2017 Vermont Statutes
Title 13 - Crimes and Criminal Procedure
Chapter 167 - Crime Victims
§ 5351 Definitions

§ 5351. Definitions

As used in this chapter:

(1) "Board" means the victims compensation board established under this chapter.

(2) "Dependent" means the victim's spouse or a person who is legally dependent for support upon a victim.

(3) "Crime" includes delinquent acts and an act of terrorism, as defined in section 2331 of Title 18, United States Code, committed outside the United States against a resident of this state.

(4) "Injury" means actual bodily harm or pregnancy, or emotional harm resulting from the crime.

(5) "Pecuniary loss" means, in the case of a victim, the amount of medical or medically-related expenses, loss of wages, and any other expenses which the board feels became necessary as a direct result of the crime. Medical or medically-related expenses may include, but are not limited to, the costs of individual or family psychological, psychiatric or mental health counseling and the costs of replacing or repairing eyeglasses, hearing aids, dentures or any prosthetic devices which were taken, lost or destroyed during the commission of the crime. In the case of a dependent, "pecuniary loss" means the cost of psychological, psychiatric or mental health counseling, funeral expenses for the victim and upon demonstration of financial hardship, temporary living expenses.

(6) "Unreimbursed pecuniary loss" means a pecuniary loss:

(A) which is not covered by medical, hospitalization or disability insurance or workers' compensation; and

(B) which has not been ordered by the court to be restored to the victim or dependent by the person who caused the loss; or

(C) which has been ordered by the court to be restored to the victim or dependent but has not been paid by the person who caused the loss.

(7) "Victim" means:

(A) a person who sustains injury or death as a direct result of the commission or attempted commission of a crime; or

(B) an intervenor who is injured or killed in an attempt to assist the person described in subdivision (A) of this subdivision (7) or the police; or

(C) a surviving immediate family member of a homicide victim, including a spouse, domestic partner, parent, sibling, child, grandparent, or other survivor who may suffer severe emotional harm as a result of the victim's death as determined on a case-by-case basis in the discretion of the board; or

(D) a resident of this state who is injured or killed as the result of a crime committed outside the United States.

(8) "Profits from crimes" means:

(A) any property obtained through or income generated from the commission of a crime in which the defendant was convicted;

(B) any property obtained by or income generated from the sale, conversion, or exchange of proceeds of a crime, including any gain realized by such sale, conversion, or exchange;

(C) any property that the defendant obtained or any income generated as a result of having committed the crime, including any assets obtained through the use of unique knowledge acquired during the commission of or in preparation for the commission of the crime, as well as any property obtained or income generated from the sale, conversion, or exchange of such property and any gain realized by such sale, conversion, or exchange; and

(D) any property defendant obtained or any income generated from the sale of tangible property the value of which is increased by the notoriety gained from the conviction of an offense by the person accused or convicted of the crime. (Added 1989, No. 214 (Adj. Sess.), § 1; amended 1991, No. 107, § 2; 1995, No. 22, § 1; 1997, No. 61, §§ 56a, 56b; 2003, No. 92 (Adj. Sess.), § 3, eff. April 13, 2004; 2007, No. 173 (Adj. Sess.), § 1; 2009, No. 55, § 1, eff. June 1, 2009.)