Survey of Sexual Assaults Survivors

FIGURE 10.1 SUGGESTED CHANGES TO THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

Figure 10.1 is a horizontal bar graph that illustrates what sexual abuse survivors would change about the criminal justice system in terms of how sexual abuse cases are handled. The x-axis shows the proportion of total responses, ranging from 0 to 45. The y-axis shows the suggested changes to the criminal justice system: change beliefs/attitudes, deny/limit access to records, more compassion/respect, change procedures, other, stop suspecting/blaming victim, provide victim support, impose harsher sentences, train CJS personnel, provide victim compensation, more information/control/input, increase number of women in CJS, overhaul CJS, better protection for victims, treatment for perpetrators, focus on/invest in prevention, and don’t know.

The change with the greatest proportion of responses was change beliefs/attitudes (40), deny/limit access to records (35), more compassion/respect (35), change procedures (29), other (28), stop suspecting/blaming victim (24), provide victim support (22), impose harsher sentences (20), train CJS personnel (17), provide victim compensation (11), more information/control/input (9), increase number of women in CJS (7), overhaul CJS (6), better protection for victims (5), treatment for perpetrators (4), focus on/invest in prevention (3), and don’t know (1).