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.
“Why didn’t you tell someone sooner?”
Survivors of child sexual abuse and family violence hear this question all too often.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Two hundred diverse crime survivors from across Texas will gather together for the first time at the Capitol to advocate for a safety agenda that makes communities safer and meets the needs of crime victims.
I never really identified as a crime victim. I knew that I had witnessed terrible things as a young child living in a house with domestic violence, but it would be years before I truly realized the impact of that trauma on my life.
Tuesday, about 200 crime survivors from across Texas descended on the Capitol for the state’s first “survivors speak” event. They’re calling on lawmakers to ensure survivors receive victim compensation and to build on recovery services.
Agnes Furey, who works with survivors of violent crime, knows what it’s like to get the proverbial telephone call. She got hers in 1998, when authorities delivered the news that her 40-year-old daughter and 6-year-old grandson were killed in their Sarasota apartment. “I can’t change what happened,” said Furey, 80, who lives in Tallahassee. “What …
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