News
Victims Bill of Rights: An Open Letter from Victims of Crime
On April 3rd 2014 Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced legislation “to give victims of crime a more effective voice in the criminal justice system.”(Public Statement) I first heard of this legislation driving back from a meeting with women who are some of the very victims that Stephen Harper refers to. Listening to CBC Radio I heard lots of discussion about the new legislation but one thing stood out to me, one interviewee raised concerns that if victims have too many rights, they may slow down the justice process. Considering the meeting I just came from I wondered what those women would say about a fear of victims having too many rights! As a person who has been victimized by sexual abuse I would like to write an open letter to policy makers, politicians, lawyers, law enforcement officers around the globe to express what rights for victims of sexual violence would look like. Whatever country you call home, do you know how the legal system treats victims of sexual crimes?
“Dear Policy Makers, Politicians, Lawyers and Law Enforcement Officers, while I appreciate the legislation you have put forward for victims rights in the criminal justice system, I want you to know this doesn’t provide much hope for victims of crime like myself. I write this letter speaking as someone who has been a victim of sexual abuse and has also heard the many stories of others who have experienced similar things. I hope that this letter will be a voice that honors their experiences of the criminal justice system as well as my own. I speak from my own experience and from the direct comments made to me by other survivors.
As victims (and survivors I must add), many of us feel let down by the criminal justice system. It is interesting that it is referred to it as a justice system since very few of us see justice. Instead, we are re-victimized, our character and integrity is put on trail along with our wardrobe and social life. Victim’s young and old are accused of lying, are shamed openly in court, and expected to remember every single detail of our abuse. We live in a beautiful, modern and wealthy country yet when we step into court it seems that all human rights are forgotten and our legal system is thrown into a barbaric society where our attackers are allowed to cross examine us or respectable defense lawyers are allowed to insinuate that “we were asking for it” or “it was consensual”. Yet we are telling you it wasn’t. Talk to our support workers, doctors and counselors they will tell you that we live and breathe the trauma of a very non-consensual “sexual encounter”.
We understand the “burden of proof is on the Crown” But somehow you pass that burden of proof to us, doesn’t the aftermath of our experience, our doctors’ expert opinion, and our testimony count for anything? You see, we carry enough burdens; we don’t want to carry your burden of proof. It is not our job to prove this happened, our pain is proof enough. Our power has already been taken away we don’t need to be raped by the power systems of court.
We are asking that you show us some respect and dignity. Your systems are keeping us victims when we want to become survivors. We ask you to give us some space to heal rather than having to struggle to make ends meet, I know you feel the financial burden of crime, we feel it too: Out of the $99.6 billion a year cost of crime we bear 83% of that burden. We have to make daily choices over buying food or going to a therapy session, I cant tell you the number of times I choose not to eat over therapy. We appreciate the support in place but its not enough. We need a safe and supportive community to heal. If you want these horrific crimes to stop you need to come up with a better “justice system” that gives appropriate rights to both the accused and the so called “accuser”. We are tired of being attacked by defense lawyers, intimated in court by our attackers, interrogated by your police officers and shamed by the public’s ignorance. We are fighting hard to become survivors of the trauma, its time you backed us up by making the justice system truly just then and only then can we celebrate victims rights.
Signed,
One of the 1 in 3 women and girls who have been sexual assaulted
…..and the many more too afraid to tell”
Sources: http://www.joysmith.ca/ , http://pm.gc.ca/eng/news/2014/04/03/overview-canadian-victims-bill-rights#sthash.1Mv93CXm.dpuf
Picture: http://pm.gc.ca
Online Classifieds – Bike for sale, teen girl for sale.
I enjoy staying updated on worldwide news and considering the topics I write about, I naturally keep my ears open for news stories pertinent to sexual violence. This week my attention was drawn to an interview on CBC radio. CBC has been conducting an investigation into teen prostitution and a mother from Nova Scotia, Canada was interviewed. She shared her experience of discovering her teen daughter was being sold online via classified ads.
News spreads when it is sensationalized; it could be tempting to assume this is such a case. Yet time and time again when I look into such stories of sexual exploitation, I discover they represent only a fraction of the magnitude of the problem.
In Benjamin Perrin’s book, Invisible Chains: Canada’s Underground World of Human Trafficking he describes the story of a fourteen-year old girl was advertised for sale on Craigslist. “Typically the rate was two hundred dollars for thirty minutes or three hundred dollars for a full hour…Men travelled across Ontario to motels in the Toronto suburbs of Brampton and Mississauga to hand over their cash and claim their purchase.” This happened in 2007! It is 2014, that’s at least 6 years ago! The problem has been growing. We need to catch up and get ahead of those exploiting our girls!
Go to sites like craigslist or backpage and it is relatively easy to find evidence of minors being sexually exploited. There are ads written in barely cyrpited language to blatently advertise the services of such girls.
In the CBC radio interview the mother spoke to the use of online ads selling minors, “You can tell they’re underage,” she said. “They’re not fully developed. Some of them don’t even have hips yet — that’s how young they are. And the descriptions, the way they describe themselves. The wording they use — if it’s a girl that is underage, they always use the word ‘young.’”
In my research, I discovered there is a whole dictionary of euphemisms used to sell sexual services online including services by minors. This is an issue across Canada and our hoping that it doesn’t happen in our communities, neighborhoods and homes is what helps it continue. While writing this post, I received a phone call from a friend living in small town Canada. She shared with me some of her insights into the sexual exploitation of minors in her town. From her experience girls either ‘voluntarily’ sell themselves online (because they have been taught that their body is a commodity they can sell without consequence) or they are recruited and pimped out.
Just like the news stories I’ve read, this post has barely scratched the surface of the problem and I hope to look at some of the issues raised in future posts. For the mean time I want to leave you with some practical tools that you can use to help teen girls who may be caught up in all this.
As I mentioned in my previous blog entitled Reading with Sally: Lessons on Child Marriage from Children we all have young people around us and who we have the privilege of being able to encourage, empower….and protect! Take a look at the info below and create an open dialogue with the teens in your life.
A minor could be at risk for involvement in prostitution if he or she demonstrates a number of the following
attitudes or behaviours:
- Withdraws from family and/or friends
- Secretive and reserved with information about where they have been or with whom
- Protective of a new boyfriend or friend and provides little information when asked about the relationship
- Comes home later than usual for unexplained reasons
- Hangs around with an older crowd
- Wears expensive clothing and/or jewellery they could not possibly afford to buy
- Carries a cell phone or pager using blocked or private phone numbers
- Carries condoms or other sexual aids
- Secretive about Internet sites and contacts underage sexual activity
- Inappropriate sexual or sexualized behaviour
- Receiving unexplained gifts or gifts from unknown sources
- Having multiple mobile phones and intense fear over losing contact via cellphone
- Changes in the way they dress
- Going to hotels or other unusual locations to meet friends
- Seen at known places of concern
- Moving around the country, appearing in new towns or cities, not knowing where they are
- Getting in/out of different cars driven by unknown adults
- Involved in abusive relationships, intimidated and fearful of certain people or situations
- Hanging out with groups of older people, or anti-social groups, or with other vulnerable peers
- Associating with other young people involved in sexual exploitation
- Skipping school, disengagement with school, opting out of education altogether
- Unexplained changes in behaviour or personality (chaotic, aggressive, sexual)
- Mood swings, volatile behaviour, emotional distress
- Self-harming, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts, overdosing, eating disorders
- Drug or alcohol misuse
- Getting involved in crime
- Involved in gangs
- Unexplained injuries.
If you even suspect a minor you care about may be at risk of being sexually exploited, trust your instincts and act immediately. Whether a teen has ‘chosen’ to enter into this work or has been coerced, they need help. For assistance contact your local authorities or assault centre.
Sources: Invisible Chains by Benjamin Perrin, http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/sex-sold-online-by-teenagers-horrifies-halifax-mother-1.2494785, NSPCC and Alberta Government Website
Hope for Her 