By: Clare Becker and Team
Economic poverty ranks as one of the top reasons trafficking survivors first enter into trafficking and one of the foremost barriers survivors face in achieving stability. In a study examining the relationship between poverty and trafficking, nearly half of survivors reported being unable to meet basic expenses prior to their exploitation; a number escalating to almost seventy-four percent after victimization. These findings underscore the harsh reality many survivors face both before and after trafficking.
Despite this reality, survivors often hesitate to access state-funded compensation available to crime victims. A 2023 study found that trafficking survivors were more than seventy percent less likely to access crime victims’ compensation in their state. This reluctance reflects a broader trend among victims, who frequently avoid compensation programs due to various factors such as distrust of law enforcement, burdensome application processes, and lack of awareness.
This semester, the Shared Hope team continued its work from last year by compiling a fifty-state survey examining the legal landscape governing crime victims’ compensation for trafficking survivors. The survey analyzes the availability of compensation, statutory exemptions, application procedures, and more. Understanding access to crime victims’ compensation is critical for both survivors and advocates, as trafficking survivors have historically faced significant legal and practical barriers to obtaining relief that is otherwise available to victims of crime. One such barrier includes statutory provisions in many states which reduce or deny compensation when a victim engaged in criminal conduct related to the claim. Facially, these provisions fail to account for the reality that many survivors are coerced into illegal activity by their traffickers. In response, a growing number of states have begun to reform their laws to better reflect the experiences of survivors. For example, Kansas law generally permits compensation to be reduced or denied if a victim was engaged in criminal activity at the time of the crime. However, Kansas law now includes a specific carve-out ensuring that this limitation does not apply to trafficking victims. This reform illustrates how states are beginning to adapt their compensation systems to better serve trafficking survivors.
While these developments are encouraging, significant gaps remain. Continued reform is necessary to ensure that survivors can access the compensation and support they need to rebuild their lives. Please join us in praying that survivors across our nation find hope, more advocates are equipped to pursue justice on behalf of survivors, and that laws would continue to reform.
1 Evelyn Chumbow, Poverty and Human Trafficking: Survey Findings Reveal Racism and Precarity (Dec. 13, 2025), https://humanityunited.org/perspectives/poverty-and-human-trafficking-survey-findings-reveal-racism-and-precarity/.
2 National Study of Victim Compensation Programs, Findings and Recommendations (Aug. 2024), https://www.norc.org/content/dam/norc-org/pdf2024/G259_Victim-Comp-Findings-and-Recs-Brief_Final.pdf
3 Sanya Mansoor, U.S. Crime Victims Often Don’t Get the Government Money Meant to Help Them Heal–and Say They Feel ‘Excluded’ (Sep. 9, 2020), https://time.com/5886815/crime-survivors-funding/.
4 K.S.A. § 74-7305(d)(1)(C)
5 K.S.A. § 74-7305(j)