IMBs are venues disguised as legitimate massage or bodywork businesses in which women are forced, coerced, and defrauded into performing countless sex acts with strangers on a daily basis. This portion of the three-part series provides an overview of the illicit massage business (IMB) organizational model, which typically exists within one of many nationwide networks. The presenters discuss how women are recruited, harbored, and exploited within those networks. They also explore the challenges facing law enforcement and prosecutors, demonstrating the need for strategies to build evidence-based cases that can ensure that offenders are held accountable for their wide-ranging criminal activity.
Presence of Victim Advocate in Forensic Examination
This resource is a statutory compilation on the presence of victim advocates during forensic examinations in sexual assault cases.
Model Policy for Prosecutors and Judges on Imposing, Modifying and Lifting Criminal No Contact Orders
The goals of the criminal justice system in a domestic violence case are to seek justice, protect the victim and the community, hold the offender accountable, prevent and deter future crime, and rehabilitate the abuser. Criminal no-contact orders are an effective tool to help protect victims of domestic violence during the pendency of criminal prosecution. This resource outlines what a no-contact order is, how it is obtained, and the complexities around whether to impose or maintain them when taking the victim’s wishes and safety into account. The authors discuss how to implement processes to gather timely and accurate information about risk and lethality, a particular victim’s wishes and motivations, and possible negative consequences in order to best determine when to impose or maintain a no contact order in the face of a victim’s opposition.
In God’s Shadow: Unveiling the Hidden World of Domestic Violence Victims in Religious Communities
Domestic violence has been elevated to a global epidemic in recent years. Domestic violence victims of closely knit and observant religious communities face a distinct set of barriers, which affects their ability and willingness to report and to cooperate with law enforcement, as well as their ability to escape the abuse. This article provides a unique window into the hidden world of domestic violence victims in communities of faith and tackles some of the complexities associated with this sensitive issue.
Justice for Victims Behind Bars: Improving the Response to Cases of Sexual Abuse in Confinement
The passage of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) in 2003 created not only a requirement that jurisdictions prevent and respond to incidents of sexual abuse in confinement, but firmly planted sexual abuse in confinement on the list of critical issues for criminal justice system officials across the country. This resource gives an overview of the PREA standards and outlines what an appropriate response to cases of sexual abuse in confinement requires. Professionals require relevant information on the PREA Standards, an understanding of the dynamics of sexual abuse (particularly those dynamics specific to abuse in the confinement setting), and collaboration among the professionals in the jurisdiction. The criminal justice system should consider victims’ safety, privacy, and well-being throughout the process, while ensuring they have access to information and services. Such a response keeps the focus on the actions, behaviors, characteristics, and intent of the abuser.
Justice for Victims Behind Bars Improving the Response to Cases of Sexual Abuse in Confinement
Responding to Stalking: A Guide for Prosecutors
Stalking affects 7.5 million people in the United States a year, with 15 percent of women and 6 percent of men being stalked in their lifetime. Stalking entails repeat victimization because it constitutes a series of acts rather than a single incident and it can cause sustained and repeated emotional distress. This guide is a resource for prosecutors in stalking cases. It provides an overview of stalking and suggests best practices for prosecuting offenders. It should be used as a guide for attorneys to support their own research and for problem-solving in prosecuting these types of cases.
Benefits of a Coordinated Community Response to Sexual Violence
When medical, legal, and victim advocacy systems work together, they provide better, more effective services to victims. This article outlines the importance of multidisciplinary responses as a way to help survivors understand the breadth of available community resources and services. The authors also demonstrate how coordinated responses to sexual violence result in holding offenders accountable while protecting victims and communities.
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Beyond Conviction Rates: Measuring Success in Sexual Assault Prosecutions
Prosecutorial effectiveness is commonly measured by conviction rates, largely because they are readily available. But, are conviction rates an accurate measure of success? Experienced prosecutors know they won’t win every case. In fact, some would argue that if you aren’t losing any cases, you aren’t trying the right ones. This Strategies Newsletter discusses promising sexual assault prosecution strategies as well as ways of measuring effectiveness in ways that do not rely solely upon conviction rates. The article also offers other, more meaningful performance measures, and describes how they can be used to more accurately measure and sustain effective prosecution practices.
Safeguarding Victim Privacy in a Digital World: Ethical Considerations for Prosecutors
Prosecutors have an obligation to provide to the defense all evidence in the government’s possession or control that is material to a defendant’s guilt or punishment. How can we fulfill that obligation, while at the same time safeguarding victim privacy against unnecessary disclosure? In the digital age, these cases present unique ethical challenges related to privacy and confidentiality, prosecutorial discretion, recantation, and disclosure of evidence. This presentation uses hypothetical case scenarios to: address ethical considerations in the context of the investigative function of prosecutors, digital evidence, discovery obligations, and immunity; identify confidential, privileged, non-material, and/or irrelevant victim information and records; discuss threshold requirements for defense attempts to obtain information or for in camera review; introduce pretrial and trial strategies that support the protection of victim privacy, including collaboration with allied professionals.
This webinar recording should qualify prosecutors for 1 hour of continuing legal education (CLE) credits. Prosecutors are encouraged to contact their state bar association in reference to application requirements and related fees.
Prosecuting Cases Involving Victims with Developmental Disabilities: A Focus on Sexual Assault
The traumatic impact of sexual assault may further exacerbate already-existing issues for victims with developmental disabilities. Their condition may affect their participation in a criminal investigation and testimony at trial. Prosecutors must be prepared to address the impact of the disability on the victim and on the dynamics of the crime, particularly when assessing the offender’s behaviors, victim selection, and steps taken to perpetrate the crime. This webinar helps prepare prosecutors to anticipate issues and evidence prior to trial, file and argue pretrial motions, develop trial strategies that take into account the victim’s intellectual/developmental disabilities and mental health issues, introduce relevant evidence at trial while excluding the irrelevant, and consider appropriate sentencing options.
This webinar recording should qualify prosecutors for 1 hour of continuing legal education (CLE) credits. Prosecutors are encouraged to contact their state bar association in reference to application requirements and related fees.
