ABSTRACT
In order to assess the compensation experience for claimant victims, respondents were asked about why they applied, about the problems and inconveniences they incurred pursuing their claims, about their case involvement, about their attitudes toward board members and requirements, about their ability to get an award, about their satisfaction with their case's outcome, and about compensation's effect on their past and future cooperation with the justice system. It is important to understand what respondents had to do to press their claim upon the compensation board. Practically no victims ever used a compensation program prior to the claim for which they were interviewed, and that small use was uniformly disappointing. This chapter provides some insight, however, into compensation's effects in the eyes of the victims themselves. These perceptions create a fairly coherent image of the compensation experience, and it must be compared to the official version.
