Cash for Victims & Rescuers

California has just become the first state to offer financial aid to those injured in violent crimes and to the families of murder victims. Under a law signed by Governor Edmund G. Brown, the state department of social welfare will aid any victim, regardless of income level, with roughly the same scale of payments now given to families on relief. This scale ranges from $162 a month for a couple with one dependent child to $388 a month for a couple with nine dependent children.

The new law has one obvious draw back; it authorizes a first-year payout of $100,000, but it does not provide the actual cash. Criminals themselves are supposed to supply it through fines levied by judges. But since most criminals are already indigents, where will they get the money? If the plan is to be more than tokenism, odds are that Governor Brown will wind up paying for most of it from his emergency fund.

In a second pioneering bill--a timely response to the growing big-city fear of "getting involved"--California also gave a boost to good Samaritans by offering to indemnify citizens who suffer injuries or damages while trying to prevent crimes or capture criminals. "Even if this bill does not persuade additional citizens to act in such cases," said Governor Brown, "it provides simple justice for those who do."

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