In 1977, a serial killer who became known as the Son of Sam was arrested and convicted in New York. Because of the media coverage surrounding his crimes, Son of Sam had an opportunity to profit from telling his version of events without any of the money going to victims. To prevent this from occurring, New York State passed one of the first laws of its kind which prevented Son of Sam from receiving money for telling his story, without making the funds available to the victims of his crimes and their families. Although the original version of this law was later struck down, in 2001 the New York Legislature amended the statute to more clearly define profits from a crime and to allow a victim access to “funds of a convicted person” to satisfy a restitution award. The law also requires that notice be given by the convicted defendant or entity paying a defendant when the funds received will exceed ten thousand dollars. Victims will then be notified of the existence of the funds. This notice then allows a victim to bring a civil action against the convicted defendant, to recover damages from the crime.

Many jurisdictions now have laws which prohibit defendants from profiting from their crime or require alerting victims when defendants receive income over a threshold amount. This is important to keep in mind when the court is structuring a restitution order. A restitution order may restrict a defendant from profiting from their crime, and direct any potential profit to a victim to fulfill the restitution order.