This is the fifth installment of the Best Practice Assessment series. Click to read the previous installments.
Centering survivor experiences while examining existing systemic responses to domestic violence is a crucial part of ICCR communities’ work. As teams move through the BPA process, advocates are invited to partner with Praxis International consultants to facilitate a survivor focus group in their community, focused on survivor experiences with the criminal legal system.
Once the focus groups are complete, ICCR and Praxis share a summary of findings with each relevant team, which is then integrated into the team’s BPA recommendations. In addition, ICCR aggregates the findings from all survivor focus groups into a larger report, identifying trends across rural Texas communities.
Common themes include:
– Intervenors’ lack of understanding about domestic violence dynamics
– Victims’ distrust of the criminal legal system’s response
– Victims’ lack of knowledge about options to access safety
– Importance of empathy, compassion, and consistent support by intervenors
– Need for meaningful collaboration within the criminal legal system and among community advocacy agencies
– Need for specialized domestic violence training
Click here to read Survivor Experiences with the Criminal Legal System in Rural Texas.
Survivors report that participating in these focus groups—which allow them to feel truly heard, sometimes for the first time—increases their hope that the criminal legal system will do everything possible to seek justice for them and accountability for their offenders.
ICCR participants also frequently find that focus groups are the most impactful part of the BPA process, allowing them to learn from and act upon lived experiences that otherwise may have gone unaddressed.
Click here to learn more about conducting survivor focus groups in your own community.
In upcoming issues, we will dive deeper into the remaining steps of the BPA process:
- Step 5 – Develop Findings and Recommend Changes
- Step 6 – Write the BPA Report