HOW? When biased police and prosecutors respond to violence against women, they have endless means of purposely getting rid of, sabotaging, minimizing, undercharging, or simply ditching violence against women cases. If you have worked with victims of violence against women for even a brief amount of time, you've certainly seen most of the following and can likely add to this sample list.
- Failing to write crime reports,
- writing incomplete reports,
- writing false reports,
- down-filing the offense,
- violating victims' rights,
- failing to record key evidence and witness statements,
- comtemptful interviewing of victims,
- incomplete victim interviews,
- showing contempt for victim safety,
- failing to obtain criminal protective orders,
- telling the victim no one will believe her,
- misinforming victims of their rights,
- telling women to deal with it in family court,
- blaming the victim,
- threatening the victim with arrest,
- failing to provide interpreters,
- telling the victim not to call police any more,
- failing to respond to perpetrator dissuading the witness,
- failing to follow up on obvious evidence leads,
- telling women there's not enough evidence when there's a mountain of evidence,
- scaring the victim out of testifying,
- threatening the victim with arrest if her report is found to be false,
- buddying up with the perpetrator,
- failing to interview witnesses,
- accusing the victim of lying,
- failing to evaluate for dominant aggressor,
- arresting the victim,
- failing to ask the key questions,
- embarrassing the victim,
- failing to return victims' phone calls,
- shelving the case,
delaying follow-up investigation,
- rejecting viable cases for prosecution,
- undercharging cases,
- failure to correct investigation gaps,
- lying to victims about case viability,
- offering give-away plea deals,
- ignoring victims' questions,
- dissuading the victim from testifying,
- leading victim to fear losing her children,
- telling the victim there are more urgent cases to attend to,
- etc., etc., etc., etc., etc.,
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