2025 annual meeting: open to the public

topic:
supporting criminalized survivors

“If the violence is unabated, we risk losing our lives.
If we defend ourselves, we risk losing our freedom.”

- Marissa Alexander, criminalized survivor (watch her TEDTalk)


Thursday, May 22, 2025
8:30-10:30am
please register to receive location information


blue berries with red stems embedded in bright green leaves

Salal berries are considered a significant food resource for Coast Salish peoples. Its leaves are used for medicine.

Who is a criminalized survivor?

Survivors of sexual or domestic violence who are facing punishment through the civil or criminal legal, immigration enforcement, child protection, or other systems for crimes or acts related to the abuse they experienced.

This can mean they:

  • used violence in self-defense or retaliation

  • participated in a crime as an opportunity for independence

  • were forced into a crime

  • were blamed for “failure to protect” their children from the abuser

  • were accused of and faced consequences for “false reporting”

It can also mean that an abuser lied to have the survivor arrested, detained, deported, lose custody, or other consequence.

According to the ACLU, nearly 50% of people in women’s prison nationwide, and as many as 94% of some women’s prison populations, have a history of physical or sexual abuse before being incarcerated. This phenomenon is highly gendered and racialized.