Advocates, service providers, attorneys, and people working in membershipbased organizations shared stories, concerns and recommendations regarding policing and domestic violence and sexual assault, in response to a nationwide survey conducted over a one-month period in April and May 2015. More than 900 people responded. Responses reflected the themes described below. Concerns Regarding Policing, Domestic Violence, and Sexual Assault Respondents named the following central concerns regarding how police respond to domestic violence and sexual assault and additional reasons that some survivors do not contact the police or cooperate with criminal interventions: Police inaction, hostility, and dismissiveness-An overwhelming majority of the survey respondents (88%) reported that police "sometimes" or "often" do not believe survivors or blamed survivors for the violence. A similarly large majority (83%) reported that police "sometimes" or "often" do not take allegations of sexual assault and domestic violence seriously. Respondents described examples where law enforcement increased the risk of a batterer's retaliation by, for example, taking no action or by dismissing the claims. Police bias-A majority (55%) of respondents said that police bias against particular groups of people or with regard to domestic violence and sexual assault was a problem in their community. Over 80% believed that police-community relations with marginalized communities influenced survivors' willingness to call the police. A significant number of respondents raised concerns about police bias against women as a group, as well as gender/race/ethnicity/religion bias against African-American women, Latinas, Native American women, Muslim women, and women of other ethnic backgrounds. Fifty-four percent (54%) reported that police are biased against immigrants "sometimes" or "often"; sixty-nine percent (69%) reported bias "sometimes" or "often" against women; fifty-eight (58%) reported bias "sometimes" or "often" against LGBTQ-identified individuals; and sixty-six (66%) reported bias sometimes or often against poor people. Significant numbers of respondents also reported police bias against African-Americans, Native Americans, youth survivors, and survivors with mental health or drug abuse problems. Collateral consequences-Eighty-nine percent (89%) reported that contact with the police resulted in involvement with child protective services "sometimes" (47%) or "often" (42%). Respondents gave examples of other negative collateral consequences that may ensue from involvement with the criminal justice system. Sixty-one percent (61%) of respondents reported that contact with the police "sometimes" (43%) or "often" (18%) leads to criminal charges that could then
There is a growing momentum for international and domestic legal reforms to confront violence against women and children, as indicated by the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and recent initiatives by the United Nations and others. This chapter examines the impact and potential of international human rights law as a component of efforts to prevent and redress violence against women and children.
Advocacy seeking justice for survivors of domestic and sexual violence historically has invoked civil rights law and rhetoric to advance legal remedies and public policy reform. Although many have come to think of a civil rights remedy as a private right of action against an individual, when we think about civil rights and gender violence, we should be thinking more broadly. Neither the Supreme Court decision in United States v. Morrison, nor its decision in Castle Rock v. Gonzales, both of which rejected civil rights-based claims, precludes new civil rights reform. Indeed, a civil rights frame has enduring potential to support needed change by challenging structural inequalities that continue to inform and drive gender violence. This article considers potential civil rights remedies that would address structural and systemic inequalities related to gender violence. It focuses on one area of potential reform: law enforcement accountability. The article urges a shift that views law enforcement accountability for gender violence on the same continuum as other forms of law enforcement misconduct. Popular understandings of police misconduct typically involve over-enforcement, while cases involving gender violence typically involve under-enforcement. However both categories involve misuse of authority and should be thought of in tandem. This shift can reinvigorate existing strategies and can generate new approaches to both law and policy. The article makes recommendations that would contribute to a new generation of progressive reform that advances the principles of equality and liberty for which civil rights long has stood.
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