Victim compensation funds are designed to aid people in recovering financially from criminal victimization. Somewhat surprisingly, the victim compensation fund in Texas currently has a large cash surplus and is underutilized. Police officers in Texas are responsible for providing victims information about compensation. A survey was distributed to police officers in Texas to determine their knowledge about the fund as well as factors that inhibit or predict referrals of victims to the crime victim fund. Results show that knowledge of the compensation fund, source of that knowledge, department size, college education, and perceptions of time constraints, victims, support for advising, and capability of victim liaison are all predictive of referrals. Implications of these findings and suggestions for increasing the referral rate are discussed.
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