The majority of people ensnared in the criminal legal system have histories of trauma which have largely contributed to their arrest and prosecution. For women, this can be even more pronounced.

An estimated 8 in 10 incarcerated women experienced severe abuse as children and more than 7 in10 experienced serious intimate partner violence as adults.

Survivors of abuse endure a range of power and control tactics from partners and/or family members, including physical attacks, psychological/coercive control, threats, sexual abuse, manipulation, and the creation of an ever-present culture of fear.

This forces survivors to use violence to protect themselves, participate in or accept blame for an abuser’s criminal conduct, engage in fraud or theft to escape, or face exploitation in the commercial sex industry.

Additionally, trauma makes survivors vulnerable to substance abuse and mental health issues which put them at further risk of being arrested and prosecuted.

Therefore, survivors of family and interpersonal violence enter the criminal legal system not because they present a risk to public safety but because of needs that have gone unmet by other systems in the frayed social safety net. They are overwhelmingly Black women and women of color who live in under-resourced communities, have endured intergenerational trauma, and have histories of foster care and multi-system involvement.

The criminal legal system not only fails to recognize and support survivors, it actively punishes them, routinely imposing imprisonment and perpetuating trauma and isolation.

Women are subjected to vicious and degrading tactics by police and prosecutors and dehumanizing prison environments rife with brutality and sexual assault. The treatment of women behind bars, with male correctional officers, pat downs and strip searches, violations of reproductive rights, and all the ways jails/prisons deny women’s self-determination and power, is especially triggering for the many women who previously experienced the loss of power and control that comes with abuse.

The DVSJA holds unprecedented potential to challenge the incarceration of survivors (across the gender spectrum), make large advances in the decarceration of women, and inform allied efforts – including broader sentencing reform, parole reform, clemency and reentry.

It has the power to challenge the false and harmful victim/perpetrator dichotomy that permeates the criminal legal system; to educate the legal community on the dynamics of domestic abuse and impact of trauma; and to force a reckoning with excessively harsh sentencing practices and the over-reliance on incarceration.