Maine Revised Statutes Title 17-A. Maine Criminal Code § 2001. Purpose

The Legislature finds and declares that the victims of crimes often suffer losses through no fault of their own and for which there is no compensation. It also finds that repayment, in whole or in part, by the offender to the victim of the offender's crime can operate to rehabilitate the offender in certain instances. It is the purpose of this chapter to encourage the compensation of victims by the person most responsible for the loss incurred by the victim, the offender. Restitution by the offender can serve to reinforce the offender's sense of responsibility for the offense, to provide the offender the opportunity to pay the offender's debt to society and to the offender's victim in a constructive manner and to ease the burden of the victim as a result of the criminal conduct.

The Legislature recognizes that a crime is an offense against society as a whole, not only against the victim of the crime, and that restitution for victims is therefore ancillary to the central objectives of the criminal law. It intends restitution to be applied only when other purposes of sentencing can be appropriately served.

The Legislature does not intend the use of restitution to result in preferential treatment for offenders with substantial financial resources.