Source: (2000) In Victim policies and criminal justice on the road to restorative justice: Essays in honour of Tony Peters, ed. E. Fattah and S. Parmentier, 83-97. With an introduction by E. Fattah and S. Parmentier. Leuven, Belgium: Leuven University Press.
Public damage funds are funds established by national governments to compensate victims of crime when no other means of redress are available. In this paper, Marc Groenhuijsen examines the nature and legal status of public damage funds, both nationally and internationally in Europe. His examination is broadly divided into two parts: legislative initiatives on the European level; and national compensation schemes and their implementation (focusing on Great Britain, Germany, and Belgium). Groenhuijsen concludes that public damage funds are truly means of last resort, and that they have the effect of putting victims of crime under scrutiny in order to qualify for compensation. In view of his analysis, Groenhuijsen presents best practices and observations to improve the structure and implementation of public damage funds.
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