A new report, Bridging the Divide: A new paradigm for addressing safety, crime, and victimization, was released today calling for a different approach to addressing crime.
The report says that many of the communities that are currently hurt by a prevalence of crime and violence are also being damaged by the criminal justice system’s response to crime.
“The criminal justice system is supposed to do three things,” said Shari Silberstein, Executive Director of Equal Justice USA. “It’s supposed to keep us safe, help crime victims rebuild their lives after they’ve been harmed, and hold people accountable in ways that are constructive and forward-looking. The current system’s one-size-fits-all-solution – more and harsher prisons – doesn’t achieve those goals, no less all three of them together.”
The report places a strong emphasis on meeting the needs of crime victims. Many of these needs, such as trauma intervention and counseling, medical assistance, financial compensation, relocation to a safe place, days off from work, mental health services for an affected child, grief support, etc. have nothing to do with what happens to the person who harmed them.
“Addressing urban trauma in communities afflicted by violence is a critical prevention strategy that is largely ignored by the criminal justice system,” said Lisa Good, EJUSA board member and founder of Urban Grief.
The report makes clear that the lack of trauma intervention for crime victims has a particularly strong impact on people of color.
“There is a lot of research to show that people of color are more likely to be incarcerated than white people,” said Silberstein. “It’s less widely understood that people of color are also more likely to be victims of crime. Yet those crimes are more likely to go unsolved and their suffering is often minimized or even challenged.”
The report’s primary message is to challenge the false choice between meeting the needs of crime victims and reforming failed criminal justice and corrections policies.
The report was produced by a collaborative of criminal justice reform advocates and victim advocates, including EJUSA Executive Director Shari Silberstein.
