Daywatch: Should Illinois make judges undergo training on sexual assault cases?
Good morning, Chicago.
Over the years, Carrie Ward’s organization, the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault, has worked with law enforcement agencies and attorneys across the state on how to better understand the complexities of sexual violence cases.
But one part of the criminal justice system has been largely absent from that training: judges.
Since 2018, all Illinois police officers must undergo training to better respond to rape survivors — a mandate designed, in part, to encourage more survivors to come forward. (An estimated 75% of sexual assaults nationally go unreported, and in Illinois, more than 4,000 rapes were reported last year, FBI data show.)
Ward and others question whether that training requirement should extend to the state’s roughly 1,000 judges.
“The experience sexual assault survivors have is unique and we’d certainly welcome the opportunity to do training on sexual assault, victimization and recovery,” said Ward, the organization’s CEO. “Those opportunities could be invaluable to learn more about the work and the impact of sexual assault on survivors.”
Read the full story from the Tribune’s Jonathan Bullington.
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