OUR SYSTEM DOES NOT PROTECT US

In 97.5% of cases, perpetrators of sexual assault face no consequences.

This isn’t justice. This is a system designed to fail victims—and incarceration isn’t the answer.

Let’s build something better.

The Problem

Only 310 out of 1,000 sexual assaults are reported to police
Only 50 lead to arrest
Only 28 are prosecuted
Only 25 are incarcerated
97.5% of perpetrators walk free

The criminal legal system fails survivors while perpetuating cycles of violence and harm.

A Different Path

The answer isn’t more incarceration—it’s transformative justice:

Community accountability
Survivor-centered healing
Addressing root causes of violence
Building systems that actually prevent harm

What We’re Doing

Documenting system failures
Sharing survivor stories
Exploring transformative justice alternatives
Building resources for healing and accountability

Coming soon: Transformative justice resources, survivor stories, community accountability models.

This site is under construction. More resources coming soon.

My Experience Reporting

Content warning: This article contains references to sexual assault, police indifference, and suicidal ideation.

Reporting Sexual Assault - My Experience

In March of last year, some mailers went out to raise awareness of the local Sexual Assault Response Team, endorsed by Prosecutor Diana Moers. A few bright yellow billboards popped up around town. “Sexually assaulted? Call 911,” they read. Driving down the road one day, it hit me - what my doctor explained was a PTSD flashback - the memory of someone handing me a SART flyer. “This is for you,” they said. Was it a joke? No. It was a confession. Not a confession of guilt, but a confession of conceit. Five months earlier that person had exploited my cognitive disability to rape me. It was a misunderstanding, I thought. It was my fault for freezing up and not being able to speak and not understanding what was happening until it did. It wasn’t intentional. It couldn’t be. We could talk it through…but why wouldn’t they talk about it? Now I knew. They wanted me to know. Handing me that flyer meant, “Go ahead. Call the number. Nothing’s going to happen to me.” So I called the number. I reached out. I pled for my safety, for others’, for justice…and no one did a thing.

Tonic Immobility

We all know about the “freeze” response, that deer-in-the-headlights look:

You’re home alone and hear the back doorknob jiggle. Your eyes go wide, your hair stands on end, you hold your breath and stay very, very still. You think of grabbing a weapon, but your feet are rooted to the floor. You close your eyes and hope whoever is there goes away.

You’re camping in the woods. You suddenly wake up in the middle of the night. You hold your breath and listen. There’s a snuffling sound outside your tent. You can sense something large moving around—a bear. You lay stock still and wait for it to leave.