Podcast on Crimes Against Women
The Conference on Crimes Against Women (CCAW) is thrilled the announce the Podcast on Crimes Against Women (PCAW). Continuing with our fourth season, the PCAW releases new episodes every Monday. The PCAW serves as an extension of the information and topics presented at the annual Conference, providing in-depth dialogue, fresh perspectives, and relevant updates by experts in the fields of victim advocacy, criminal justice, medicine, and more. This podcast’s format hopes to create a space for topical conversations aimed to engage and educate community members on the issue of violence against women, how it impacts our daily lives, and how we can work together to create lasting cultural and systemic change.
Podcast on Crimes Against Women
The Quest for Justice: Improving Legal Representation for Survivors of Gender-Based Crimes
The criminal justice system is the avenue that victims and survivors are legally expected to take when seeking justice for crimes committed against them. However, this system is primarily designed to ensure that the rights of both victims and defendants are upheld. Unfortunately, the rights for victims and survivors - both human and legal - are disproportionately compromised by an overabundance of caseloads, insufficient financial resources, and limited manpower along with the pervasiveness of unqualified personnel who many times are neither trauma-informed nor victim-centered in their approaches, processes, or remedies. These deficits leave victims and survivors exposed to injustices, inferiority, and sometimes incarceration. Former prosecutor Kelsey McKay joins the conversation to highlight the ways in which victims are often re-victimized by the very system that should be in place to protect them, and shares strategies on how survivors and their families can be better treated and supported as they seek the justice they deserve.
Kelsey McKay is a former prosecutor and a highly recognized expert on criminal asphyxiation, domestic violence, sexual abuse and other forms of power-based crimes. As a prosecutor, she spent 12 years handling complex cases and designing creative solutions. She has trained practitioners across all systems and represented individuals as they navigate the criminal system. With a skill for implementing change and working across disciplines, she appeals to audiences from the Pentagon to festivals such as SXSW, bringing cultural awareness to the need for systems change. Built with solutions engrained in efficiency, empathy and equality her approach recognizes the limits of practitioners and the vulnerability of survivors. Her influence has built a team facilitating solutions that move professionals and communities from awareness to action. Her new non-profit, RESPOND Against Violence, is a multidisciplinary think tank seeking to generate sustainable change in our society’s collective response to violence and trauma.