Advocates urge legislation that stops criminalizing survivors of domestic violence

As they shared graphic stories of sexual and physical abuse, advocates for survivors of domestic violence urged state lawmakers to pass new legislation that stops criminalizing survivors. One top prosecutor, meanwhile, said there are already mechanisms in place for defendants and their lawyers to present evidence of domestic abuse to Oklahoma courts before sentencing. However, he acknowledged that district attorneys find themselves in a unique position. Oklahomans passed a constitutional amendment in recent years that elevates victims’ rights to the same level as defendants’, and the victims’ wishes now often hold considerable sway in the outcomes. Leigh Goodmark, the director of the gender violence clinic at the University of Maryland, said over the past 40 years, anti-violence advocates have touted legislative victories and increased enforcement of laws criminalizing gender-based violence and the longer penalties as proof of society’s dedication to ensure those who commit violence will be held accountable. But one of the most serious consequences of those policies has been the increased rates of arrest, prosecution, conviction and incarceration of victims of violence, the same people the laws were supposed to protect, Goodmark said.

Goodmark’s clinic represents people who have been convicted of crimes related to their victimization, or people they call “criminalized survivors.” She said in Oklahoma, women are being held accountable for crimes committed by others, including being prosecuted for failure to protect, because they fought back in self-defense or because they committed crimes in fear of their partners. Nationally, she said there’s been a 20% increase in life sentences handed to women and a 43% increase in sentences of life without parole between 2008 and 2020. The vast majority of those sentences involved “criminalized survivors,” she said. She said Oklahoma’s mandatory minimum sentencing provisions have given prosecutors enormous leverage in plea bargaining such cases, and when a woman takes a plea, judges are barred from considering any mitigating information about abuse as part of sentencing. Goodmark said across the country there’s a conversation taking place about whether such crimes should be prosecuted differently than other types. Illinois and New York, for instance, have passed laws that enable courts to depart from mandatory minimum sentences in cases where there’s evidence of domestic violence and or where violence is linked to the crime. She urged Oklahoma lawmakers to consider similar criminal justice reforms. Kyle Cabelka, district attorney for Comanche and Cotton counties, said prosecutors have a unique role, particularly when handling cases involving criminalized survivors. They have a job to represent the victim, but also consider the history and background of the defendant. “It is a difficult decision that we make every day, and we gladly make it,” Cabelka said.