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Intimate Partner Violence Foundations: Capturing Coercive Control

This webinar is part of a 10-episode podcast-style series focused on the foundational elements of prosecuting intimate partner violence cases (IPV).  In each episode, AEquitas Attorney Advisor Jane Anderson engages in conversations with other AEquitas staff, former prosecutors with years of experience prosecuting IPV. 

In this episode, Jane and Attorney Advisor Jon Kurland discuss how offenders assert coercive control in abusive relationships, strategies for admitting evidence of coercive control to provide context to the violence, and when to charge co-occurring crimes. They explore how an offender’s coercive control tactics can be identified through interviews, investigation, and collaboration; how these tactics can be introduced as evidence in trial through 404(b) motions; and how coercive control may provide evidence to support additional charges, such as stalking.

At the conclusion of this presentation, viewers will be better able to:

  • Identify offenders’ tactics of coercive control tactics;
  • Litigate the admission of other crimes, wrongs, and acts; and
  • Analyze coercive control in relation to stalking.

Additional resources related to this episode:

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Intimate Partner Violence Foundations: Not Just a Box to Check: Building Trust and Rapport

This webinar is part of a 10-episode podcast-style series focused on the foundational elements of prosecuting intimate partner violence cases (IPV). In each episode, AEquitas Attorney Advisor Jane Anderson engages in conversations with other AEquitas staff, former prosecutors with years of experience prosecuting IPV. 

In this episode, Jane and Attorney Advisor Patti Powers discuss how to assess victims’ needs and provide meaningful access to appropriate services, communicate effectively with victims at all stages of a case, and improve victim disclosures. They highlight what building trust and rapport with victims may look like, challenges prosecutors may face when establishing relationships with victims, and strategies to overcome these challenges.

At the conclusion of this presentation, viewers will be better able to:

  • Build trust and rapport with victims;
  • Enhance prosecutions through improved victim disclosures; and
  • Demonstrate that the criminal justice system is a safe place for victims

Additional resources related to this episode:

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Intimate Partner Violence Foundations: Collaboration is Key: Working with Victim Service Professionals

This webinar is part of a 10-episode podcast-style series focused on the foundational elements of prosecuting intimate partner violence cases (IPV).  In each episode, AEquitas Attorney Advisor Jane Anderson engages in conversations with other AEquitas staff, former prosecutors with years of experience prosecuting IPV. 

In this episode, Jane and Attorney Advisor Patti Powers discuss the importance of working closely with victim service professionals in intimate partner violence cases. They explore how prosecutors and victim service professionals can work collaboratively to ease common tension points while protecting victim privacy and ensuring that survivors have meaningful access to services.

At the conclusion of this presentation, viewers will be better able to:

  • Identify opportunities to enhance collaboration;
  • Communicate to build trust between victim services professionals and prosecutors; and
  • Leverage collaborative relationships to enhance victim safety and participation.

Additional resources related to this episode:

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Intimate Partner Violence Foundations: Collaboration is Key: Working with Law Enforcement

This webinar is part of a 10-episode podcast-style series focused on the foundational elements of prosecuting intimate partner violence cases (IPV). In each episode, AEquitas Attorney Advisor Jane Anderson engages in conversations with other AEquitas staff, former prosecutors with years of experience prosecuting IPV. 

In this episode, Jane and Attorney Advisor Jon Kurland discuss the importance of working closely with law enforcement to build and successfully prosecute IPV cases. They identify opportunities for enhanced collaboration, discuss methods for building evidence-based investigations and prosecutions, and emphasize how collaboration can help prosecutors comply with discovery and due process requirements.

At the conclusion of this presentation, viewers will be better able to:

  • Identify opportunities to enhance collaboration;
  • Communicate to build trust between law enforcement and prosecutors; and
  • Leverage collaborative relationships to enhance victim safety and participation.

Additional resources related to this episode:

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Intimate Partner Violence Foundations: Recognizing and Minimizing Barriers to Justice

This webinar is part of a 10-episode podcast-style series focused on the foundational elements of prosecuting intimate partner violence cases (IPV).  In each episode, AEquitas Attorney Advisor Jane Anderson engages in conversations with other AEquitas staff, former prosecutors with years of experience prosecuting IPV. 

In this episode, Jane and Attorney Advisor Patti Powers discuss strategies for holding offenders accountable while prioritizing victims’ safety, privacy, and autonomy. The discussion highlights the different types of trauma a victim may experience, how an offender’s use of power and control can affect a victim’s ability to participate in the criminal justice process, methods for increasing victim participation, and strategies for holding the offender accountable when the victim is unable to participate.

At the conclusion of this presentation, viewers will be better able to:

  • Identify how offenders inflict and compound trauma;
  • Maximize victim participation by minimizing barriers; and
  • Balance offender accountability with being victim-centered.

Additional resources related to this episode:

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Intimate Partner Violence Foundations: The Power and Control Wheel: Spoke by Spoke

This webinar is part of a 10-episode podcast-style series focused on the foundational elements of prosecuting intimate partner violence cases (IPV). In each episode, AEquitas Attorney Advisor Jane Anderson engages in conversations with other AEquitas staff, former prosecutors with years of experience prosecuting IPV.

In this episode, Jane and Attorney Advisor John Wilkinson discuss common dynamics of power in control in cases of intimate partner violence. John and Jane break down each spoke of the Power and Control Wheel to highlight how an understanding of these dynamics can guide victim interviews, support bail arguments, provide context for 404(b) motions, and help explain victim responses to juries.

At the conclusion of this episode, viewers will be better able to:

• Use the Power and Control Wheel to identify offender tactics;

• Present evidence of offender tactics; and

• Collaborate with allied professionals to develop appropriate safety plans.

Additional resources related to this episode:

The Sasha Center Model: Black Women’s Triangulation of Rape – http://sashacenter.org

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Coercive ‘Love’: The Intersection between Intimate Partner Violence and Human Trafficking

Human traffickers control their victims through force, fraud, and coercion. In the case of intimate partner sex trafficking, these methods of control are uniquely manipulative and difficult to identify. Understanding the historical and circumstantial factors that lead to vulnerabilities exploited by traffickers in these relationships allows law enforcement and prosecutors to more successfully address and minimize harm to victims while effectively investigating and prosecuting human trafficking cases.

This presentation describes how, in addition to violence and threats, traffickers exploit feelings of love and loyalty to maintain power over their victims and perpetrate sex trafficking and related crimes. The presenters discuss the importance of identifying victims of intimate partner human trafficking to ensure victim safety and provide access to services and support, while at the same time articulating offender conduct to ensure they are held accountable for their actions.

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First, Do No Harm: Facilitating a Trauma-Informed Response

Trauma is a direct result of the abuse and exploitation that offenders inflict on victims of intimate partner violence and sexual assault. This acute trauma, often compounded with historical trauma, impacts survivor’s ability to fully participate in the criminal justice process. As a result, a collaborative, trauma-informed response that takes historical context into consideration is essential to ensuring survivor access to justice while improving community safety.

This presentation describes various forms of trauma that victims may experience throughout their lives and as a result of an offender’s victimization. Presenters define cultural humility as a key element of a successful trauma-informed response that improves our individual, collective, and systematic responses to survivors. Additionally, the presenters provide strategies to identify, document, and introduce evidence of trauma to improve case outcomes and community safety by holding offenders accountable.

At the conclusion of this training, participants will be better able to:

• Identify signs and symptoms of trauma, and implement trauma-informed practices

• Enhance victim safety, privacy, autonomy, and participation through collaboration with allied professionals

• Practice cultural humility while preparing cases to proceed, regardless of a victim’s ability to participate in the process

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Writing it Right: Documenting Human Trafficking

One specific responsibility of law enforcement and prosecutors working on human trafficking cases is to write various reports, affidavits, and briefs that effectively document incidents of sex and labor trafficking. It is crucial for these documents to accurately reflect complex trafficking dynamics and case-specific facts to establish probable cause and effectively litigate issues at trial. When law enforcement and prosecutors collaborate with others, including those with lived experience, they are better equipped to successfully articulate how traffickers use a variety of overt and subtle tactics to exploit victims—thus establishing the element(s) of force, fraud, and/or coercion necessary for cases involving adult victims.

This presentation focuses on the core competencies needed by law enforcement and prosecutors to establish the elements of human trafficking. Additionally, facilitators discuss the necessity of protecting victim privacy and ensuring that public records and press releases accurately describe trafficking dynamics. In combination with other external messaging, this documentation can help educate the public—and potential jurors—about the realities of trafficking.

At the conclusion of this presentation, participants will be better able to:

• Effectively document traffickers’ actions to establish the elements of force, fraud, or coercion;

• Articulate the realities of human trafficking when communicating with the media and the public; and

• Ethically protect victim and witness safety in the public record.

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Transparency in Prosecution

This webinar spotlights Yolo County’s new criminal justice transparency portal, an innovative website created by the District Attorney’s Office, the Yolo County Multi-Cultural Council, and Measures for Justice (an organization that uses accurate criminal justice data to spur reform). The portal was developed to help the office analyze prosecution data and enhance trust with the community through transparency and accountability. It allows citizens an intimate glimpse into the prosecutorial process in Yolo County—including crime trends that are affecting their community; law enforcement resources in the area; and detailed case statistics pertaining to referrals, charging, diversion, and sentencing decisions. During this webinar, presenters give a live walkthrough of the portal, chronicle the process behind publicizing this data, and discuss their aspirations and policy goals driving this project.