By: Gio Lopez
The Hebrew word Shalom is somewhat inadequately translated in our modern bibles as peace. The late Dr. Tim Keller has explained, “[w]e translate it as ‘peace,’ but the English word is basically negative, referring to the absence of trouble or hostility. The Hebrew word means much more than that. It means absolute wholeness—full, harmonious, joyful, flourishing life.”[1] It is no wonder then that, when the Bible discusses peace, it is not just as an inward emotion, but as an outward harmony in our communities requiring our intentional effort and pursuit.[2] As a result, Shalom is inescapably tied with justice. Hebrew scholar Dr. Jacques Doukhan has written, “Shalom is not just an emotion, a good wish, or a feeling of the heart. Shalom implies the hard duty to be just and right.”[3] This means that when sin and crime destroy Shalom in our communities and leave broken survivors in their wake, the hard work of justice requires restoring those victims to absolute wholeness. Crime Victims Compensation (“CVC”) is one such avenue to begin this work of restoration.
Through a grant provided by The Center for Global Justice, I had the opportunity to work as a legal fellow this summer with Shared Hope International, a non-profit dedicated to ending domestic minor sex trafficking. One of the major projects the legal fellows actively contributed to this summer was aiding in the research and development of a CVC guide intended for trafficking survivors. CVC awards are a type of governmental monetary relief available to victims of crime upon application to the state CVC board. These awards are intended to help make survivors whole by reimbursing them for medical bills, loss of income, and other specific costs related to the specific crime they were victims of.[4] However, while CVC is a necessary and valuable resource for trafficking victims, it remains one severely underutilized.
According to a national survey of state CVC administrators by NORC, 79% of administrators reported that human trafficking victims were underserved by their state’s CVC program.[5] State CVC program statistics reflect the same disconcerting reality. In Virginia, according to the Virginia Department of Social Services, there were 228 cases of human trafficking involving 342 victims in 2024.[6] However, in that same year, there were zero reported cases of paid CVC claims related to human trafficking in Virginia.[7] The prior year told the same story with only one CVC payment claim paid for human trafficking in the amount of $3,045.[8] Regrettably, Virginia is not the outlier, but rather the norm in the US. If our nation has an interest in making victims of crime whole, we are severely missing the mark when it comes to human trafficking survivors. When interviewed, survivors shared that the main reasons they did not pursue CVC compensation were because they either did not know about it or that the process was too complex for them to navigate on their own.[9] Our hope is that the CVC guide can give survivors of human trafficking the awareness and tools necessary to access available funds and begin their journey of restoration.
Trauma-informed lawyering has been central in the process of creating this guide. My experience with Shared Hope has taught me that, even with our expertise of black letter law as legal professionals, good policy and legal work should primarily elevate the voices of those it serves and put the well-being and empowerment of survivors first. Early on in our fellowship, the legal fellows had the opportunity to sit in on a working group meeting discussing CVC awards with, not just lawyers and policymakers, but also mental health providers, social workers, and lived experience experts. The insights and feedback from that group have been crucial in the formation of the CVC guide. By addressing issues such as survivor re-traumatization and other non-legal barriers to CVC, the group demonstrated a holistic approach to policy work that is both practically effective and prioritizes the survivors themselves. Through listening to lived experience experts who shared insights from their own CVC journeys, the CVC guide was informed by those it will impact most and will empower other survivors to make informed decisions about participating in the process.
I joined Shared Hope this summer passionate about human rights and eager to better understand human trafficking. Throughout the summer I was involved in conducting legal research on cutting edge issues in the field, attending several congressional hearings and briefings, working and advocating together with other mission-aligned organizations, drafting internal memos on relevant current events, and writing on current legal issues related to sexual exploitation and trafficking. I certainly feel that I have met my goal of better understanding the complex issue of human trafficking and how to solve it in the process. Through practical experience I have come to a greater understanding of the truth that pursuing Shalom in excellence indeed requires hard work. Anchoring this short and accessible CVC guide for survivors were hundreds of hours of comprehensive legal research and advocacy by passionate attorneys, policymakers, working-group experts, Regent student staff, and Shared Hope legal fellows such as I. Pursuing justice for survivors takes hard work, but it’s work worth doing when it contributes to a survivor’s wholeness– a full, harmonious, joyful, flourishing life.
[1] Timothy Keller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism 177 (Dutton 2008).
[2] Jeremiah 29:7; Hebrews 12:14; Romans 12:18; Matthew 5:9 (English Standard Version).
[3] Jacques B. Doukhan, Shabbat Shalom, 48 Shabbat Shalom: A Journal for Jewish-Christian Reconciliation 12, (2001).
[4] Shared Hope International, Issue Brief 4.2 (2023), https://reportcards.sharedhope.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2023-Issue-Briefs-4.2.pdf
[5]NORC at the University of Chicago, Victim Compensation Barriers and Challenges (2024), https://www.norc.org/content/dam/norc-org/pdf2024/G259_Victim-Comp-Barriers-and-Challenges-Brief_Final.pdf.
[6] Va. Dep’t of Soc. Servs., Human Trafficking, https://www.dss.virginia.gov/supporting-families/child-protective-services/human-trafficking/ (last visited Jul. 9, 2026).
[7] Office for Victims of Crime, VOCA Victim Compensation Performance Data, https://ovc.ojp.gov/funding/performance-measures/data-analyses/voca-victim-compensation.
[8] Id.
[9]Office for Victims of Crime, Crime Victim Compensation Program Initiative Fact Sheet, https://ovc.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh226/files/pubs/crime-victim-compensation-program-initiative-factsheet/(last visited Jul. 9, 2026).