Since the government is the only civic institution charged with and given the broadest authority to maintain law and order throughout society, the commission of a crime represents the government’s failure to adequately fulfill its role to prevent it. Victims should never have to suffer permanent financial losses due to crimes for which either the criminals cannot afford to compensate their victims or for which the government cannot even find the criminals responsible. Governments must have a vested interest in finding all criminal entities (including individuals, businesses, or other responsible entities) and solving crimes.

Therefore, governments should be responsible for permanently bearing the direct costs of crimes for which the responsible criminals cannot pay or for which the responsible criminals cannot be found. Governments should compensate the victims of crimes for all direct costs (with interest) of the crime as soon as (within 3 months) the legitimacy of their victimhood is ascertained (generally after a legal proceeding). Naturally, some crimes would have direct costs that continue to accrue over time, such as lost wages. In such cases, the government would be obligated to compensate the victim periodically into the future, when such costs accrue over time, not all in one lump sum with the rest of the compensation money.