The Justice Department has proposed changes to rules governing state-run programs that provide financial assistance to violent crime victims in order to address racial disparities and curb the number of subjective denials of compensation. The Monday proposal from the Justice Department’s Office for Victims of Crime is a major overhaul to how states across the U.S. currently handle victims compensation claims and comes less than a year after an Associated Press investigation exposed that Black victims were disproportionately denied in many states — often for subjective reasons rooted in implicit biases that are felt across the criminal justice system.
