"If I only knew then what I know now..." Why I founded EVAWI and launched the Start by Believing campaign

As a young Child Abuse detective in the early 80’s, I often heard people say that victims were afraid of reporting to law enforcement.  Whether intended or not, I interpreted that to mean that we in law enforcement weren’t doing our job right.  As a detective who worked hard on my cases, I felt I did everything I possibly could for the victims whose cases I was investigating.  My child abuse cases, in particular, kept me up at night because I had so many open investigations at any given time and I knew that the results of my work often determined whether we were going to prevent a child from further harm, let alone prosecute the perpetrator.  So, it hurt to hear this because it felt like all the fingers were pointing to the police as the problem.  I didn’t want to believe it, but I had to understand that whether I agreed or not,  it was the perception by many members of the community which I needed to pay attention to.

It took me another decade working these cases before I realized that victims are not just afraid of law enforcement.  What I didn’t know back when I was working Child Abuse is that victims of domestic violence, child abuse and sexual assault are not busting down the doors at rape crisis centers, shelters or medical facilities either.  I often heard professionals citing horrible statistics about the large number of people who never report to law enforcement -- up to 80%.  At this point in time, I was a Sergeant in Sex Crimes and the Unit was handling approximately 1,000 felony sexual assaults a year.  I thought the researchers and advocates were crazy.  If they were right, there were another 4,000 cases occurring in the City of San Diego each year, and this was incomprehensible to me. 

It also took me a long time to realize that victims don’t often report to law enforcement first.  They usually disclose to loved ones, co-workers, classmates and friends first, and -- depending on how that person responds, whether with support or blame -- this often determines whether the victim will in fact reach out to law enforcement. 

When the victim does report, law enforcement is often frustrated because they don’t understand why victims appear uncooperative, hesitant, or resistant about participating in an investigation and possible prosecution.  It took me far too long to figure out that it wasn’t that they were uncooperative; it was that they are only able to manage so much at a time.  We in law enforcement think that the investigation and prosecution is the victim’s priority.  Yet this is often not the case.  What I found is that victims of sexual assault are often just struggling to get out of bed every day, get their kids off to school, stay in class, stay employed so they don’t lose their housing, or stay in the country or in the military, whatever the case may be.  Victims are trying to survive and this is their priority.  For most victims, until those basic needs are met, they just aren’t able to make the investigation and prosecution of their offenders a priority.  We have to learn to do police work differently.  Instead of demanding that victims meet our needs, we have to learn to meet victims where they are in a very difficult process.  We have to change the way we’ve been doing police business for decades because what we have been doing isn’t working for victims and as a result, we are unable to make our communities safer by holding perpetrators accountable.

People are often curious about why I founded EVAWI.  I loved my job at the San Diego Police Department.  I made very good money with great benefits.  I never worried how my paycheck was going to be funded, I never thought about the costs of doing business and I had six weeks’ vacation a year -- more if I worked overtime and took it in comp time.  I admired and enjoyed the officers and detectives I had the privilege to work with.  Yet, I knew that across the country and around the world, law enforcement was not receiving the training they need to do a better job working these cases.  I also believe that most law enforcement officers join their Departments because they want to help people.  I believe that most work hard to do the best job they can, and most are good people who sacrifice a lot to do a job that many people don’t understand, appreciate, or care to do themselves.  However, I found that law enforcement professionals often either didn’t receive any training about sex crimes -- or if they did receive training, it gave information that is the exact opposite of the training they should be receiving (e.g., training on stranger sexual assault versus non-stranger sexual assault, interview and interrogation of suspects and not training on interviewing victims especially those who have been impacted by traumatic crimes).  The truth is this work is a calling for me, and one that I am not always thrilled with.  If I had known anything about non-profits, I would never have started one.  

There are many days that I think I was absolutely nuts, but our 10^th year anniversary for EVAWI is coming up in just a few months, and I am really proud of our many accomplishments.  We just finished our 2011 Annual Report, and I encourage you to take a look if you are interested in hearing more about our many activities this last year.  One I am most proud of is the Start by Believing campaign.

The idea of the Start by Believing campaign had been a dream of mine for a very long time.  Based on my 30 years of experience as an Officer, Detective, Sergeant and training many officers and other professionals across the country, I came to realize that even when the patrol officer, detective and the prosecutor do everything right, we are often limited in our ability to successfully hold perpetrators accountable because in the end, your neighbors, mother, brother, cousins, and friends are the people sitting on our juries.  All of these people bring their own personal experience and misconceptions about sexual violence to the courtroom.  Those of us in the field know how difficult it is to take sexual assault cases to court and how very difficult it is to secure a conviction.   We know that victims of sexual assault are often at least partially blamed for their sexual assault based on perceptions of the amount of risk they might have been taking at the time of the sexual assault.  I have found that if you asked the average citizen if in fact they would blame a victim of sexual assault for a rape if she had been drinking alcohol under age, they would most likely say no.  Yet, we know this is exactly what happens across the country at many different levels -- at the point of the first disclosure, medical and mental health consultations, the initial report, the detective’s follow-up investigation, the prosecutor’s charging decision and ultimately the jury.

The intent of the Start by Believing campaign is to change our response to sexual violence by focusing on connecting professionals and strengthening the community’s response to violence against women on every level, including the professionals tasked with responding to victims and across society as a whole.  If you have not yet visited the Start by Believing web site at www.startbybelieving.org  please do.  I am hopeful that you’ll take the next step and make your own personal pledge to start by believing.

Joanne Archambault,
Executive Director & Founder, EVAWI