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Texas has a $155 million crime victims compensation fund to help pay for counseling, medical and other expenses cause by the abuse victims have endured. The role of money in legal proceedings or the financial implications of legal decisions can influence outcomes for victims.<\/p>\n
Abu Hanifah\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
North Texas child sex trafficking and child pornography victims denied restitution in state or federal criminal cases have another option for obtaining needed financial support.<\/p>\n
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Texas has a $155 million crime victims’ compensation fund<\/a> to help pay for counseling, medical and other expenses cause by the abuse victims have endured.\u00a0<\/p>\n There\u2019s a problem, though. Survivors of those particular sex crimes receive a miniscule amount of the money \u2014 largely, it seems, because they are not aware they can.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Texas\u2019 annual crime victim compensation reports show less than 1% of all payments went to human trafficking victims from 2021 to 2025. Over that same period, about 0.03% of payments went to child pornography victims, ranking last or second-to-last among all crime categories, according to Texas AG reports.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the Texas Attorney General\u2019s Office said in a written statement that victim demand drives payments from the fund.\u00a0 Put more simply, those victims receive so little because so few apply. Consider: From 2020-2025, victims of child porn submitted an average of 93 applications per year, according to the AG. According to FBI crime data, from 2021-2026 there were an average of 4,895 child porn crimes reported.<\/p>\n Denials, according to the state, are not the issue. The AG\u2019s Office said 2025 data show a 78% approval rate for human trafficking claims and an 88% rate for child pornography claims.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The AG\u2019s office notes it paid out $82 million last year to crime victims, who received on average $6,484.<\/p>\n The Dallas Morning News\u2019 analysis of the AG\u2019s 2025 report reveals the average amount paid to victims of human trafficking and child pornography<\/a> was less: $4,555 and $1,834, respectively.<\/p>\n The AG\u2019s office, in its statement to The News, said medical costs, which accounted for 50% of 2025 payments, or $41 million, tend to be higher for certain violent crimes that require surgery or emergency room services. The state in 2025 paid much less for mental health counseling, which falls under medical costs and totaled $1.4 million \u2014 3.5% of the medical payments and 1.7% of the overall amount provided.<\/p>\n Every state has a crime victims fund<\/a> to help survivors with various costs. Texas\u2019 Crime Victims\u2019 Compensation Program is administered by the Texas AG\u2019s office.<\/p>\n The fund received a total of $155 million in revenue last year: Convicted offenders provided $47 million of that through court costs; the Legislature added another $40 million; $36 million came from a federal victims grant; and another about $23 million was generated by criminal offenders through prison telephone fees and parole supervision fees. \u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Texas\u2019 compensation fund distributes most of the money to adult victims of violent crime such as assault, according to state attorney general annual reports.\u00a0 The case of one 13-year-old North Texas girl illustrates the all-too-familiar pattern of missed opportunities by the government to force abusers to provide financial compensation for the harm caused. \u00a0<\/p>\n Her trafficker sexually assaulted her multiple times, advertised her on\u00a0Backpage.com<\/a>, and sold her to about 20 men to be raped for money over a three-day period, court records show. The 31-year-old pimp abandoned her only after learning she had been reported missing to police, according to court records.\u00a0<\/p>\n He was convicted in both state and federal court in Dallas for his crimes. Neither time did a prosecutor seek restitution and neither time did a judge order him to pay the girl restitution, court records show.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n She also was eligible to receive financial support from the state\u2019s Crime Victims’ Compensation fund. If she had filed for it. Which she might have. If she had known about it.<\/p>\n \u201cNobody told us,\u201d said the survivor, who is now an adult. \u201cThat definitely could\u2019ve helped me in that time, and to know that nobody even made us aware is ridiculously upsetting.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The maximum allowable payment is $50,000 per victim. A victim who received criminal restitution from courts cannot receive money from the fund for the same losses. \u00a0 Children at Risk General Counsel and Senior Director of Policy Caroline Roberts\u00a0in Houston.<\/p>\n Yi-Chin Lee\/Staff photographer<\/p>\n The Texas AG\u2019s office pushed back, referring to the approval rates for 2025.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Such a high rate is not the norm, according to Jeremy\u00a0Levine, a University of Michigan associate professor who has been researching state funds for years. Levine said detailed human trafficking claims he received from the Texas AG from 2019 to 2022 showed a 64% claims approval rate. Crimes with the highest claims approval rates for Texas victims from 2019 to 2022 were reckless driving, criminally negligent homicide and vehicular manslaughter, all of which had rates of 95% or higher,\u00a0Levine\u2019s data show. \u00a0<\/p>\n The AG\u2019s statement discounted\u00a0Levine\u2019s findings. \u201cThe unverified data \u2018analysis\u2019 cited from the University of Michigan professor,\u201d it said, \u201cis outdated and does not accurately reflect the performance of the program.\u201d<\/p>\n A national problem\u00a0 Besides those over the age of 65,\u00a0younger victims received the smallest share of money from Texas\u2019 crime victims fund over the same five-year period. About 5% of all 2025 payments went to victims who were 17 or younger, according to annual reports. That rate was similar in previous years. \u00a0 Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
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\u201cApplications are processed as they are submitted by victims and claimants,\u201d the statement read, \u201cso payment totals across crime categories are reflective of this incoming claim volume.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The compensation fund could be particularly beneficial to victims of child sex trafficking because they so rarely receive court-ordered restitution, even though it is mandated by state and federal law. \u00a0
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The News found as part of a year-long investigation <\/a>that North Texas federal courts ordered restitution for child sex trafficking victims just 6% of the time from 2015 to 2024. \u00a0Restitution is also mandated in federal child pornography cases<\/a>. The News\u2019 analysis revealed that only happens 13% of the time in the North Texas district. \u00a0
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Texas does not similarly track restitution for cases prosecuted locally. Dallas County prosecutors acknowledge they rarely request restitution in court at sentencing. \u00a0<\/p>\n
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The Texas Legislature created the fund in 1979-1980 to help crime victims. The victim must have been hurt by a crime that occurred in Texas and which was reported to law enforcement. And the victim must have cooperated with the police investigation. Victims or their parents, guardians or legal representatives have three years from the date of the crime to apply. In addition, eligibility rules state a victim must not have participated in the crime or \u201cshared responsibility for the crime due to behavior.\u201d\u00a0
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Child sexual abuse advocates<\/a> say those requirements work against victims of human trafficking in very specific ways. \u00a0
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The nature of sex trafficking, where pimps hold great power over their victims, often means the victims do not report the crime to police or cooperate to the satisfaction of law enforcement. That\u2019s due, in great part, to the physical and\/or psychological coercion and manipulation used against them.\u00a0
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\u201cThe whole system is designed around this ideal victim. This sort of perfect person who never made a mistake,\u201d said Jean Bruggeman, co-executive director of Freedom Network USA, a national coalition of human trafficking service providers and advocates. \u201cWe\u2019re blaming the victims. They weren\u2019t the right victim.\u201d\u00a0
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Child sexual abuse victims may be too scared, manipulated and traumatized to cooperate fully with police and prosecutors, advocates say. Also, police determinations about levels of cooperation can be subjective. \u00a0
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Brooke Grona-Robb and Cara Foos Pierce, two former North Texas sex trafficking prosecutors, wrote a 2021 article about sex trafficking when they worked for the Texas AG\u2019s office. They argued trafficking victims often don\u2019t report their abuse to police and thus can\u2019t qualify for the state money. \u00a0
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As a result, many \u201cfall through the cracks,\u201d the pair wrote in the Texas Prosecutor, a publication of the Texas District & County Attorneys Association.\u00a0
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\u201cIf you have a criminal history, you\u2019re not a true victim,\u201d Bruggeman said about the attitude of fund administrators. \u201cSo we don\u2019t have to compensate you.\u201d\u00a0
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She said the rules also make it difficult for people with unstable living situations or who live in poverty to keep up with their claims while they wait months for a decision. \u00a0
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\u201cThe system is not designed for them,\u201d she said, \u201cand does not work well for them.\u201d\u00a0
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Shared Hope International<\/a>, a nonprofit victim advocacy group, has recommended Texas\u2019 Crime Victims\u2019 Compensation Act be changed to provide an exception to all eligibility requirements for child victims of sex trafficking. \u00a0\u00a0
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Caroline Roberts, an attorney with Children at Risk, a Dallas and Houston children’s advocacy nonprofit, said service providers regularly tell her organization that sex trafficking victims have a lot of trouble accessing money from the state\u2019s compensation fund. \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Levine\u2019s data showed the approval rate of claims from child pornography victims in Texas was even lower \u2013 60%. \u00a0
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Levine said those approval rates are quite low \u201cif we consider that the claims that make it to the data have already overcome so many barriers.\u201d Many victims, Levine said, don\u2019t know about the fund or don\u2019t have the resources or support to apply for money. \u00a0<\/p>\n
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Academic research has raised questions about state crime victim funds nationwide. \u00a0
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For example, a 2024 study by a University of Chicago affiliate and the Urban Institute found human trafficking victims were considerably less likely to be compensated by the funds than other victims.\u00a0
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And a 2024 University of Michigan study conducted by Levine concluded subjective determinations about cooperation should not be made by law enforcement because it can lead to inequities. \u00a0
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\u201cMisconduct is a fuzzy concept, open to officer discretion,\u201d said Levine, in his report entitled Inequality in Crime Victim Compensation. \u00a0
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\u201cIf, for example, an officer believes a victim is not being truthful or is withholding information about the circumstances of the crime, then the officer can choose to label the victim uncooperative,\u201d his report said. \u00a0
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Levine\u2019s report recommended eliminating the \u201ccooperation with law enforcement and contributory misconduct eligibility restrictions.\u201d And it called for a rethinking of the practice of using police \u201cto determine victim innocence.\u201d\u00a0
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Earlier studies produced similar findings.\u00a0
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\u201cThe message is clear: states prefer compensating legally innocent victims,\u201d wrote Amanda Peters, then a professor at the South Texas College of Law, in a 2016 law review journal. She is now associate dean. \u201cThese criteria make compensation for most sex trafficked victims highly unlikely.\u201d\u00a0
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Assault and aggravated assault victims have been the top recipients of payments from Texas\u2019 compensation fund since 2020, receiving 55% or more of the distributions each year. They also are much more likely to seek compensation.\u00a0
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It\u2019s not that children are rarely victimized. \u00a0
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The FBI\u2019s annual crime statistics <\/a>show a majority (51%) of sex trafficking victims in Texas from 2020 to 2025 were young, between the ages of 10 and 19. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s another function, in part, of the lack of representation for these victims,\u201d said Carol\u00a0Hepburn, a Seattle lawyer who represents child pornography victims.\u00a0
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Mothers with a sexually abused child will not know about these resources,<\/a> she said. And if they did, Hepburn said, they would have to navigate a bureaucratic maze without anyone helping them fill out the paperwork. \u00a0
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Kerri New is an attorney adviser for AEquitas, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit that provides training and resources for prosecutors on sex trafficking cases and other sex crimes. She also is a former state prosecutor in Rockwall and Dallas counties. \u00a0
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She said she spent years meeting with groups of people across the state, including prosecutors, law enforcement and victim advocates. All said the same thing: It\u2019s too difficult for victims to get their reimbursement requests approved, New said. \u00a0
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Victim compensation programs are considered \u201cpayors of last resort\u201d because they only pay when victims\u2019 expenses are not covered by health and other insurance, social welfare benefits, workers\u2019 compensation, or any other source, including previously court-ordered restitution. \u00a0
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When victims do receive money from the fund, the state can ask the court for an order of restitution that requires their abusers to repay the fund. Those receipts averaged about $692,300 per year over a six-year period from 2020 to 2025, according to the fund\u2019s annual reports. \u00a0<\/p>\n