Thank you for posting. A long article, but very important to read. :)

Interesting that the quote from C.S. Lewis was so timely, yet his work was done in the early part of the 20th century. The pendulum swings toward things that work, things that don't work. People who care, people who don't. In learning from history, we hope that we don't repeat mistakes and that the pendulum will swing back in favor of healing rather than punishing. There will always be people on either side. Right now, we're coming out of a very long and severe phase of believing that punishment works. Low and behold, however, we find out that it doesn't. Programs that worked in the past were abandoned because of the extreme victim stories that are named after the victims. We all know who those are.

Our greatest hope is that we have good people and programs waiting in the wings when the pendulum swings back in the favor of actually creating caring programs that reduce trauma and victimization. I see some evidence of that starting to happen. There is a lot more research on how to treat trauma. The high cost of punishment is pushing the extreme punishments out of favor (at least in my state).

The real problem is the laws on the books created during the phase of the belief in extreme punishments. Its hard to change those, but it is possible through interpretation.

I agree that the victim advocate role is frequently abused to the detriment of victims and families. That is well known. We just have to be ready with alternatives when people are ready for something else.

Well said Peek. In our county the victim witness people are kind of worthless.

So this is why we need our own victim witness program for the accused families. Think about it...how many family members do we have? Alot.

We all know the system is not perfect. But i hope u are right about the pendulum in favor of healing.

Even the victim advocates in our county was a joke. They didn't do anything to help us through the process, and daughter was the victim.

They helped the DA bully daughter into testifying when she said she didn't want to, and they told me, their job is to help the DA get a conviction, not do what is best for victims!

Thoughtaswea...my daughter was not the victim. He raped a stranger. When i went to victim witness and asked what kind of services they offer for the accused families...they said none. My duaghter not being the victim of his crime there was nothing they could do.

I was astonished. Are you kidding me? We are all victims of this crime! Thats when i realized of system is not set up or dont care for that matter.

That is why it is up to us to make change! We are the best allies for those families out there dealing with a loved one accused of a crime. Like i said in my other post...if we wait for some one else to make a change we will all be dead by that time.

Sorry West if you didn't understand what I was trying to say. I was merely expressing my grievance towards the victim advocacy group as a whole. Their job is not to help victims, their job is to us help the district Atty. two win their cases.
I apologize if you thought I was talking about your daughter and the rest of your family.

Guess what I'm trying to say is even if they did off for help to the families of the accused, they are still not doing anything to help the families, only what benefits the district attorney's office.

I get it now. Sorry i misunderstood you. So now we have a bigger problem!

Wow! I dont know if i can handle this. Do i attack victim witness with the DA's office? Or do i advocate a victim witness for the defendants side? You definately got me thinking.

Case in point...friend of mine has a daughter who was molested. Me being the kind and gentler LE, i told er about victim witness. She contacted them and not happy with them at all. She told me i was the better helper when it came time to whats going on. I was the one who told her about all the court apperances. I totally forgot about this.

Ok...looks like i have to wear two hats! Well if thats what it takes...so be it!

Like i said i am on a mission. I only wish i could have started it long time ago!

West... I surely would have liked you to hold my hand during my ordeal. Even though my parents were there I didn't feel much comfort even from my lawyer!Your heart is in the right place!

You should focus on the family members. I think we were treated the way we were was because we didn't want to throw hubby under the bus....

And if you are placed in a position to help the victims of sexual assult/abuse, then help them as best as you can.

Not sure if you are a Christian, but I believe God puts the right people in our lives to help us through our trials. I found this group, and helped me so much, that I too want to give back and help others.

The victim witness people in the DAs office will insist that their main motivation is to help the victim recover and cope with their situation.

Don't believe it. The main function of the victim witness people is to get the witness ready to testify at trial if needed and to enable the DA to get a conviction. They, along with the DA investigator and the other "support" people in the office, have a nasty habit of coaching a witness of what to say and how to say it to make it more believable.

I don't have a problem with giving the victim the support he or she needs at trial to tell her story, but all too often the victim is encouraged to embellish her story.

I know for a fact in my case that the victim witness people coached the witness to lie. I know she lied because I was there and nothing she said was true.

Truth be told, neither the victim nor the family of the defendant hold any importance to the system. The system chews up both the victim, the defendant, and the families equally.

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The victim advocate groups shouldn't be working in conjunction with either side of the law, they should be there to help the victims the best way they can. If it means helping to advocate a plea deal to avoid trial, it helping them through the process (not coaching) if they do have to go though trial.

The advocate would call me a week after hubby was in court to tell me what was going on - which I already knew! If i wasn't there, family was, so I knew that day what was going on, and when he was scheduled to appear again.
Agh! I hate the system - they are useless!

Totally agree with you Rew. My husband's accuser was coached to lie by the ADA and I suspect others as well. My huband's lawyer cme out to tell me that I would not be testifying because the accuser claimed on the stand that I walked into her room one time and caught him feeling her up. Needless to say, it was an outright lie, and I was livid! Which of couse was part of the strategy, I'm sure

As I look back at the entire experience of going to trial, I have learned to find some humor in the entire situation.

I had a very capable defense attorney. Of course I had never been to trial, so I did not know what to expect sitting there on the defense side with my attorney.

When the testimony began, he had a legal sized pad with that yellow paper you see all the time. He placed a line vertically down the center and the left column was for the prosecution witness' testimony and the right column on the same line he made notes what he wanted to ask on cross-examination. I don't know if this is how many lawyers proceed or not, but it is how mine did and he was an experienced trial attorney.

After several witnesses, I looked on his yellow legal pad. On the column for the prosecution witnesses, I noticed he had made some notes concerning their testimony, but he had also written the word "LIE" in capital letters and it was encircled. Those victim witness people do a great job of coaching witnesses, if nothing else.

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