Victims often have to tell their story all over again, to the police, prosecutors and judges. They face pressure from abusers and families to withdraw their charges or their testimony. They often lack the knowledge and support to navigate the court system, and the additional burden is the length of court proceedings
Global campaign "16 days of activism against violence against women” ends on the day this issue of "Vremena" goes to press, Tuesday, December 10. On the occasion of this campaign, and throughout its duration, Melissa Diaz, former district attorney in San Diego, California, was in Belgrade. Today, she heads the Department for Family Protection at the Prosecutor's Office in San Diego, and during 16 days in Belgrade, she visited almost all important events and met with most of the decision makers when it comes to violence against women word.
"WEATHER" You had the opportunity to meet with all the relevant actors in Serbia regarding the suppression of gender-based violence. What are your impressions??
MELISSA DIAZ: Many sectors in Serbia invest significant efforts in the fight against gender-based violence through the review and creation of legal solutions with the aim of suppressing it, then in the establishment of systemic solutions related to the investigative and judicial process of processing such cases, as well as in ensuring the safety of victims when they submit initial complaints applications. I appreciate the will to tackle this problem, research and debate on legal solutions and implementation of practical measures to combat gender-based violence. People are dedicated to public service and community protection.
Our main challenge is that our laws are good, but in practice, especially during court proceedings, things do not end with a desirable outcome. Did you also get such an impression about Serbia?? For example, last year, one offender took a plea deal and avoided prison time, paid the fine, and then committed femicide.
All countries, including the United States, share the same problem of how to ensure the safety of victims while their cases are going through the court process and afterwards. Perpetrators of gender-based violence have a high rate of recidivism and are persistent in their abuse. In the US we also have perpetrators who later commit femicide despite our efforts to prevent the violence.
Out of respect for those victims, we must commit ourselves to progress and revision of procedures, not in order to determine the blame for their death, but in order to find innovative measures to support victims and reduce recidivism. We must always keep in mind that victims are at the greatest risk of femicide and escalation of violence at the moment they decide to leave an abusive relationship, so at those moments we must provide them with significant support in the form of temporary housing and psychological assistance.
Too, In our country, the processing of psychological violence is a significant problem, because it is proven by the subjective experience of the victim. It is often not enough for judges, because they require material evidence. What is your practice and how do you act in such cases?
Psychological violence and coercive control are a significant part of the cycle of violence. We face the challenge of proving such cases with hard, physical evidence and often prosecute cases of psychological abuse along with physical violence, stalking, harassment or breach of security measures.
We are a society that has only just begun to discuss topics such as revenge porn, sexual coercion or coercive control. What is the American perspective on these issues?
During my twenty-five year career as a prosecutor, abusive behavior has not changed much, but the means and spaces in which abuse occurs have. Our communities live, work and socialize online. Online platforms have made it easier for abusers to find and seduce children, to draw girls and women into abusive relationships and human trafficking, and to share material containing child sexual abuse. Significantly, technology and internet platforms have made it easier for abusers to stalk and harass both strangers and intimate partners, both day and night, including sharing content of a sexual nature (popularly called revenge pornography or sexual extortion). Online platforms accelerate and intensify abuse, causing a markedly different impact on victims.
In the US, we have recognized the need to keep up with the development of cyber technologies, by passing specific laws that prohibit the sharing of sexual content without consent and ban photos of victims generated by artificial intelligence. Cases of online harassment and abuse are complex to investigate, prosecute and prosecute; they require significant time and resources and require creativity and expertise. We don't have a well-developed process like we do with other gender-based crimes, so we started training police officers and prosecutors on sharing sexual content without consent, used existing resources and capacity to make these crimes a priority, and took initiatives to provide support to victims of abuse of this kind. For example, California recently passed a law requiring tech companies to create a simple process that allows victims to report crimes and remove sexually suggestive photos from their platforms.
What are the biggest challenges for victims of gender-based violence in their experience with the court system?
Victims face many challenges when dealing with the court system, and they begin when they decide to file a report. Many victims are afraid of the escalation of abuse and the abuser's revenge, fear that they will not be trusted or supported, and fear the emotional and financial consequences for themselves and their children. Victims often have to tell their story all over again, to the police, prosecutors and judges. They face pressure from abusers and families to withdraw their charges or their testimony. They often lack the knowledge and support to navigate the court system, and the length of court proceedings is an additional burden.
What is the Department of Family Protection?? Tell us more about your responsibilities as Head of Department.
In San Diego, the Department of Family Protection handles cases of domestic violence, physical and sexual abuse of minors, elder abuse, animal abuse and high-tech crime involving women and minors. We are a group of prosecutors, lawyers, investigators and other staff, specially trained in the legal issues of gender-based violence, but also to provide victims with support and services that take into account the nature of their trauma. We run prevention and awareness campaigns to combat gender-based violence and work closely with our community partners, including the police, social services, advocacy groups and NGOs. As the head of the department, I lead it in achieving its mission for the benefit of the victims.
Less than two days of blockade - that's how long it took to see how weak and powerless the public media service is, both from the outside and from the inside. At the moment of writing this text, it is the eighth day of the blockade, and the sixth that RTS is not broadcasting its program. They also seem to be facing a strike inside the house. And the essence of blocking RTS is not in what it publishes, but in what it keeps silent
In the months after the fall of the canopy in Novi Sad, the flames of rebellion spread throughout Serbia. The first protests started in Novi Sad right after the tragedy. The authorities responded with arrests, police cordons and intimidation, but instead of calming down the protesters, new protests followed.
The rector of the University of Belgrade, Vladan Đokić, has been the target of top state officials and regime tabloids for months, who label him as an insidious instigator of student protests, an opportunist, "the face of evil" and "the leader of the criminal octopus." How and why a rector became "state enemy number one"
"I'm standing in the cordon, and my daughter is shouting at me 'aw, aw, killers'. What should I do? If they ordered me - I would throw down my baton and bulletproof vest and stand on the side of my child," a police officer from the south of Serbia, who works as needed in the Belgrade Police Brigade, told "Vreme"
The recent formation of the Đura Macuta government is part of the regime's revenge and cynicism. This can be seen most in the "black troika" of new ministers appointed to deal with the parts of society that are the leaders and symbols of the big rebellion that lasted for several months, the cause of which was the fall of the canopy in Novi Sad, which claimed 16 human lives. Education, universities, unsolicited media and parts of the judiciary that refuse to listen to orders, either publicly, with announcements, or hiding behind legal procedures, should be dismantled. Those who will have no problem doing everything they are told, even reinforcing the orders with their own inventions, are chosen for this.
Who mentions the extraordinary elections when the rating of the party in power is falling, and according to all surveys, Vučić is not the most important political factor in the country, but the students?
The brutal beating of students and citizens in Novi Sad shows that the regime is not only ready to take revenge - it is actually carrying it out
If in reality the principle of balance is violated - the way the incompetent regime violated the relationship between the concrete elements at the Novi Sad Railway Station - reality will behave like a canopy: it will fail to obey
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