R.I. Gen. Laws
Rhode Island General Laws

R.I. Gen. Laws § 12-25.1-2 (2026)

Definitions

✓ current as of July 2026
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For purposes of this chapter:

(1) “Alleged criminally responsible person” means a person who has been indicted or against whom a criminal information has been proferred for the commission of a felony committed within the state of Rhode Island which caused another person to suffer personal injury or loss of property, but who has not yet been either convicted or acquitted of the charge nor had the charge dismissed.

(2) “Child” means an unmarried person who is under eighteen (18) years of age and includes a stepchild or an adopted child.

(3) “Commercial exploitation” means any significant commercial exploitation by means of any publication, reenactment, dramatization, interview, depiction, explanation, or expression through any medium of communication which is undertaken for financial consideration, except tangential and incidental references to a crime. The term includes, but is not limited to, a movie, book, magazine or newspaper article, tape recording, still photograph, radio or television program, live presentation, or reproduction or presentation of any kind.

(4) “Convicted,” as used in this chapter only, means a person who has entered a plea of guilty or nolo contendere to a charge of a felony offense, regardless of the fine, sentence or other punishment imposed or who has been found guilty after a trial on a charge of a felony offense.

(5) “Court” means the superior court.

(6) “Criminally responsible person” means a person who has been convicted of a felony committed within the state of Rhode Island which caused another person to suffer personal injury or loss of property, or who has been adjudicated not guilty by reason of insanity after a trial on a charge of the offense, or who has voluntarily admitted the commission of the offense.

(7) “Dependent” means a person wholly or partially dependent upon the income of the victim at the time of his or her death or would have been so dependent but for the incapacity due to the injury from which the death resulted, and includes a child of the victim born after the death of the victim.

(8) “Pecuniary loss” includes:

(i) For personal injury:

(A) Medical expenses (including psychiatric care);

(B) Hospital expenses;

(C) Loss of past earnings; and

(D) Loss of future earnings because of a disability resulting from personal injury;

(ii) For death:

(A) Funeral and burial expenses; and

(B) Loss of support to the dependents of the victim; and

(iii) Any other expenses actually and necessarily incurred as a result of the personal injury or death.

(9) “Personal injury” means actual bodily harm, mental or nervous shock, or a pregnancy.

(10) “Relative” means a spouse, parent, grandparent, stepfather, stepmother, child, grandchild, brother, sister, half-brother, half-sister, and a spouse’s parents.

(11) “Victim” means a person who suffers personal injury or loss of property as a direct result of the conduct of another person in perpetration of a criminal offense.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 3 cases, 1997–2002 · leading case: Bouchard v. Price, 694 A.2d 670 (R.I. 1997).
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Bouchard v. Price, 694 A.2d 670 (R.I. 1997). · cites it 22× “Rather, the plain language of the statute mandates that the act should apply to "any * * * expression," G.L. 1956 § 12-25.1-2(3), of "the events and circumstances constituting and/or surrounding and/or motivating the crime or alleged crime.”
Keenan v. Superior Court, 40 P.3d 718 (Cal. 2002). · cites it 2× “674 , quoting definition of "commercial exploitation" in Criminal Royalties Distribution Act of 1983, R.I. Gen. Laws § 12-25.1-2(3).) [4] (See Learned, The Constitutionality of Cashing in on Crime: Free Expression, Free Enterprise, and Not-Profit Conditions of Probation (1995) 1…”
Opinion of the Justices to the Senate, 30 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 1522 (Mass. 2002). “§ 8312 (West 1998); R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 12-25.1-2 to 12-25.1-4.”
R.I. Gen. Laws § 12-25.1-2(3): 2 cases
Bouchard v. Price, 694 A.2d 670 (R.I. 1997). “Rather, the plain language of the statute mandates that the act should apply to "any * * * expression," G.L. 1956 § 12-25.1-2(3), of "the events and circumstances constituting and/or surrounding and/or motivating the crime or alleged crime.”
Keenan v. Superior Court, 40 P.3d 718 (Cal. 2002). “674 , quoting definition of "commercial exploitation" in Criminal Royalties Distribution Act of 1983, R.I. Gen. Laws § 12-25.1-2(3).) [4] (See Learned, The Constitutionality of Cashing in on Crime: Free Expression, Free Enterprise, and Not-Profit Conditions of Probation (1995) 1…”
R.I. Gen. Laws § 12-25.1-2(6): 1 case
Bouchard v. Price, 694 A.2d 670 (R.I. 1997). “Rather, the plain language of the statute mandates that the act should apply to "any * * * expression," G.L. 1956 § 12-25.1-2(3), of "the events and circumstances constituting and/or surrounding and/or motivating the crime or alleged crime.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.