|
Law enforcement, prosecutors, and
rape experts joined forces in an intensive training conference
to challenge the legal process and hold more sex offenders
accountable
From October 26 – 29, 2004, a team of professionals from 8 U.S.
Cities came together for an intensive, three-day training
conference in San Diego, California. Over those three days,
participants learned about innovative practices for responding
to sexual assault crimes, reached across traditional
disciplinary boundaries, networked with other professionals from
across the United States, and energized each other to enact
significant improvements in their community. Now that they have
returned home, however, the real work begins.
The core vision of this training conference – appropriately
referred to as the “Making a Difference (MAD) Conference” – is
to challenge the status quo by improving the legal process and
holding more sex offenders accountable. Community teams
therefore included eight professionals not typically known for
working together cooperatively, including police, prosecutors,
victim advocates, medical professionals, and crime lab
personnel. The San Diego conference was hosted by the non-profit
organization End Violence Against Women International (EVAW),
which was founded by Joanne Archambault.
A parallel “Making a Difference” (MAD) conference took place
earlier in the month, in Ottawa with teams representing eight
communities from across Canada. Thus, the 16 communities taking
part of this international project are:
United States Communities:
Canadian
Communities:
-
Calgary, Alberta -
Whitehorse, Yukon
-
Edmonton, Alberta
-
Halifax/Antigonish,
Nova Scotia
-
Niagara Region
(St. Catharines), Ontario
-
South Central
Manitoba (Winkler)
-
Victoria, British
Columbia
Now , the 16 participating teams in both countries are working
with each other to improve the legal process and more
effectively prosecute sex offenders. They are receiving
technical assistance, and their efforts will be the focus of
long-term research. The need for this project was highlighted by
Dr. Ed Renner, Professor of Psychology at Carleton University,
who noted that: “In both the United States and Canada, the data
suggest that fewer than two percent of rapists receive a prison
sentence. This is particularly shocking because the identity of
the rapist is known at least 90% of the time. This means that
rape remains largely outside the effective jurisdiction of the
criminal justice system – in both countries.”
The Making a Difference Conference is designed to change that
reality. Thus, follow-up data will be collected in each of the
16 participating communities to track any improvements in the
investigation and prosecution of sex offenders. This type of
data has never before been available, and it will hopefully
convince other communities of the value of working together to
solve this problem. “We really hope that other communities will
be inspired to implement the same kind of model, by cooperating
across professional boundaries to improve the legal system and
hold more sex offenders accountable,” stated retired sex crimes
sergeant Joanne Archambault. “We would love to see police,
prosecutors, victim advocates, and others work together to ‘Make
a Difference’ in every community.”
|
|
