Staff sizes tend to be quite small, with 36 states operating with less than 10 people, and half of those employing five or less. Only a few states operate with more than 20 employees, California again being the largest, with over 400 workers.
The programs function within a variety of governmental settings. Nearly a third are affiliated with departments of public safety or criminal justice planning, and another fifth function within offices of attorneys general. Eight are independent agencies; workers' compensation bureaus house four of the -programs; and other affiliations include corrections departments, social services agencies, and finance and management departments. Five states operate their programs within courts or claims courts.

Colorado and Arizona are unique in operating compensation programs through local prosecutors' offices. Twenty-two compensation boards in Colorado (one for each district) and 15 boards in Arizona (one in each county) adjudicate claims under state law and coordination.

Funding

Programs obtain their funding from a number of different sources, but the states can be divided into two basic categories: those that receive the bulk of their funding from fees or charges that offenders pay, and those that depend on general-revenue
appropriations from legislatures. More than four-fifths of the states are in the first category, gaining most of their income from offenders; in fact, in a large majority of states, no tax dollars are involved at all in either the administration of the program or in the awards given to victims.

The types and level of offender assessments vary somewhat from state to state. Many states require that offenders pay a set penalty or fee, such as $50 per felony and $25 per misdemeanor, into a crime victim compensation fund. Other states will take a certain percentage of the offender's fine, or place a surcharge upon that fine, and use it for compensation funding. Some states also gain income from wages inmates earn in prison industries.

Fund Recovery. Because offenders and others liable for injury to victims should pay for the consequences of crime, and because programs need to make the most of the resources available for compensation, "fund recovery" has become an important concern for many programs. Some are aggressively seeking restitution from offenders by working with prosecutors and judges to ensure restitution orders are sought and issued, and by monitoring payment through appropriate channels.
While for most programs fund recovery is a minor source of total income, a few programs are beginning to recover close to 10% of their awards.

VOCA. Federal funds provide about 20-25% of the state compensation programs' total budgets, through grants authorized by the Victims of Crime Act of 1984 (VOCA). Under VOCA, for every $100 a state awards to victims, it gets $40 in federal funds to spend; this results in a 72%-to-28% split in state-federal dollars spent each year (of every $140 awarded to victims, $100 is state money and $40 is federal funds). States also must bear all or nearly all of the administrative costs for operating their programs (only 5% of each state's VOCA grant is available for administrative purposes). While the large majority of funds spent in operating the programs and paying victims comes from state budgets, VOCA grants have enabled many states to expand coverage, and they make a significant difference in ensuring that there is enough money available to cover all eligible victims that may apply. VOCA will provide about $81 million to state compensation programs in federal fiscal year 2000.

To be eligible for a federal grant, certain conditions must be met. Programs must cover medical expenses, mental health counseling, and lost wages for victims, as well as funeral expenses and lost support for families of homicide victims. They must consider drunk driving and domestic violence as compensable crimes, and must not categorically exclude domestic violence victims on the basis of their being related to or living with the offender. (Programs may deny claims when an award to the victim would unjustly enrich the offender.) Programs must agree to consider for eligibility all U.S. citizens who are victims of crimes within their states, regardless of the residency of the victim. Each state also must offer benefits to its own residents who are victimized in states without compensation programs, but since all states currently have viable programs offering eligibility to nonresidents, this is no longer a real concern. Programs also must cover their own residents who are victims of terrorism in foreign countries. Finally, programs must cover crimes falling under federal jurisdiction within the states, such as crimes occurring on Indian reservations, National Park lands, or military bases.