When the Criminal Legal System Stands in the Way: Understanding Service Access Barriers for Survivors of Gender-Based Violence
By Iolanthe Brooks, Policy Associate
Many survivors of domestic violence do not wish to engage with law enforcement, and yet some services available to them require showing proof of cooperation with the criminal legal system. As part of the City’s broad police reform agenda, ISLG is working to address these barriers and decouple the criminal legal system from essential services.
The Intersection of Criminal Legal Reform and Domestic & Intimate Partner Violence
In late March, the City released the NYPD Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative Draft Plan, which was approved by City Council resolution. This plan presents a vision for a fair, just, equitable, and accountable police system. It is broad in scope and organized around goals that include transparency and accountability, community representation and partnership, the decriminalization of poverty, and a reckoning with racialized policing.
As part of this plan, the City recognized that moving forward with criminal legal reform requires tackling domestic and intimate partner violence (DV/IPV), an epidemic with far-reaching impacts. Across the US, it’s estimated that one in three women, one in four men, and one in two transgender people have experienced physical violence by an intimate partner. Given its prevalence, efforts to develop community safety must include addressing DV/IPV. The DV/IPV field has spent decades supporting survivors, centering their voices, and developing trauma-informed approaches that reduce harm – insights that feed into the goals of the City’s police reform work. Further, many of the social services that serve people impacted by DV/IPV are linked to the criminal legal system through expectations that survivors show police report(s) or order(s) of protection to legitimate their eligibility. Interweaving services with expectations for criminal legal system involvement – whether stemming from calling the police or cooperating with a court case – creates barriers for the many survivors who do not want to engage with this system. These linkages make it more difficult for people to access much-needed services that can safeguard their wellbeing and healing.
Simply put, building a more equitable, accountable, and just criminal legal system in New York means centering discussion of DV/IPV as well as how and where it is connected to law enforcement. To this end, CUNY ISLG is undertaking a set of projects in collaboration with the Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence (ENDGBV) that seek to strengthen service access for survivors and improve law enforcement responses to gender-based violence. This builds upon ISLG’s history of work developing policy solutions for and funding critical programs to address domestic violence.
Decoupling the Criminal Legal System from Social Services
The DV/IPV community has made clear that supporting survivors requires trauma-informed, culturally competent, and accessible services that address survivors’ multifaceted needs. New York City is, in many ways, resource-rich, with a diverse array of available services, including related to housing, public benefits, medical care, and immigration. However, all too often survivors are asked to engage with the criminal legal system to access these services. For example, services may require showing police reports, an order of protection, or ongoing cooperation with an investigation/case as proof of the DV/IPV, and therefore of a survivor’s eligibility.
These requirements create challenges for the as many as 60% of survivors who do not wish to involve law enforcement, and the many more who face barriers when they seek to file a police report or order of protection. For many survivors, calling the police or working with the criminal legal system may not feel like a safe option. Many survivors fear retaliation by the abusive person, that police will not be responsive to their requests, or that the system will not see them as legitimate; for many, these fears are based on their past experiences with police and the criminal legal system. Survivors may also fear negative consequences from police involvement, for themselves or their household members. This is particularly true for survivors with identities that have been historically and systemically targeted by the criminal legal system, such as undocumented survivors, survivors of color, trans and LGBTQIA+ survivors, and survivors with disabilities.
Pairing services with criminal legal documentation requirements limits access to them, especially for the many survivors who do not have this documentation and are unable, or not comfortable enough, to obtain it. Where these requirements create barriers, services are falling short on protecting survivors and their loved ones.
Mapping Barriers to Develop Policy Solutions
To better understand how the criminal legal system is linked to services in New York City, ISLG is speaking to survivors, community-based organizations, and other stakeholders. From these conversations and research into program policies, we are mapping services from across the city to understand:
Where survivors are required or feel pressure to engage with the criminal legal system;
How these expectations impact survivors and whether they create barriers to accessing services; and
What changes can be made at the city and state level to disconnect services from criminal legal system engagement.
All of this works toward the goal of supporting survivors and preserving survivor safety while reducing the harms associated with requiring criminal legal involvement. This project has a focus on barriers related to a few types of services including housing/shelter, immigration, and concrete resources (such as public benefits and medical care).
It also considers how COVID-19 changed the social service landscape; for example, some services (such as the New York State’s Office for Victim Services’ Victim Compensation program) waived their police report requirements in the face of the pandemic, lowering barriers to entry. ISLG is exploring how the lessons learned from the last year and half can shape future policy, including where innovations developed in the face of the pandemic could become long-term policy.
Based on the focus groups and listening sessions, ISLG is documenting where survivors face barriers to accessing services and developing policy recommendations to mitigate these barriers. These recommendations will lay a roadmap for some of the other survivor-focused police reform projects ISLG is conducting in partnership with the City. Looking ahead to the coming years and new administration, ISLG will continue to work at the intersections of criminal legal reform and responses to domestic and gender-based violence, recognizing where and how the City can better serve survivors.