Incarceration Content Topic Results

Identifying and Preventing Gender and Intersectional Bias in Law Enforcement Responses to Domestic and Sexual Violence

berdman — Fri, 05 Apr 2019 15:13:06 +0000

Identifying and Preventing Gender and Intersectional Bias in Law Enforcement Responses to Domestic and Sexual Violence berdman Fri, 04/05/2019 - 11:13

Published

January 14, 2022

Author(s)

Carrie Bettinger-Lopez

Rosie Hidalgo

Olivia Garcia

Renu Sara Nargund

This special collection is a product of the COURAGE in Policing Project, jointly supported by the Human Rights Clinic at the University of Miami School of Law, Casa de Esperanza National Latin@ Network, and UN Women. [Note: Rosie Hidalgo contributed to the production of this Special Collection prior to January 2021, in her capacity as Senior Director of Public Policy, Casa de Esperanza (now Esperanza United).] The purpose of this special collection is to compile resources focused on improving the law enforcement responses to domestic violence and sexual assault.

Domestic violence, sexual assault, and other forms of gender-based violence (GBV) are pandemics that are globally ubiquitous, despite decades of efforts to address these ills through public health, criminal justice, education, and social welfare sectors. Despite the devastating prevalence of GBV, the United Nations (UN) has reported that in most countries, less than 40% of women who experienced violence sought any sort of help, and of those, less than 10% sought help from the police (United Nations Statistics Division 2015). This reflects a profound mistrust of state systems whose frontline responders are usually law enforcement officers and whose purported mission is to protect and serve.

The reasons behind the fraught relationship between survivors and law enforcement are complex. They range from a lack of effective trainings on responding to GBV and communicating with survivors, to the use of investigation and prosecution policies and practices that do not account for the effects of trauma on victims, to a lack of accountability mechanisms for misconduct, including GBV perpetrated by law enforcement officers themselves, to biases (gender, race, and otherwise) that are ingrained in the criminal legal system. These dynamics particularly impact survivors from marginalized or underserved communities, who often have a deep mistrust of the police. Recent surveys underscore the significance of gender, racial, and other forms of bias in police responses to GBV, and the effects of bias on how people engage with the criminal legal system.

While law enforcement response is only one component of a comprehensive approach to GBV, it is a critical piece, particularly in the context of high-risk situations and when survivors seek to engage with the police. In 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) began stepping up its investigations into discriminatory law enforcement responses to GBV in several cities and, in 2015, the DOJ published a Guidance entitled Identifying and Preventing Gender Bias in Law Enforcement Response to Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence (DOJ 2015). The Guidance, which articulates eight principles, was created to improve responses to GBV by the 18,000 law enforcement agencies (LEAs) across the U.S.

The guidance provides a foundation for considering how law enforcement can improve responses to survivors, women and girls of color, and people from historically exploited and vulnerable communities, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ+) individuals, who are disproportionately impacted by sexual assault and domestic violence. Through eight sections (A-G), this collection offers resources for identifying and preventing gender, racial, and other forms of bias, especially for underserved and marginalized survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.

We hope that this special collection will provide various perspectives and resources for advocates, law enforcement leaders, and others who are considering ways to improve law enforcement responses to gender-based violence, particularly in underserved or marginalized communities. Our hope is to expand and improve pathways to safety for survivors.

We recognize that there are many unanswered questions that may come up for readers in the review of this special collection. These may include questions such as: how have advocates approached law enforcement issues? What is the historical impact of the work done by advocates? What is the ability of law enforcement to implement measurable and sustainable change? and how can law enforcement evaluate and correct itself at this point? While this special collection does not directly answer these questions, we recognize the importance of exploring these pertinent questions in future collections to better identify and prevent gender bias in the law enforcement response to sexual assault and domestic violence. We also acknowledge the need for rigorous evaluations of existing law enforcement training programs to bring greater accountability, enhance credibility, and bridge gaps in the program to ensure training effectiveness.

In the future, the COURAGE project plans to develop a collection of resources highlighting the importance of different pathways to safety, particularly for survivors who want alternatives to the criminal legal system, such as “violence interruption” programs, restorative and transformative justice, collective healing, economic justice, and health and housing justice. We welcome your feedback and ideas.

We approach this work with the intention of dismantling misogynist, anti-black and racist norms that are prevalent throughout U.S. society, including in the criminal legal system. Indeed, it is well understood that many survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault choose not to engage with the criminal legal system for a variety of reasons, including: a history of violence by law enforcement and other state agents against women, black and minority communities; fear of the immigration, child welfare, public assistance, and other consequences for survivors and their family members; deportation, exploitation, and a desire to protect one’s family from justice system involvement. Nonetheless, for the victims who do interact with the criminal legal system, the focus of this initiative is to make existing law enforcement systems more trauma-informed, survivor-centered, and accountable.

While criminalization of individuals who inflict GBV has historically been viewed as a proxy for justice, advocates and scholars are proposing alternative frameworks, such as “violence interruption,” restorative justice, community justice, collective healing, economic justice, health and housing justice, and “police abolition.” We endorse these calls for increased research and investment in non-criminal approaches to preventing and responding to GBV, and we believe they are in line with a human rights-based, “due diligence” approach.

While we must develop and embrace a long-term vision for safety, justice, and healing for survivors, we also believe that we must develop viable models to improve police response to GBV for the foreseeable future. For such a devastating and deadly problem, we must approach the problem in the here-and-now with tactical precision. This means investing in the alternative approaches outlined above, while insisting on improvements to the criminal legal system that currently exists.

While the role of law enforcement will likely evolve in response to these crises, it remains an important system actor in the GBV context for the foreseeable future. It is thus critical that LEAs espouse and implement the following principles, expanding on the DOJ Guidance: accountability for officer-perpetrated GBV; trauma-informed interactions with survivors; effective investigation of GBV reports; and attention to intersecting forms of discrimination. Doing so will help prevent gender and other intersectional forms of bias, thereby improving responses to GBV and contributing to a safer world for all of us.

The authors are grateful to colleagues from UN Women who contributed feedback and ideas to this special collection: Mirko Fernandez, Laura Capobianco, and Caroline Meenagh.

Building a Community Coordinated Response to the Criminalization of Survivors: A Toolkit

berdman — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 13:42:04 +0000

Building a Community Coordinated Response to the Criminalization of Survivors: A Toolkit berdman Tue, 10/28/2025 - 09:42

General Material

Published Date

September, 2025

Publisher(s)

Battered Women's Justice Project (BWJP)

Author(s)

Sue Osthoff

Jane Sadusky

This toolkit from the Battered Women's Justice Project provides ideas, strategies, and techniques for addressing the need and challenges related to making survivors charged with crimes visible and central in a community’s response to domestic and sexual violence, with a particular emphasis on victims of battering charged with crimes.

Associated Links

Building a Community Coordinated Response to the Criminalization of Survivors: …

Material Categories

Community Organizing / Mobilization / Engagement

Coordinated Community Response

Raising Awareness

Criminal Justice

Domestic Violence

Incarceration

Tipsheet: Working with Survivors on Probation and Parole

berdman — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 17:09:56 +0000

Tipsheet: Working with Survivors on Probation and Parole berdman Mon, 10/27/2025 - 13:09

General Material

Published Date

August, 2025

Publisher(s)

Battered Women's Justice Project (BWJP)

Community-based advocates can play a critical role in helping survivors successfully complete supervision, particularly when working in partnership with a survivor’s probation or parole officer. This tipsheet highlights various practical strategies advocates can use when working with survivors on probation and parole.

Associated Links

Tipsheet: Working with Survivors on Probation and Parole

Material Categories

Collaboration / Bridge Building

Working With Survivors in Jail: A Manual for Community-Based Advocates

berdman — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 16:03:47 +0000

Working With Survivors in Jail: A Manual for Community-Based Advocates berdman Mon, 10/27/2025 - 12:03

General Material

Published Date

July, 2025

Publisher(s)

Battered Women's Justice Project (BWJP)

Updated 2025 (originally published 2009)

This manual provides information and strategies to help community-based advocates provide effective and holistic support to incarcerated victims of battering.

Associated Links

Working With Survivors in Jail: A Manual for Community-Based Advocates

Material Categories

Trauma Informed Approach

Black Women & Girls, Gender-Based Violence, and Pathways to Criminalization & Incarceration

berdman — Mon, 24 Oct 2022 18:47:34 +0000

Black Women & Girls, Gender-Based Violence, and Pathways to Criminalization & Incarceration berdman Mon, 10/24/2022 - 14:47

General Material

Published Date

October, 2022

Publisher(s)

National Black Women's Justice Institute

Gender-based violence—including domestic violence—impacts an astonishing number of Black women and girls. And when Black women and girls experience gender-based violence, the strategies they take to survive are often criminalized. Ending the systemic punishment and incarceration of Black women and girls requires that we decriminalize survival. This factsheet spotlights the impact of gender-based violence on Black women and girls and the ensuing criminalization that occurs.

Associated Links

Black Women & Girls, Gender-Based Violence, and Pathways to Criminalization & I…

Material Categories

Leadership of Voices of Experience (LOVE) Curriculum

berdman — Mon, 24 Oct 2022 17:28:01 +0000

Leadership of Voices of Experience (LOVE) Curriculum berdman Mon, 10/24/2022 - 13:28

General Material

Training Tools

Published Date

September, 2022

Publisher(s)

National Black Women's Justice Institute

Led and driven by currently and formerly incarcerated women, the Leadership of Voices of Experience (LOVE) Project has developed a training curriculum for victim service providers that builds providers’ capacity to support system-impacted women and gender expansive people—people who are transgender, gender nonconforming, gender queer, nonbinary. Specifically, the training is focused on developing the skills necessary to become advocates for social and economic change that advances the wellbeing and opportunity landscape for women who have been directly impacted by the criminal legal system and gender-based violence.

The LOVE Project aims to

Enhance victim service providers’ ability to support and cultivate advocates and leaders.
Help currently and formerly incarcerated women and girls who are survivors of sexual violence develop the skills and confidence to advocate for policies that promote the safety, interests, and success of women and girls.
Promote public awareness about the high rates at which women who are directly impacted by the criminal legal system experience sexual violence and the importance of establishing services that respond to their needs and experiences.

Associated Links

Leadership of Voices of Experience (LOVE) Curriculum

Material Categories

Trauma Informed Approach

The Color of Justice: Racial and Ethnic Disparities in State Prisons

berdman — Wed, 08 Dec 2021 15:52:17 +0000

The Color of Justice: Racial and Ethnic Disparities in State Prisons berdman Wed, 12/08/2021 - 10:52

General Material

Published Date

October, 2021

Publisher(s)

The Sentencing Project

Black Americans are incarcerated in state prisons across the country at nearly five times the rate of whites, and Latinx people are 1.3 times as likely to be incarcerated than non-Latinx whites. This report from the Sentencing Project documents the rates of incarceration for white, Black and Latinx Americans in each state, identifies three contributors to racial and ethnic disparities in imprisonment, and provides recommendations for reform.

Associated Links

The Color of Justice: Racial and Ethnic Disparities in State Prisons

Material Categories

Working with Male Survivors: Economic Barriers Behind Bars

fdaza — Sat, 30 Aug 2025 16:04:42 +0000

Working with Male Survivors: Economic Barriers Behind Bars fdaza Sat, 08/30/2025 - 12:04

General Material

Published Date

April, 2021

New Resources Added

August 30, 2025

Publisher(s)

National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC)

This NSVRC podcast episode focuses on the unique challenges faced by incarcerated male survivors of sexual violence. Featuring Tonjie Reese from Just Detention International, the discussion highlights the intersection of economic barriers and racial justice issues within prisons. Reese underscores the importance of providing accessible hotline services, implementing inmate education efforts, and developing strategies to reach survivors who are often isolated and underserved.

Associated Links

Podcast

Material Categories

Raising Awareness

Accessibility

Prevention Programming

Trauma Informed Approach

Incarceration

Shrouded in Silence: Police Sexual Violence: What We Know & What Can We Do About It

berdman — Wed, 12 May 2021 15:59:38 +0000

Shrouded in Silence: Police Sexual Violence: What We Know & What Can We Do About It berdman Wed, 05/12/2021 - 11:59

General Material

Published Date

April, 2021

Publisher(s)

Interrupting Criminalization

Author(s)

Andrea J. Ritchie

In the midst of a national reckoning around the violence of policing, and a national conversation about sexual assault prompted by #MeToo and the ‘me, too.’ movement launched by Tarana Burke, sexual violence by law enforcement officers - including local and state police, ICE agents and Border Patrol, school “resource” officers, federal law enforcement agents, probation and parole officers - remains shrouded in silence. Survivors of police sexual violence are rarely heard from or discussed in either conversation, and their experiences generally do not drive organizing and advocacy in either context.

This report, in conjunction with an accompanying curriculum for sexual assault service providers, Breaking the Silence: Supporting Survivors of Police Sexual Violence, is intended to contribute to breaking this silence, to summarize what we know about sexual violence by law enforcement officers, and to offer concrete steps toward prevention of police sexual violence and increased safety, support, and opportunities for healing for survivors.

Associated Links

Shrouded in Silence: Police Sexual Violence: What We Know & What Can We Do Abou…

Material Categories

Solving racial disparities in policing

berdman — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 14:21:40 +0000

Solving racial disparities in policing berdman Thu, 10/28/2021 - 10:21

General Material

Published Date

February, 2021

Publisher(s)

The Harvard Gazette

Author(s)

Colleen Walsh

This piece by the Harvard Gazette discusses the history of racialized policing, highlights current issues with policing and the criminal justice system, and outlines community-based ways forward.

Associated Links

Solving racial disparities in policing

Material Categories

Community Organizing / Mobilization / Engagement