A Former Prosecutor’s Perspective on THE TRUE COSTS OF VICTIMIZATION
By Janine Robben, Director of Oregon Crime Victims Law Center
Recently, I read an article that referred to the “horror of crime.”
The phrase gave me pause, even though I was a prosecutor for more than 20 years and tried many horrific cases.
That’s because as a prosecutor, I was focused on the provability and usefulness of facts, not on their nature.
I vividly remember one weekend when I went to my office in the Clackamas District Attorney’s Office, down a long, dimly lit corridor and then into the basement portion of the courthouse’s daylight basement.
The building was deserted.
When I got to my office, there was an unfamiliar file on my desk. I opened it, and the account of the crimes that it contained – two serial killers’ attack on a family at night in their own home – was so horrific that I literally backed out of my office, hurried down that dimly lit corridor and left the building. But on Monday, when I learned that the file was on my desk because it had been assigned to me, my analytical lawyer’s brain saw the facts in a completely different light.
Now, in my job as director of the Oregon Crime Victims Law Center, I have trouble turning that analytical part of my brain on. I see what the victims’ advocates in my former office saw every day. Victims who never really recover, regardless of whether their prosecutors won or lost their cases. Victims who have trouble hearing, understanding and retaining what their prosecutors tell them because their minds are clouded by grief, anger, depression and fear. Victims who bring with them unspoken perceptions – usually shaped by TV shows like “CSI” and “Law and Order” – about what investigators and prosecutors can do. And horror. Lots and lots of horror.
The Oregon Crime Victims Law Center was created last year by victims’ rights advocates, including former Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers, in anticipation of passage of SB 233. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit, it is funded by grants from the Oregon Department of Justice and the National Crime Victim Law Institute. Our administrative assistant – who also is a lawyer – and I provide crime victims with no-cost legal services, while our victim advocate tries to help them meet needs that are beyond the scope of the work done by DA office-based victims’ advocates.
Since we opened our office in Portland in August, we have helped crime victims all over the state understand how the criminal justice system works, asserted their rights as crime victims, and directed them to social services. We’ve helped DAs with cases by challenging defense attempts to obtain production of evidence from victims and getting courts to order court-paid interpreters for non-English speaking victims for entire trials, not just while the victims are testifying. We’ve found safe housing for victims who were terrified, and pro bono lawyers to represent them when their offenders contested the restraining orders they had obtained against them. And we’ve worked to educate the public about crime victims’ rights.
I’ve appreciated this opportunity to learn about the true costs of victimization and look forward to working with you on this issue of mutual concern.
