Defense-Based Advocacy and the Domestic Violence Movement

Defense-Based Advocacy and the Domestic Violence Movement

Spring 2022

Recording from BWJP

“This webinar is a three-part professional development series for community-based advocates, attorneys who work with victims of battering, and anyone interested in learning more about victims of battering charged with crimes.

Part 1: Facilitated by Cindene Pezzell, Legal Director at the National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women, participants will learn more about how victims of battering and abuse end up in the legal system as defendants, the unique challenges and risks faced by victim defendants, and the difficulties experienced by victim defendants who seek assistance from victim service organizations.

Part 2: Facilitated by Cindene Pezzell, Legal Director at the National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women, participants will learn how to define defense-based advocacy, explore why a defense perspective is necessary when working with charged and incarcerated victims and survivors at risk of arrest, review unique risks faced by victim defendants, and perform concrete defense-based advocacy strategies.”

Part 3: In the third and final webinar of this series, participants will learn about the scope of the crisis of the criminalization of survivors; ways that the criminal legal system causes, replicates, and perpetuates harm to victims, their families, and communities; and explore why anti-domestic violence advocates are critical to the fight for justice for criminalized survivors.