US Attorney Thomas G. Walker announced today that local community agencies that assist crime victims will benefit from $60,012,054 that has been awarded to the State of North Carolina by the US Department of Justice’s Office of Victims of Crime (OVC).
The NC Dept. of Public Safety’s Governor’s Crime Commission will distribute these funds to domestic violence shelters, rape crisis centers, and other local agencies to provide services to victims, such as crisis intervention, counseling, emergency shelter, and criminal justice advocacy.
US Attorney Walker said, “This program can make a tremendous difference for crime victims and their families, and it is especially satisfying to know that the support they receive is funded not by the taxpayers but by the offenders themselves.”
Additionally, on July 31, the state’s Victim Compensation section received an annual grant of $3,558,000. OVC provides financial assistance to each state’s crime victim compensation program that equals 60 percent of what the program spends in state money annually. These supplemental funds help crime victims every day by paying for the costs of medical care, mental health counseling, lost time at work, as well as funerals and other expenses that families face in the aftermath of a homicide.
These combined federal awards, totaling $63,570,054, represent the federal government’s efforts to insure that much needed assistance is provided to innocent crime victims, and has resulted in a true federal-state partnership to aid victims.
These awards come from the Crime Victims Fund, which was established by the Victims of Crime Act of 1984 (VOCA), as amended. Criminal fines collected by US Attorneys, the US Courts, and the Bureau of Prisons are deposited into the Crime Victims Fund, which is administered by OVC. The fund supports these annual victim assistance awards to all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the territories. Fines collected in one year are available for grant awards the following year.
The federal victim assistance grant program is designed to supplement state victim assistance programs. OVC awards the annual grants to state agencies selected by governors, which sub-grant the federal dollars to local community agencies that assist crime victims.
For more information about North Carolina’s victim assistance program, visit the Governor’s Crime Commission website or by telephone at 919.733.4564. Information about OVC and its programs is available at ojp.gov/ovc or by calling 202.307.5983.
Source: Don Connelly, US Dept. of Justice
