This project was funded by the state of Maryland Governor's Office of Crime Control and Prevention under a Byrne Memorial Grant (2002-DB-MU-0024), awarded by the U.S. Department of Justice. Points of view or opinions contained within this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of any agency. Any questions or comments can be forwarded to the first author at the Urban Institute's Justice Policy Center (lnewmark@ui.urban.org or 202 261-5566).
The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.
Note: This report is available in its entirety in the Portable Document Format (PDF).
Executive Summary
The Maryland Governor's Office of Crime Control and Prevention asked the Urban Institute to undertake a comprehensive review of the state's Criminal Injuries Compensation Board (CICB), a part of the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. The goal of our work was to identify program accomplishments and areas for further development, and recommend specific steps that should be taken to improve program policies, operations, and services to clients. This work was conducted in coordination with the National Center for Victims of Crime's review of direct victim services across the state.
The CICB provides financial assistance to victims and survivors of violent crime. There were about 42,000 violent crimes reported to law enforcement in Maryland in 2000, and victims suffer many different types of consequences that are financial or can be addressed with financial resources. Using revenues generated from fees paid by federal and state criminal offenders - not tax dollars - the CICB compensates physically injured victims and survivors for crime-related medical/dental costs, mental health counseling, lost wages, loss of support, funeral/burial, and crime scene clean-up expenses. In 2001, the CICB paid $3,823,787 to 662 claimants, at an average of $5,776 each.
Claims are subject to a number of federal and state eligibility criteria, including:
cooperation with law enforcement authorities (generally reporting to police within 48 hours and
cooperating with prosecution); lack of contributory misconduct (victims' illegal behaviors that
were causally connected to the crime); minimum threshold of losses ($100 in unreimbursable expenses or two consecutive weeks out of work); having exhausted all other means of payment (CICB is the payer of last resort); payment caps (a total cap of $45,000 with caps by categories of expenses as well); and claim filing deadlines (generally within six months of the crime).
Our work analyzed how well the CICB's policies and operational procedures serve victims' and survivors' financial needs. We drew on a variety of information sources, including reviews of CICB policies, documents, and statistics; interviews with CICB personnel and victim advocates; comparisons of Maryland policy and performance measures with national indicators available from a recent national evaluation by the Urban Institute; collection and analysis of claim information from reviews of over 300 CICB case files; and surveys with a representative sample of over 100 compensation claimants and a limited sample of over 100 violent crime victims. We identified a number of areas in which the CICB is functioning well, and suggested a number of steps that could be taken to further improve services to clients.
For victims, their survivors, or those who provided crime-related services to receive compensation, the victim or survivor must learn of compensation, file a claim, and provide verifications that eligibility criteria are met. Claims may be approved in full, partially approved, or denied on any of a number of grounds. Denials can be reconsidered or appealed, very often with favorable outcomes for the claimant.
The Board has clearly overcome a very difficult period in the 1990's of funding and staffing shortages that led to extraordinarily long claim processing times, low payments for lack of funds, and a loss of faith in the program by many victim service providers. The last two years
have seen program growth and improvement through increased funding and staffing, and outreach efforts to inform the community about current policies and practices. The number of claims filed and amounts paid out have risen dramatically in recent years. The number of claims filed rose from 1,012 in 2000 to 1,355 in 2002, and the amounts paid rose from $3.8 million in 2001 to $5.4 million in 2002. The CICB now pays nearly all claims that are filed (97 percent in our survey sample) and pays benefits about twice the national average. Maryland's payment cap is higher than many other states' caps, which average $35,000. While average case processing time was about nine months in our survey sample of claims, the Board reports an average time of under four months for claims filed more recently. Board staff are proactive in obtaining verifications for many claims, which helps relieve traumatized victims of this burden. Eligibility criteria subject to judgment calls, such as contributory misconduct, are often interpreted liberally to "err on the victim's side."
However, there are other areas in which CICB requirements and practices are less liberal than those of most other states. Eligibility requirements around police reporting and claim filing deadlines are stricter than most other states, but exceptions are made to avoid inhibiting victims from claiming compensation. The minimum loss requirements are rather stringent, and many
other states pay various types of expenses (such as transportation and moving expenses) not allowed by the CICB. Comparisons with national statistics indicate that some types of victims
may be underserved, including domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, and drunk driving
crash victims. In addition, Maryland claimants may be less likely to receive payments for certain
types of expenses than victims in other states, such as mental health counseling and economic
support (lost wages and loss of support), although payments for medical expenses are relatively high.
Our surveys with compensation claimants and victims who reported violent crimes to the police (most of whom did not file for compensation) provided clients' and potential clients' perspectives on program policies and procedures. We found that claimants were on the whole
quite satisfied with the claim process and outcomes, especially those who received more benefits and incurred less out-of-pocket expense. Differences between case outcomes according to our file reviews and claimants' understanding of the outcomes reported in the surveys suggested that surveyed claimants were more likely to report being denied than case files indicated. Claimants
may need enhanced communications from CICB on claim outcomes.
Program requirements seem to meet victims' financial needs in some areas, although there are other types of expenses that victims incur but cannot be compensated for under current regulations (such as transportation and relocation expenses). Despite the high approval rates and
benefit levels, nearly three-fourths of claimants still incurred an average of over $400 in
expenses they had to pay themselves, and 41 percent went without needed services because they could not pay for them.
Claimants were most likely to learn of the compensation program from the police,
although other sources provided information as well. Two-thirds did not get help with the
application process, although few who claimed compensation reported needing help they did not
receive (non-claimants may have had a different experience). While findings from the victim
survey must be interpreted cautiously, only one-fourth of the victims we surveyed were familiar
with the compensation program, although nearly three-fourths had physical injuries and twothirds
incurred an average of over $500 in out-of-pocket losses, often for the types of expenses
eligible for compensation. One-fourth of the victims went without needed services because of
financial constraints. Many victims had contact with a variety of service providers after the
crime, but none of these were particularly likely to inform them of compensation, indicating the
need for continued broad-based outreach by the Board.
We concluded that the CICB provides very good services to those who file for
compensation, but that its reach could be expanded to serve additional victims, and even fuller
and more efficient services could be provided to claimants. A number of legislative, policy, and
procedural steps can make this happen:
- Meet claimants' needs more fully by reducing or eliminating the lost work component of the minimum loss requirements; raising the cap for funeral/burial expenses from $5,000 to at least $7,500; analyzing the apparent underuse of mental health counseling expenses to identify and address barriers; allowing additional types of expenses such as transportation and moving expenses; and clarifying payer of last resort requirements in regard to life insurance and charitable benefits for fatalities, so survivors can receive more benefits from compensation.
- Serve clients more efficiently by continuing to develop innovative practices to streamline verification procedures; reducing the requirement for three Board Members' approval on all claims to one Board Member's approval; and improving communications with clients on claim outcomes, especially those who are being denied benefits.
- Fund program expansion by taking steps to maximize the federal allocation through accounting practices and increase revenues from state offenders through more thorough subrogation.
- Monitor and evaluate program developments to assess their effectiveness by tracking program performance measures and periodic surveys of claimants. Obstacles to victim surveys should be addressed so that better information can be obtained on awareness and access barriers, in order to guide future outreach activities.
Note: This report is available in its entirety in the Portable Document Format (PDF).
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