RIGHTS FOR VICTIMS

A key issue for CAASE

Thousands of people are sexually victimized in Cook County each year. Seeking justice through the criminal legal system requires them to engage in lengthy, complex, and often traumatizing processes with countless opportunities for their rights to be violated. CAASE works to assert and enforce victims’ rights representation (VRR) through no-cost legal services to support them through the criminal legal system. CAASE’s work providing survivor-centered support doesn’t stop there: our Community Engagement department is forming a Survivor Advisory Alliance to evaluate our initiatives and make sure the work we do is responsive to the needs of survivors and vulnerable communities. We’re committed to protecting victims’ rights in the criminal legal system, reforming the criminal legal system to support all survivors, and ensuring rape kit access and the continuation of care.  

Protecting Victims’ Rights in the Criminal Legal System

We understand that every survivor of sexual harm defines justice differently. Some seek personal safety in criminal court, seeing their perpetrator prosecuted for the pain they caused. Others pursue financial support for medical or therapy bills to heal from sexual assault through court-ordered restitution. Others want to directly address their perpetrator in their own words, without interruption or traumatizing cross-examination, through a victim impact statement. When survivors engage the criminal legal system—in whichever way they choose—CAASE is dedicated to seeing that their rights are respected. 

• Victims’ rights laws like Illinois’s Rights of Crime Victims and Witnesses Act and the federal Crime Victims Rights Act can and should account for these varying needs. These laws are supposed to ensure survivors’ voices are heard and their rights are respected throughout the criminal legal process, and it’s our commitment that they do.3
• CAASE is one of just a few organizations in Illinois providing legal services centered on VRR in the criminal legal system. The VRR division of our legal program aims to transform the treatment of survivors of sexual harm within the criminal legal system in Cook County, ensuring that their rights are respected throughout the process.1
• Our engagement in VRR work informs our call for policies to improve victims’ rights statutes. Illinois was among the first states to provide constitutional rights for victims, but our statute lacks many enforcement mechanisms. Victims need a way to seek recourse if those rights are violated, which is why we supported a law to clarify when a victim should be consulted or notified about their case, determine the pathway to enforcement when a right is violated, and develop remedies when a victim’s rights are violated.2

Reforming the Criminal Legal System to Support All Survivors

We know that victims and survivors of sexual harm are not a monolith. As such, it’s important that CAASE’s work centers victims and their rights not only in the ways they’re commonly imagined but in ways that ensure all survivors have access to remedies in the criminal legal system. This means addressing how marginalization due to gender, race, and sexuality can compound victims’ difficulties navigating the criminal legal process, and it means supporting survivors who find themselves at the intersection of victim and defendant. 

• Sexual assault victims come from every racial, ethnic, and socio-economic group. They include members of the LGBTQ+ community. They include men. Some victims are undocumented immigrants or have criminal records themselves. Studies show that victims from marginalized groups fare differently and worse at every stage of the criminal process: less likely to be believed by the police, prosecutors, and juries.4
• Many victims of sexual harm have interactions with the criminal legal system apart from their victimization. They often find themselves as defendants. In fact, 70 to 90% of incarcerated women have been abused physically, sexually or emotionally. Experts say this frequently leads to their imprisonment because survivors’ trauma reactions and survival strategies are criminalized. It’s one of many ways the criminal legal system fails survivors.5
• CAASE wants to see that the law serves victims and survivors, rather than harms them. In the past, we’ve supported the Justice for Victims of Sex Trafficking Act to ensure survivors of the sex trade can expunge their criminal records, we’ve endorsed a law to stop police from executing warrants against victims reporting rape, we worked to end felony prosecution of prostitution—and in the future, we’ll continue working toward making the system work for every survivor who chooses to use it.

Ensuring Rape Kit Access and the Continuation of Care

We recognize that survivors need care beyond evidence collection and emergency room services. Survivors are often retraumatized by the evidence collection process, are unable to access services, or experience continuous delays in evidence processing. CAASE encourages policies that improve care and provide timely results for survivors seeking justice. While these laws do not fix all parts of the system on their own, they work to ensure professionals are given appropriate training to care for survivors, increase access to rape kits, and support survivors throughout the duration of their case.  

• To improve our state’s response to sexual assault, we’ve called on lawmakers to create a statewide tracking system to ensure Illinois processes rape kits in a timely and effective manner. Arrests are often not made until DNA evidence has been tested and confirmed. The state’s ineffective system for testing and tracking rape kits can cause cases to be continually delayed, damaging survivors’ well-being and causing them to disengage from their cases. While a new rape kit tracking system is a step in the right direction and will provide survivors with the status of their kit, it will not improve wait times on its own. Stakeholders must uncover what is causing delays and make changes to ensure timely and effective evidence processing. The tracking system’s data may help accomplish this goal.6
• Because of CAASE’s work, approved federally qualified health centers can now submit sexual assault treatment plans to the Illinois Department of Public Health. When approved, they will follow the strict guidelines of the Sexual Assault Survivors Emergency Treatment Act and meet the same requirements as ERs.7

• CAASE supports laws like the Survivors’ Bill of Rights and the Sexual Assault Survivors Emergency Treatment Act (SASETA) because they protect the quality of care survivors receive throughout the evidence collection process. They ensure trauma-informed professionals address health concerns accordingly and make sure care providers are receiving the appropriate training to do so. Additionally, they require evidence tracking systems be used which facilitate transparency, accountability, and timely processing of evidence.8

For more information, contact Madeleine Behr, Policy Director, Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, at 773.244.2230 ext. 212 or mbehr@caase.org.

References

1. Forrestal, Hayley. “Protecting Victims’ Rights.” Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, 10 Sept. 2020.
2. Too Little Too Late? The CPD’s Response to Sex Crimes 2010–2019. Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, 2020.
3. Behr, Madeline. “When Victims’ Rights are Violated, They Need More Than an Admission of Wrongdoing.” Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, 1 Oct. 2019.
4. Bazelon, Lara and Aya Gruber. “#MeToo Doesn’t Always Have to Mean Prison.” The New York Times, 2 Mar. 2020.
5. Forrestal, Hayley. “Incarceration Impacts Families, Including Survivors.” Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, 9 Apr. 2019.
6. Too Little Too Late? The CPD’s Response to Sex Crimes 2010–2019. Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, 2020.
7. Forrestal, Hayley. “Expanding Rape Kit Access.” Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, 10 June 2020.
8. Ibid.

Issues in Action

Our commitment to these issues is animated through our work, especially in advocacy for systemic solutions that prevent future sexual violence by breaking down the layers of oppression that increase the likelihood of victimization. The current policies we are working on can be found on our Legislative Priorities page. You can also learn about or Public Policy and Advocacy work through our blog posts on the topic.