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How K9s are helping law enforcement track child predators

Katie Ellington

December 09, 2021 |

Richland Source |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, New Hampshire

Specially trained dogs help law enforcement catch child sexual abuse predators. The dogs can sniff out electronic storage devices like cell phones, USB drives and SD cards, where child sexual abuse material is often stored. The dogs use their keen sense of smell to find devices, which they indicate by pawing at it or putting their nose up against the object. The dogs also provide emotional comfort to the victims, and their trainers, as well as serve as good public relations messengers raising awareness about child sexual exploitation.

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Prison offers little to ease domestic violence trauma. This program tries to fill the gaps

Amna Nawaz Lena I. Jackson

November 18, 2021 |

PBS NewsHour |

Broadcast TV News |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Los Angeles, California

A New Way of Life gives formerly incarcerated women something that most did not get from prison: treatment for the trauma that so many incarcerated women suffered from domestic violence. As an antidote to a system geared to punishing wrongdoing without addressing its causes, New Way provides housing and supportive programs, many of which are taught by women with similar experiences. Some of the women tell their stories of lives repaired and families reunited thanks to New Way's interventions.

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How a made-in-Canada distress signal may have helped save the life of a North Carolina teen

Ellen Mauro Mark Gollom

November 09, 2021 |

CBC |

Multi-Media |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Canada

Soaring rates of domestic violence due to coronavirus lockdowns led the Canadian Women’s Foundation to launch the “Signal for Help” campaign that created subtle hand gestures to indicate the need for help. The gestures consist of tucking your thumb into your open palm and covering it with the four other fingers, symbolizing being trapped. Videos by TikTok users showing the gestures, which can be done with one hand and are distinct from international sign languages, have gone viral. The gestures are credited with saving a missing Kentucky teenager, showing the power of social media to spread information.

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Women lawyers provide free legal support for SGBV Survivors in Oyo state by Agidigbo 88.7 FM Podcasts

Zainab Sanni

November 05, 2021 |

Agidigbo 88.7 FM |

Podcast |

3-5 Minutes

Response Location: Nigeria, Oyo State

The International Federation of Women Lawyers provides free legal support for Sexual and Gender-based violence Survivors in Oyo state. Many women cannot afford a legal challenge against a rapist or other perpetrator of violence and the federation has provided services to tens of thousands of women over the past 30 years.

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A pilot program in Iowa produces encouraging results for foster kids

Libby Dowsett

October 27, 2021 |

Street Roots |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Iowa

By putting a priority on rescuing children from danger in their homes by reducing the danger or placing the children in relatives' care, Iowa courts have greatly reduced the traumatizing use of emergency foster care placements with strangers. The program, which began with seven judges and has since spread statewide, starts with a simple list of questions that judges or social workers ask to identify specific solutions to problems other than the default mechanism of sending children to live in foster care, which can make their emotional problems worse.

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How a Cincinnati domestic violence survivor got the help she needed to break the cycle

Cameron Knight

October 25, 2021 |

Cincinnati Enquirer |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Cincinnati, Ohio

Dvert is a partnership between Cincinnati police and Women Helping Women, a social services agency that puts domestic-violence survivors in touch with an advocate from the moment they report abuse. Advocates can provide for survivors' immediate needs, including childcare and safe shelter. They provide counseling and support to survivors throughout the prosecution of a case, should the survivor choose to pursue that remedy. More women have found the strength to pursue prosecutions, which advocates hope will ultimately keep more women safer than if they drop a complaint and reconcile with an abusive partner.

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Home was a nightmare, then home was prison. Finally home is now a refuge.

Marisa Endicott

October 21, 2021 |

Mother Jones |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

Home Free is a small, transitional-housing program for women who served long prison sentences for crimes against or on behalf of their abusers. A population long neglected, the women are part of a community recovering from the trauma of prison and the trauma that put them there. Giving them autonomy, in ways typical re-entry programs do not, is key to their recovery. “Home Free is the culmination of a decades-long struggle by women to be seen and supported by a system that has condemned and ignored them.”

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Hello? This Is Colombia's Antimachismo Hotline.

Julie Turkewitz

October 18, 2021 |

The New York Times |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Colombia, Bogotá

Bogotá’s city government started the Calm Line to give men a way to connect by telephone with psychologists trained in therapeutic responses to the machismo that leads to gender-based violence. Despite doubts that Colombian men would use the service, the line fields about a dozen calls a day. "Fear, shame and confusion pervade many of the conversations," but also can lead to breakthroughs in understanding the attitudes that oppress women. That understanding is the first step toward cultural change, the Calm Line's supporters believe.

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When Abusers Keep Their Guns

Jennifer Gollan

October 09, 2021 |

Reveal |

Podcast |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Seattle, Washington

Starting in 1968, Congress has passed a series of laws, as have some states, stripping gun possession rights from people convicted of felonies or of domestic violence, or who are the subjects of restraining orders. But neither federal nor most state authorities do much to enforce the laws, relying instead on an honor system that often fails. Some places, like Washington's King County (Seattle), have done more to track who has guns they are barred from having. Thorough follow-up enables them to confiscate such guns in a process that can be less potentially violent than assumed.

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‘I Don't Want to Hit My Children. I Don't Want to Hit Anybody.'

Rachel Louise Snyder

October 01, 2021 |

The New York Times |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: England

The Respect Phoneline started in the UK in 2004 to give anonymous callers, usually men, a way to seek help for their violent impulses. Rather than putting the burden for resolving domestic violence on survivors and on the punitive tools of the criminal justice system, the hotline approach recognizes that people prone to abusing others are frustrated and unhappy and want to change but need help to figure out how. While the aftermath of anonymous phone counseling can't be tracked, the author observed the process helping many men change their thinking. Similar hotlines have started in multiple places.

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