Module 4
Victim Restitution and Compensation

Restitution

The word restitution is defined as “an act of restoring or a condition of being restored, such as a making good of or giving an equivalent for some injury.”1

As Module 3 explained, the federal Crime Victims’ Rights Act affords crime victims “the right to full and timely restitution as provided in law.”2 

After the perpetration of a sexual assault, it will take time for victims to recover their mental, emotional, and possibly their physical, equilibrium—if ever—and as a result of their victimization, a victim may incur mounting out-of-pocket costs. For example, victims may face medical expenses for treatment, hospital stays or rehabilitation, or bills for mental health counseling as they work toward recovery. Some victims suffer a loss of wages as they are not able to immediately return to work, or need assistance for emergency relocation as their perpetrator is their live-in partner. In both the federal and state justice systems, a crime victim can request restitution to recover these costs.3

This module will be available to you as soon as you complete Module 1. To complete a module, you must read each of the lessons and complete the review quiz at the end.

It is important to finish Module 1 so that you have sufficient context for the rest of the program. After that, you'll have full access to jump between lessons however works best for you.

Tip: In the left sidebar, you'll notice a vertical bar of squares. Each square represents a lesson in that module. You can see at a glance which lessons you've done (brightly colored) and which ones you have not (gray).

Return to Module 1