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Illinois Takes Steps to Improve Police Handling of Rape Cases

Governing
This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators.
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Illinois Takes Steps to Improve Police Handling of Rape Cases Giving Compass
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Giving Compass’ Take:

• Annie Sweeney reports that in order to better serve the public, police officers in Illinois are receiving training to help them better understand and help rape victims. 

• What are the larger implications of this law for criminal justice in Illinois? How can other states follow Illinois lead to increase rape reports?

• Learn why it is crucial for colleges to take sexual assault seriously. 


Advocates and law enforcement officials say such fear and doubt about how their allegations will be investigated has long deterred sexual assault victims from coming forward. As few as 1 in 5 rapes are reported, they say.

In an attempt to close that gap, a little-known change in Illinois state law is trying to improve how police respond to victims of rape, mandating police officers across the state undergo new training that not only emphasizes the need for sensitivity to the difficult cases but also teaches the science behind how a brain reacts to trauma.

The law also requires that police must take a report for every allegation of rape — no matter how long ago it might have occurred or what jurisdiction it occurred in.

For Chicago police, the new training is already underway for recruits and will begin soon for detectives. Officers who investigate sex crimes should receive the training over the next two years. The state training board has held three statewide trainings for other departments as well.

Reports of criminal sexual assaults have been increasing in Chicago over the past five years, up from 1,401 in 2013 to 1,738 in 2017.

No one is certain whether the new reporting law is having an impact on the number of reports taken by the Chicago police. But advocates say there is no doubt increased conversation on the issue has led to more calls for help over the past few years.

Read the full article on police handling of rape cases by Annie Sweeney at Governing Magazine. 

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Interested in learning more about Women and Girls? Other readers at Giving Compass found the following articles helpful for impact giving related to Women and Girls.

  • This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators.
    Click here for more.
    Why We Need to Encourage Women in Tech

    Count me among the disappointed to read the now-infamous memo written by former Google engineer, James Damore. The 10-page memo read more like a manifesto and described in detail how women, for reasons stemming from psychological and emotional differences to intellect, just aren’t up to the task of real engineering work. And that efforts to diversify the company were bad for business. Google was right to quickly assess the situation, and publicly determine there was no place for such viewpoints in its organization. But lasting change will require more than removing a messenger. It’s the message that needs to evolve. This divisive talk speaks to the pervasive, enduring and real power of stereotypes. No matter our steps forward, they stick like barnacles to the ways we educate girls and young people of color and how we hire and retain a diverse and competitive workforce. In the tech sector, the impact is particularly pronounced. According to the National Center on Education Statistics, there were more than 500,000 open computing jobs this year but not nearly enough computer scientist graduates to fill them. And among those who are pursuing computer science degrees, just 28 percent are women. Think about all the jobs we could fill if we sent a message to women that they should pursue these careers. When I started at Microsoft back in 1981 I hired one of our first female engineers. I also met my wife, Tricia, another Microsoft executive. She recently reminded me that in those early days of the company, we were a small group of young people working incredibly long hours and no one had time to be sexist. We were creating a new world in which we had so much faith. Yet when we think back, the truth was there were few women in leadership and even fewer people of color at the company. Those of us who come from that world believe it to be the vanguard of innovation and promise, shedding the stolid ideas from other business sectors. But the truth is, these pernicious stereotypes are everywhere and we can’t move past them if we don’t call them out, examine what’s underneath, and encourage a more thoughtful dialogue about race and gender. Even as Washington seeks to undercut programs like affirmative action, examples like Google highlight the need more public policy to incentivize diversity and expand opportunity. Attitudes and beliefs about what people (who are not white men) can and cannot do start early. Because we tell them so, girls and young women come to believe they are just bad at math. Young people of color are sent messages that they are ‘troublemakers’ and that academic achievement just isn’t for them. These messages often become self-fulfilling prophecies. Claude Steele articulates this theory – stereotype threat – in his book Whistling Vivaldi demonstrating just how insidious they can be – leading to, for example, normally high-achieving female math students performing worse than usual when they are reminded just before a test of their place in societal pecking order when it comes to math. As I moved from the technology sector to philanthropy, equity has consumed much of my thinking. I’ve had to ask myself hard questions about the ways my own privilege has shielded me from the hard truths that non-dominant cultures face in this country and around the world. The backlash against the conversation about equity – that it’s just political correctness run amok; that the people pointing these things out are just ‘snowflakes’ who need to stop whining – has only served to polarize the conversation in unhelpful ways. The problem with this line of thinking is that it’s just flat out wrong. The truth is, striving for equity isn’t just morally correct, it’s economically smart. Diversity has been shown to increase market share for companies and create more qualified workforces. Racially diverse companies outperform industry norms by 35 percent. There are dozens of other positive economic outputs of diversity, equity and inclusion. But unless we instill – and implement – these values everywhere from the boardroom to the lunchroom, stereotype threat will persist. And individuals like James Damore will continue questioning why the environment that’s working perfectly for them needs to change.


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