What to Do if You Are a Crime Victim, Your Rights Step by Step

Nobody hands you a manual when you become a victim of a crime. You get a police report number, a business card, and a vague sense that the machinery of justice is now running and that you are, somehow, a spectator in your own case. That is a poor way to treat the one person in the courthouse who did not choose to be there.

Here is the good news. The law has changed a great deal in the last forty years, and in most states and in federal court you now hold specific, written rights. The bad news is that rights nobody tells you about work about as well as a fire extinguisher locked in a closet. This post is the key to the closet. It is general information about how these systems work, not legal advice for your situation, and the details differ from state to state, so treat every step below as a prompt to ask the right office the right question.

The structure is simple. There are six steps, in the order most victims need them. Each one names who to contact, what to ask, and what to expect. Then we will look at why these rights exist at all, give the best objection to them a fair hearing, and answer it.

Why victims have rights at all

For most of American history, a crime was treated as an offense against the state. The prosecutor represented "the People," the defendant had a lawyer and a bundle of constitutional protections, and the victim was a witness. A witness is a source of evidence, and evidence does not get a seat at the table.

The defendant's protections are good and necessary. They come straight from the Bill of Rights: the Fourth Amendment's limits on searches, the Fifth Amendment's privilege against self-incrimination and guarantee of due process, the Sixth Amendment's right to counsel and a jury trial. Nothing in this post takes any of that away. The question is only whether the person who was robbed, assaulted or bereaved should be told when the offender is released, allowed to speak at sentencing, and repaid something when a court orders it.

The modern answer began in 1982, when President Reagan's Task Force on Victims of Crime reported that the system had lost sight of the people it was built to protect. We cover that history in The Victims' Rights Movement Began With a 1982 Presidential Task Force. Two years later Congress passed the Victims of Crime Act of 1984, which created the Crime Victims Fund. That fund is paid for by fines, penalty assessments and forfeited bail bonds collected from people convicted of federal crimes, not by general tax revenue, and it sends grant money to states for victim compensation and victim services. In 2004 Congress passed the Crime Victims' Rights Act, codified at 18 U.S.C. 3771, which lists the rights of victims in federal criminal cases, among them the rights to be reasonably protected from the accused, to receive notice of public proceedings and of any release or escape, not to be excluded from public proceedings in most circumstances, to be heard at release, plea and sentencing hearings, to confer with the government's attorney, to full and timely restitution as the law provides, to proceedings free from unreasonable delay, and to be treated with fairness and with respect for dignity and privacy.

States have their own versions. Many have written victims' rights into their constitutions, and a number have adopted a set of protections often called Marsy's Law, first approved by California voters in 2008. A federal constitutional amendment for victims has been proposed repeatedly and has never passed Congress. So where you live matters, and the first rule of this playbook is to find your own state's list. Your state attorney general's website or the prosecutor's office will have it, usually titled something like "victims' bill of rights."

Step 1: Register for custody and court notification

The first thing most victims fear is the simplest: what if he gets out and nobody tells me? The system has a tool for exactly this problem.

Most states participate in an automated notification service. The best known is VINE, which stands for Victim Information and Notification Everyday. You can look up an offender by name or number online or by phone, and you can register to be alerted by call, text or email when his custody status changes: a transfer, a release, an escape, a scheduled court date. Some states run their own system under a different name, and many county jails run theirs separately from the state prison system. That gap is where people get hurt, so register in both places if you can.

What to do:

1. Find the offender's booking or inmate number. The police report, the charging document or the jail's public roster will have it.
2. Go to your state's notification portal, or the national VINE lookup, and search. If your state uses another system, the prosecutor's office will tell you which.
3. Register a phone number and an email you check. Add a second contact if you have one, because a number that changes is a notice that never arrives.
4. Ask whether the service covers county jail, state prison and any parole or probation board separately. Register with each.
5. Ask whether you need to register again if the case moves to another court or the offender moves to another facility.

An automated alert is a safety net, not a guarantee. Do not treat it as a promise that you will always get a call before a release. If you have any reason to fear contact, say so to the victim advocate in Step 2 and in writing to the prosecutor, so a person is watching as well as a database.

Step 2: Contact the victim advocate in the prosecutor's office

Most prosecutors' offices, and the offices of the United States attorneys for federal cases, employ victim-witness coordinators or advocates. They are not your lawyer. They are staff who work inside the prosecutor's office and whose job is to explain the process, keep you informed, and connect you to services. Think of them as the translator between you and a system that speaks in docket numbers.

Call the prosecutor's office, give the case number or the defendant's name, and ask for the victim-witness unit. Then ask these questions in this order:

1. Who is the assigned prosecutor, and who is my contact for questions?
2. What are the next court dates, and will I be notified of changes?
3. What rights do I have in this case under state law, and how do I invoke them? For example, do I have to ask in writing to be heard at sentencing?
4. Can I confer with the prosecutor before any plea offer is made, as the law in my state allows?
5. Is there help with transportation, a waiting room away from the defendant's family, or a support person in the courtroom?
6. Who handles compensation and restitution paperwork?

Keep a notebook. Write the date, the person's name and what they said. This is not paranoia. Cases are long, staff changes, and a dated note is worth more than a memory of a phone call from eight months ago.

One point on expectations. The prosecutor represents the public, not you personally. In most systems the prosecutor decides which charges to file and whether to accept a plea. Your right is to be informed and heard, not to direct the case. A good advocate will tell you that plainly, and you should ask for it plainly.

Step 3: Apply to the state crime victim compensation program

Every state has a crime victim compensation program, and they all draw in part on the federal money that the Victims of Crime Act channels through the Crime Victims Fund. These programs pay certain costs that crime leaves behind when no one else will: commonly medical and dental bills, mental health counseling, funeral and burial costs, and in many states lost wages or loss of support for dependents. Some pay for crime scene cleanup or relocation in serious cases.

The rules differ, but the shape is common across states, so here are the usual features to ask about:

• A police report is generally required. Compensation programs typically want the crime reported to law enforcement, often within a stated number of days, though many allow exceptions for good cause.
• A filing deadline. Applications usually have to be filed within a set period after the crime, and the clock can be extended in some situations, such as crimes against children. Ask for the deadline on day one.
• Cooperation with law enforcement. Programs usually expect you to cooperate with the investigation and prosecution.
• Last-resort payer. Compensation usually applies after insurance and other sources have paid. Keep every bill and every explanation of benefits.
• Caps. Programs have maximum awards, and they differ widely.
• Eligibility limits. Some states restrict awards where the applicant was involved in the criminal conduct or has certain convictions. Do not assume you are ineligible, and do not assume you are eligible. Ask.

Where to find it: the prosecutor's victim advocate will know the program, and the state attorney general's office or a state crime victims board often runs it. A national association of compensation boards also keeps a directory of programs. Search for your state's name with the words "crime victim compensation."

The point to hold onto is that this money is not charity and it is not a lawsuit. It is a modest public acknowledgement, funded in significant part by offenders' own penalties, that someone should help carry the costs the crime imposed. Use it.

Step 4: Ask for a restitution order

Compensation comes from a public fund. Restitution comes from the offender. These are different, and victims should seek both.

Restitution is a court order requiring a convicted defendant to repay the victim's out-of-pocket losses. In federal cases, the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act of 1996 requires restitution for many offenses, including crimes of violence and property offenses with an identifiable victim who suffered physical injury or financial loss. State laws vary, but most states authorize or require it.

How to make sure the court considers it:

1. Tell the victim advocate and the prosecutor, early, that you intend to seek restitution.
2. Start a loss file the day you are able: receipts, repair estimates, medical bills, pay stubs showing time lost, replacement costs, counseling invoices. Keep originals and make copies.
3. Complete any victim loss form the prosecutor's office provides. The prosecutor usually presents your figures to the court at sentencing, so late paperwork can mean no order.
4. If the case ends in a plea, ask whether restitution is part of the agreement. Pleas that omit restitution leave victims with nothing but the satisfaction of a conviction.
5. After sentencing, ask how payments are collected and who to contact if they stop.

A frank warning. A restitution order is a judgment of what is owed, and collecting it is a different matter. Many defendants have little money, and payments can be slow, small and long. That is not a reason to skip the order. A court order is the legal basis for collection, and in some jurisdictions it can be enforced for years, including through wage garnishment or by conditioning probation on payment. Ask the court clerk or the collections unit what enforcement tools exist where you live.

Step 5: Prepare a victim impact statement

Before sentencing, most courts will receive a statement describing how the crime affected the victim and the victim's family. It can be written, read aloud by you, or in some places recorded. It speaks to physical injury, financial cost, emotional harm and the effect on family life.

Why it matters is a matter of legal history. In 1987 the Supreme Court held in Booth v. Maryland that victim impact evidence could not be used in a capital sentencing proceeding. In 1991, in Payne v. Tennessee, the Court overruled that decision, holding that the Eighth Amendment does not bar such evidence. The reasoning, in short, was that the harm done is part of what the sentencer should know, and that a defendant is judged as a unique individual while the victim is, too. States now broadly allow impact statements at sentencing in non-capital cases as well.

How to write a good one:

1. Ask the victim advocate for the format, deadline and any length limit. Some courts want it filed days ahead.
2. Speak to the judge, not the defendant. Judges sentence by law and by facts, and a statement aimed at the bench gets read.
3. Be concrete. Say what you can no longer do, what it has cost, what has changed in your family's life. Specific facts carry more weight than adjectives.
4. Leave out sentencing demands unless the law in your state invites them. In many places the statement must stay on the harm, and a statement that strays may be limited.
5. Keep a copy, and ask who else will receive it. In some jurisdictions the defense sees it.
6. Consider a support person. You can ask whether someone may stand with you or read it if you cannot.

You are allowed to decline. Not every victim wants to speak, and the choice is yours. The right is to be heard, not an obligation to be.

Step 6: Seek a protective order if you have reason to fear contact

If the offender or someone connected to him has threatened, harassed or frightened you, a protective order may be available. These orders go by different names, such as restraining orders, no-contact orders, or orders of protection. Some are issued as a condition of release in the criminal case. Others come from a separate civil process that you start yourself in a state court.

Questions to put to the advocate or the court clerk:

• Is there a no-contact condition in the criminal case already, and does it cover family members and third parties?
• What is the process for a civil protective order, what does it cost, and is there a form at the courthouse or online?
• Is there an emergency or temporary order available the same day?
• How is the order enforced if it is violated, and whom do I call?
• Does the order follow me if I move or cross state lines?

Courts take these requests seriously, and in an emergency you call the police first, not the clerk. For general guidance on your own case, a legal aid organization or a private attorney is the right resource. Many victim service agencies will help with the paperwork at no charge.

The strongest objection, and the answer

The best argument against all of this runs as follows. Criminal justice is a contest between the state and the accused. The Constitution's protections run to the accused because the state holds the power to take liberty and life. Adding a third party with rights to be heard risks tilting the balance, inflaming sentencers and turning a trial into a grievance forum. Besides, victims are not neutral, and a justice system that listens to the angriest voice in the room will punish the angriest case hardest.

That is a serious argument, and it was made by serious people. It deserves three answers.

One, the rights listed above sit mostly outside the guilt phase. Notification, advocacy, compensation, restitution and a statement at sentencing do not decide whether the defendant did it. The defendant's trial protections stay exactly where the Constitution put them.

Two, sentencing has always taken account of harm. A judge deciding what an assault deserves must know how badly the victim was hurt. Hearing it from the victim is not a distortion of that inquiry. It is the primary source.

Three, the alternative is a system that treats a person who suffered a crime as a file. A republic that holds the monopoly on force, and forbids you to settle things yourself, owes you at least a seat in the room and a real answer when you ask what happened to your case. Reasonable limits, such as time limits on statements and judicial control of the courtroom, handle the legitimate worry about runaway emotion without erasing the victim.

A related point on prosecutors. The people who decide which cases to bring, and how, are elected or appointed officials, and a victim who knows how to ask questions is a victim who can hold them to account. If you want to know how your local prosecutor handles cases like yours before you ever need one, see How to Read Your District Attorney's Record Before You Vote. For the argument over who should wait in jail before trial, which affects victims directly, read The Case Against Cashless Bail Starts With the Victim, Not the Defendant. And for the fuller argument that the courtroom has a place for the person who was wronged, see A Crime Victim Belongs in the Courtroom, Not Out in the Hallway.

The case in brief

1. A crime victim in most American jurisdictions now holds written rights, and rights unused are rights lost.
2. Register for custody notification in every system that holds the offender, and treat the alert as a net, not a guarantee.
3. The prosecutor's victim advocate is your guide inside the process; ask for the case contact, the dates and the deadlines.
4. Compensation from the state fund and restitution from the offender are different, and you should pursue both with documents in hand.
5. Be heard at sentencing, seek protection if you are afraid, and remember that your rights sit alongside the defendant's, not on top of them.

What you can do: look up your state's victims' bill of rights today, whether or not you ever need it, and save the number for your county prosecutor's victim-witness office in your phone.