses is a relatively modern development. By the end of the 1970s, more than half the states operated government-funded crime victims’ compensation programs.[4]
The earliest compensation programs focused on meeting victims’ basic needs in the immediate aftermath of a violent crime. Throughout the 1970s, however, the programs’ objectives broadened in response to the efforts of national victims’ advocacy organizations, combined with experts’ recommendations on how best to assist victims, such as by compensating for psychological and medical treatment.[5] The result was a widespread consensus among policymakers that victims deserved compensation regardless of a predefined level of need. Furthermore, the prevailing view held that crime victims and survivors deserved more extensive support as they rebuilt their lives and navigated the criminal justice system.
President Ronald Reagan created a President’s Task Force on Victims of Crime in 1981. In its final report the following year, the Task Force asserted wholehearted support for crime victims’ compensation, writing that “financial redress can be an important first step” in helping people work towards recovery.[6] The national momentum continued at the 1983 National Conference of the Judiciary on the Rights of Victims of Crime, where judges from across America (including a delegation from Alabama) listened to crime victims share their stories.[7]
By this time, lawmakers had committed to introducing criminal justice reforms to assist crime victims. Alabama was at the national forefront thanks to the advocacy of organizations like Victims of Crime and Leniency (VOCAL). After Quenette Shehane’s murder in 1976, her mother, Miriam Shehane, became a lifelong criminal justice advocate. Unfortunately, the Shehanes had to use their personal funds to attend a total of seven trials for the three people convicted of their daughter’s murder.[8] Restitution paid by the convicted parties could not assist in repaying these expenses because a judge can only impose restitution at the conclusion of a criminal trial.
Shehane founded VOCAL with support from Jimmy Evans, then the Montgomery County District Attorney. Evans brought a law enforcement perspective to VOCAL’s advocacy, explaining that unless victims’ rights are recognized and protected, victims may come to see the criminal justice system as futile and meaningless.[9] In other words, VOCAL’s mission was to create a criminal justice system with a greater balance between offender rights and victim rights.[10]
Galvanized by VOCAL and other organizations’ calls for a state-level compensation law, the Alabama Legislature passed the Alabama Crime Victims Compensation Act in May 1984. The Act established an Alabama Crime Victims Compensation Commission to “provide a means whereby victims of violent crime and their dependents may be provided compensation” for expenses incurred due to criminal acts committed by others.
The Commission authorizes disbursements from the Alabama Crime Victims Compensation Fund, which includes “all moneys collected or received by the Alabama Crime Victims Compensation Commission” from any source.[11] These funding sources include, but are not limited to, court costs, victim assessment fees, and civil suit reimbursements. As an example of court costs, in all criminal proceedings where a defendant is convicted or pleads guilty to a felony, there is imposed an additional court cost of $15.00, which is paid into the Alabama Crime Victims Compensation Fund.[12]
Just a few months after the passage of Alabama Act 1984-658, the U.S. Congress passed the landmark Victims of Crime Act of 1984. Among other provisions, the Victims of Crime Act of 1984 established a federal Crime Victims Fund financed by fines paid by convicted federal offenders.[13] The U.S. Department of Justice annually makes proceeds from the Fund available to the Alabama Crime Victims Compensation Commission (and other state-level compensation programs) through grants.
The Crime Victims Compensation Commission compensates victims who suffer personal injury up to a maximum, as of 2023, of $15,000.[14] Personal injury funds can reimburse victims for medical bills, funeral expenses, moving expenses, prescription drug expenses, psychiatric and physical therapy, lost wages, and lost emergency funds; however, the Commission can only pay expenses not covered by another source, such as insurance or workers’ compensation.[15] The Sexual Assault Examination Payment Program allows payment of the fees for initial forensic examinations and treatments against sexually transmitted infections.[16] In most years, the Fund collects several million dollars in court-ordered fines, with no tax revenue used to compensate victims. The Crime Victims Compensation Commission and its Executive Director have the ultimate authority to decide who will receive compensation and in what amounts.[17]
Alabama judges have the power to order convicted offenders to pay restitution to victims. Restitution payments can range from a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars. In cases where the Commission has awarded compensation to the victim, restitution may be ordered directly to the Fund to reimburse the Commission’s expenditures.[18]
The Alabama Crime Victims Compensation Act has been revised several times in the years since the Commission’s founding. For instance, Alabama Act 1990-470 increased the maximum amount that the Commission can contribute to funeral expenses from $2,000 to $3,000, while Act 1995-494 authorized compensation for sexual assault examinations.[19]
During the early 1990s, the Alabama Crime Victims Compensation Commission lent support to a proposed constitutional amendment to the Alabama Constitution of 1901 which guaranteed “Basic Rights for Crime Victims.” Voters ratified the proposal during the November 1994 election, adding Amendment 557 to the state’s Constitution. The amendment asserts that crime victims are entitled “to be informed, to be present, and to be heard” throughout all criminal proceedings pertaining to their case.[20] In 1995, the Legislature implemented the amendment via Act 1995-583, which also required that law enforcement agencies provide timely notification to crime victims about the services available to them.[21] Most recently, Act 2022-196 empowered the executive director to determine eligibility and authorize payment for claims (subject to review and modification by the Commission), which allows the Commission to help more victims with the utmost speed and efficiency.
One of the Alabama Crime Victims’ Compensation Commission’s defining features has always been including one member who is either a survivor of a violent crime or the immediate family member of a homicide victim. Miriam Shehane served as the Commission’s inaugural chairperson and retired in 2022 after thirty-seven years of service.[22] The three-member Commission also includes at least one representative from the law enforcement community.[23] Since there are no statutory requirements for the third member’s professional qualifications, over time the Commission has counted educators and social workers among its members.
In 2023, the Alabama Crime Victims Compensation Commission offers a broad range of assistance to crime victims and their families. In addition to financial compensation, the Commission publishes informational materials, applies for and disburses federal grants, and coordinates the delivery of services for crime victims and survivors. Through these initiatives, the Alabama Crime Victims Compensation Commission fulfills its mission to “provide timely and efficient assistance to innocent victims of violent crime in a confidential manner,” while ensuring that all victims are treated with fairness, compassion, and respect.[24]
[1] Erwin J. Urch, “The Law Code of Hammurabi,” American Bar Association Journal 15, no. 7 (July 1929): 437-441.
[2] Code of Alabama 1975 § 15-23-3.
[3] James Glasser, “Restitution for the Corporate Victim,” The National Law Review VII, no. 338 (December 2017).
[4] Marlene Young and John Stein, “The History of the Crime Victims’ Movement in the United States,” Office for Victims of Crime Oral History Project, December 2004, https://www.ncjrs.gov/ovc_archives/ncvrw/2005/pdf/ historyofcrime.pdf.
[5] Deborah Carrow, Crime Victim Compensation, U.S. Department of Justice National Institute of Justice Office of Development, Testing, and Dissemination, October 1980: 7.
[6] President’s Task Force on Victims of Crime, “Final Report,” U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office for Victims of Crime, December 1982: 38.
[7] National Institute of Justice, “Statement of Recommended Judicial Practices Adopted by the National Conference of the Judiciary on the Rights of Victims of Crime,” U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, December 1983, https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/93208NCJRS.pdf.
[8] Ted Bryant, “VOCAL Seeks Help for Crime Victims,” Birmingham Post-Herald, March 14, 1983.
[9] R. Robin McDonald, “Victims of Crimes Form Unit,” The Anniston Star, October 11, 1983.
[10] Ted Bryant, “VOCAL Seeks Help for Crime Victims,” Birmingham Post-Herald, March 14, 1983.
[11] Alabama Act 1984-658.
[12] Code of Alabama 1975 § 15-23-17.
[13] Victims of Crime Act of 1984, Pub. L. 98-473.
[14] Alabama Administrative Code Chapter 262-X-4.
[15] Alabama Crime Victims Compensation Commission, Annual Report October 01, 2020 to September 30, 2021, https://acvcc.alabama.gov/downloads/annualreport2021.pdf.
[16] Alabama Administrative Code Chapter 262-X-11.
[17] Alabama Administrative Code Chapter 262-X-3-.01.
[18] Alabama Crime Victims Compensation Commission, Annual Report October 01, 2020 to September 30, 2021, https://acvcc.alabama.gov/downloads/annualreport2021.pdf.
[19] The maximum amount that the Commission can contribute to funeral expenses has since been increased to $7,000 via Alabama Act 2014-335.
[20] Constitution of 1901, Amendment 557.
[21] Alabama Act 1995-583.
[22] Nick Lackeos, “Commission Names Murder Victim’s Mother as Chief,” Alabama Journal, June 13, 1984.
[23] Alabama Act 1984-658.
[24] Alabama Crime Victims Compensation Commission website, https://acvcc.alabama.gov.
- Representatives of the Alabama Crime Victims Compensation Commission
- Constitution of 1901, Amendment 557
- Alabama Acts 1984-658, 1990-470, 1995-494, 1995-583, 2014-335, and 2022-196
- Code of Alabama 1975 § 15-23-1 through 15-23-23
- Alabama Administrative Code Chapters 262-X-1 to 262-X-13
- Alabama Government Manual (2018)
- Archives Division, State Agency Files (1985-ongoing)
- Alabama Crime Victims Compensation Commission website (https://acvcc.alabama.gov)
- Alabama Crime Victims Compensation Commission Annual Reports (2020, 2021)
- Victims of Crime Act of 1984; Pub. L. 98-473
- 31 CFR Chapter X (Bank Secrecy Act)
- Bryant, Ted. “VOCAL Seeks Help for Crime Victims.” Birmingham Post-Herald. March 14, 1983.
- Carrow, Deborah. Crime Victim Compensation. U.S. Department of Justice National Institute of Justice Office of Development, Testing, and Dissemination. October 1980.
- Glasser, James. “Restitution for the Corporate Victim.” The National Law Review VII, no. 338 (December 2017).
- Lackeos, Nick. “Commission Names Murder Victim’s Mother as Chief.” Alabama Journal. June 13, 1984.
- McDonald, R. Robin. “Victims of Crimes Form Unit.” The Anniston Star. October 11, 1983.
- President’s Task Force on Victims of Crime. “Final Report.” U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office for Victims of Crime. December 1982. https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ovc/87299.pdf.
- National Institute of Justice. “Statement of Recommended Judicial Practices Adopted by the National Conference of the Judiciary on the Rights of Victims of Crime.” U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs. December 1983. https://www.ncjrs. gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/93208NCJRS.pdf.
- Urch, Erwin J. “The Law Code of Hammurabi.” American Bar Association Journal 15, no. 7 (July 1929): 437-441.
- Young, Marlene and John Stein. “The History of the Crime Victims’ Movement in the United States.” Office for Victims of Crime Oral History Project. December 2004. https://www.ncjrs.gov/ovc_archives/ncvrw/2005/pdf/historyofcrime.pdf.
For the Record 