Throughout King County, Washington, community and systems-based domestic violence advocates have expressed concerns that an increasing number of domestic violence survivors are being arrested and charged with domestic violence-related crimes. Survivors in this situation are often referred to as “victim-defendants.” The Coalition began a project to investigate and respond to these concerns. The project was initially supported by Seattle’s Domestic and Sexual Violence Prevention Office through an Arrest Policies Grant, and has since been furthered by the King County STOP Grant (Prosecution), by a grant from the Horizons Foundation and, most recently, by a grant from the National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women.
The focus of our project is domestic violence defendants who are also victims of ongoing abuse by an intimate partner. Our goal is to provide information that can help increase access to justice and support for all domestic violence survivors who are accused of committing DV-related crimes. To that end, we have published reports, developed resource materials and created tools that can be used by survivors charged with crimes as well as those working with them either in a community or systems capacity.
