The 620 available files included 57 files that contained allegations of domestic violence. Forty-five of these files contained sufficient information to determine the particular domestic context; 30 files concerned applications brought by a victim against an offender of the opposite sex. Twenty-eight of these 30 victims were female. Analysis of these 30 cases revealed that the Criminal Injuries Compensation Act of 1985 contains inappropriate and inconsistent standards that serve to deny domestic violence victims due compensation for crimes committed against them. Its strictly legalistic approach to compensation has two types of flaws. First, the law looks for contributory conduct by the victim and thereby creates defenses to otherwise actionable conduct. Second, the law ignores the social and psychological context in which domestic violence occurs. The law’s attempt to award compensation only for the truly deserving is used to blame women for remaining in an abusive relationship or not seeking the assistance of the legal system when leaving it. Therefore, the law needs amendments to prevent a reduction in compensation unless the reduction is one that a civil tort action would recognize and allow and to prevent the reduction of compensation for provocation unless this defense would be available to the offender in a criminal prosecution. In addition, justice personnel need to recognize the realities of the victim’s life and the criminal justice system when interpreting the requirement that the victim fully cooperate with relevant authorities. Reference notes