‘Close your legs.' He’s ’from a good family.' Making bad judges’ accountable is just the beginning of addressing sexual violence, group says.

By Patricia Teffenhart

No, the above quotes did not come from an Internet comments section – they’re directly from judges in courts throughout New Jersey, who have been charged with delivering justice in rape cases.

These comments are shocking and vile and victim-blaming. They also don’t occur in a vacuum. In fact, they’re indicative of a larger-scale, systemic problem: our justice system is simply inadequate in many ways, but specifically in how it addresses sexual violence.

In the aftermath of Judge Troiano’s comments receiving national attention, we received outreach from media, from caring community members, from social media, all asking: “What can we do?” The truth is that there’s no silver-bullet solution. What’s needed is the long, hard work of social change. We need to overhaul a justice system that too often does not provide justice for survivors, routinely overcriminalizes people of color, and seeks to “solve” violent acts with more violence and brutality. It’s not working.

We need to boldly explore other options for survivors, including restorative justice practices. At the New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault, a bedrock principle of our advocacy is following a survivor’s lead: what will make them feel a sense of justice? What will help the survivor on their journey to healing and wellness? For many, it’s not seeing the person who harmed them “locked up.” It’s community accountability; it’s the knowledge that the person will not harm another individual; it’s hearing, “I am sorry” and “I caused you harm.”

According to the national Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN), out of every 1,000 sexual assaults, 230 are reported to police, 46 will lead to an arrest, nine will land on a prosecutor’s desk, and five (yes, FIVE) will lead to a felony conviction.

So, if your case is actually being heard in a courtroom, you’ve made it further than literally hundreds of other survivors. And if this is the result when you get there – a judge lamenting the good grades of the person who harmed you and not the disparate emotional, physical and financial impact that victimization has on you – who can blame survivors for not engaging with the so-called ‘justice’ system? A system that is reaching a mere fraction of survivors is a system that is not working at all.

We launched our Statewide Survivor Survey earlier this year, to hear directly from victims and survivors of sexual assault about their experiences in the aftermath of an assault. Our advocacy and best intentions in reform mean nothing if they aren’t informed by the direct experiences of those who were victimized.

So, to answer the question we hear most often: yes, there’s a lot we can do! No, none of it is easy.

Firing or censoring one judge won’t wholly solve the problem of sexual violence, though holding a judge with such biases and ignorance accountable is certainly a bare minimum to start. But, the reality is that we need to address the thinking that gets us here: “Boys will be boys,” “Sexual violence just happens, we can’t do anything to stop it.” We cannot let despair over great problems trick us into thinking that they’re unsolvable. The criminal justice system too often does not serve survivors of sexual violence well. Uncommon problems require uncommon solutions. We are ready to roll up our sleeves and get to work.

Patricia Teffenhart is the executive director at the New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault (NJCASA).

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