A crime victim, this Fresno woman has reclaimed her life, and is ready to help others
“Why didn’t you tell someone sooner?”
Survivors of child sexual abuse and family violence hear this question all too often.
In the News
Landmark Justice Reform Package on Its Way to the Governor
With the House vote Friday, the Florida Legislature has passed its most expansive justice reform bill in 20 years, an initiative led by the state’s crime surivors, many of whom rallied in Tallahassee this session to call for change.
Forbes: Breaking the cycle of crime
A new, and sobering, report released last month reveals that four in 10 Texans have been a victim of crime in the past 10 years, with many experiencing trauma, stress, anxiety and fear as a result. The report from the Alliance for Safety and Justice further shows that seven in 10 violent crime victims have been victims more than once, and that nine in 10 Texas crime victims do not receive support from the state’s victim compensation program that could help them recover.
Opinion: Break the cycle of crime to make our communities safer
As a survivor of the 1992 murder of my two daughters, mother, sister, niece and nephew, I have spent much time thinking about what could have prevented the murders of my family over the past 27 years. While the man who did this was convicted and ultimately executed, I am committed to helping prevent these kinds of tragedies by ensuring the use of proactive safety solutions.
We can’t have meaningful criminal justice reform without helping victims and offenders
If Gov. Ron DeSantis signs Florida’s criminal justice reform bill into law soon, it will mean the voices of citizens like Darla and Elliott Saunders are starting to matter more than the voices of politicians like Mike Hill. Hill was the lone dissenting voice in the state House against a bill aimed at reducing recidivism and pulling back some of the harsher penalties against low-level, nonviolent crimes. He criticized the bill’s bundling and feared it would send a message Florida is getting too soft on crime.
More Articles
Don’t Jail Crime Victims for Not Testifying
It’s been almost four years since I was shot in the stomach at a New Orleans parade on Mother’s Day. When two young men shot into the crowd, 18 others were also injured. I am a local journalist and was covering the parade for a New Orleans paper. The bullet landed in my stomach and …
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How one state is using federal resources to help gunshot victims avoid getting hurt again
The first time Matthew Roberts was shot, a single bullet grazed the top of his shoulder. He remembers it as a warm day in 2015; he’d gone to see his girlfriend fight someone on the street in Cleveland, where he lives.
Stockton Record: Justice for loved ones: Survivors Speak program helps victims unpack trauma and heal
Jessica Salcedo was a day from turning 25 when she was found dead at a vehicle repair shop in south Stockton. On July 2, 2016, the mother of two had made plans to meet someone about some money that was owed. She never returned home. Police found her body the next day. That is all …
Al Jazeera: Can a new victims advocacy movement break cycles of violence?
While traditional victims’ advocates have aligned themselves with law enforcement, maintaining that justice should come in the form of harsh punishment of offenders, this new movement has more in common with criminal justice reformers seeking alternatives to tough sentencing policies. Grounded in research that establishes clear links between early exposure to violence and self-destructive patterns, …
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Black Wounds Matter
The idea of mobilizing crime survivors for criminal-justice reform may sound obvious, but it’s not—or, at least, it hasn’t been. Lenore Anderson, the executive director of Californians for Safety and Justice, once worked at the district attorney’s office in San Francisco. There, she said, “I experienced communities under siege from violence—from cycles of violence—where there …