Victim Compensation Policy and White Collar Crime: Public Preferences in a National Willingness to Pay Survey

Abstract

We use survey data from a nationally representative sample to explore public support for government-run victim compensation programs for financial fraud, consumer fraud, identity theft, and burglary. We use contingent valuation (willingness to pay) methodology to infer preferences for compensation programs, and also explore predictors of those preferences. Overall, findings suggest that the public strongly supports the implementation of victim compensation programs. However, our results also indicate that this support may be driven in part by perceptions of benefiting from this program directly in the future. Additionally, a small but notable minority of respondents exhibit preferences for programs without compensation. Our findings suggest that the general public is supportive of restitutive compensation programs, not only as paid for by offenders, but by the government. We suggest that policy makers may embrace some principles of restorative justice for white collar crimes, which may otherwise be more financially damaging than traditional crimes.