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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.

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Criminal Justice from the Child’s Perspective: Supporting Child Victims & Witnesses

Interacting with the criminal legal system can be confusing, overwhelming and even retraumatizing for children and teens. However, through the Center for Court Innovation’s Child Witness Materials Development Project, a package of interactive, developmentally-informed educational materials has been created to facilitate effective and trauma-informed support for children involved in state, federal, and tribal court systems as victims and witnesses of crime. 

In this webinar, participants learn about how children and teens experience the criminal legal system; best practices in educating, preparing, and supporting children through this experience as a practitioner; and how these new court support materials can be used to mitigate trauma by helping children to feel more informed, empowered, and less distressed when navigating this system.

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Identifying the Predominant Aggressor and Evaluating Lethality

Every year, 3-4 million women in the U.S. are abused and 1,500-1,600 are killed by their abusers. One challenge, for first responders to a domestic disturbance where both parties are injured, is identifying the predominant aggressor. Police and prosecutors must also be able to determine the level of danger facing a victim. Several factors are associated with an increased risk of homicide in domestic violence relationships. While we cannot predict what will happen in a particular case, danger assessments can help determine the risk that a victim faces, enabling us to better prioritize our efforts and support the victim.

This presentation emphasizes the importance of contextual analysis in evaluating criminal responsibility at the arrest, charging, pre-trial, and sentencing phases. Such analysis will help to ensure that the dynamics of domestic violence are properly factored into decisions about arrest, charging, plea negotiations, and sentencing, and will enhance the quality of justice for those who have been victims of abuse. The presentation also discusses the importance of danger assessments and best practices in lethality evaluation.

At the conclusion of this presentation participants will be better able to:
– Evaluate the context within which an act of violence occurs.
– Overcome batterer manipulation of the justice system.
– Identify risk and lethality factors.

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First, Do No Harm: Trauma-Informed Interviewing

Traumatic crimes can impact victims in any number of ways, some obvious and some less so. Moreover, each victim’s response to trauma is unique to that individual. In order to keep victims safe and engaged throughout the criminal justice process, law enforcement and first responders must interact with victims in ways that consider the physical and emotional effects of trauma. Interviewers must understand more common responses to trauma that result from these effects and appreciate the impact of trauma on the victim’s ability to recall and recount details of the traumatic event.

This presentation identifies barriers to successful interviews and explores techniques for overcoming them. The presenter explains how a traditional fact-gathering approach to interviewing can be counterproductive or even harmful to the victim and to the investigation. Alternative approaches to interviewing and questioning are identified and analyzed for their potential to minimize re-traumatization and enhance our ability to recreate the reality of the crime at trial. An emphasis is placed on integrating a trauma-informed response from the first contact with a victim through the conclusion of the case, with realistic goals for interviews and meetings at every stage of the process.

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

– Use open-ended and sensory questions

– Apply an ask and explain methodology

– Offer victims options and information for connecting with community resources

– Implement trauma-informed strategies that enhance victim safety and participation

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Identifying, Preserving, and Introducing Digital Evidence: #Guilty

The way we interact with technology continues to increase and evolve as we rely on computers, smart phones, and other digital devices to complete many of our daily activities. Unfortunately, as technology becomes more integral to our lives, offenders have increasingly misused technology to facilitate crimes against women, and as a means to assert power and control in the course of an intimate partner relationship. Where technology is being used to perpetrate crimes, investigators and prosecutors can identify, preserve, and present digital evidence in order strengthen cases, support victims, and hold offenders accountable for the full range of their criminal and abusive activity

This presentation demonstrates how cyber investigations can be used to reveal evidence of criminal activity, as well as evidence of the power and control dynamics of an abusive intimate partner relationship, but while also supporting the protection of victim privacy. The presenter discusses theories of admission, rules of evidence, and case law is discussed using “real life” examples to demonstrate how to properly authenticate and introduce digital evidence in civil and criminal proceedings.

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

– Identify how offender misuse technology to perpetrate crimes and assert power and control against intimate partners

– Coordinate with allied professionals to better identify sources of digital evidence that can be used to strengthen prosecutions

– Effectively litigate the admission of digital evidence by analyzing applicable evidence rules, current case law, and underlying theories of admission

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Countering Witness Intimidation: Forfeiture by Wrongdoing

Witness intimidation and manipulation factor into almost every domestic violence prosecution. Abusers engage in these tactics because they often work. When witness intimidation is successful, victims decline to participate in the prosecution, they minimize the abuse on the witness stand, or they testify on behalf of the abuser.

But what if we eliminate the payoff for the would-be intimidator? Coordinated efforts by police, prosecutors, and advocates in the form of safety planning, expedited prosecution, victim education, and other strategies can reduce the opportunities for intimidation, thereby increasing the likelihood that victims will feel safe testifying in court. And prosecution strategies, from charging intimidation-related offenses to filing motions to admit out-of-court statements by victims who have been intimidated into silence, can actually increase the likelihood of conviction and the penal consequences for the intimidator. This presentation focuses on forfeiture by wrongdoing as a solution in the case of witnesses who are unavailable for trial due to the offender’s wrongful conduct.

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

• Reduce opportunities for intimidation.

• Educate victims about intimidation.

• Preserve evidence of intimidation that will help to convict the abuser, regardless of whether (or how) the victim testifies.

• Litigate motions to admit evidence under the doctrine of forfeiture by wrongdoing.