A University of Michigan study has revealed racial and gender disparities in crime victim compensation eligibility across state programs.
U-M associate professor of organization studies, Jeremy Levine, conducted a study requesting data from every U.S. state on victim compensation after violent crimes. While 18 states provided Levine with adequate victim compensation data, Michigan wasn’t one of them.
Levine says he filed a Freedom of Information Act request to investigate further.
“First response was that the data don’t exist. I then explained that, well, all these data are created and aggregated. Then, they provided me with a spreadsheet, and that spreadsheet did not have denial reasons on there. So then, I FOIA’d and asked for denial reasons. And then, they just never responded.”
Levine adds he advocates for more transparency and removing barriers, so victims of violent crimes can more easily seek out federal compensation.
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