Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.

abby et al -- one idea is to make sure every victim has an attorney like me 
(not meaning rabble rouser but meaning indpendent and smart).  Private 
attorneys in criminal cases can make a big difference in protecting victims 
from intimidation and helping to protect their rights (especially privacy 
rights) -- 

I also urge everyone who works with victims to teach them the concept of 
"victim privacy Miranda" -- an idea I've been promoting sincce 1993 and that 
essentially means that victims should be advised at the outset of any 
investigation that they have various rights of privacy and they have the 
right to say "none of your damn business" if anyone asks them a probing 
irrelevant question.  Privacy intrusions facilitate what I call "victory by 
intimidation" strategies -- and if victims could have knowledge of their 
rights and authority to insualte themselves form gratuitous intrusions, they 
would suffer less harm in the process.  It's not a perfect cure, obviously, 
just one trick in a bag of goodies that we should be using.

If a judge determines that a certain bit of information must be revealed to 
protect the rights of the accused, the judge can order disclosure of that 
small bit of information, after a hearing with due process etc.  

Wendy