2L!

[ermingarden]

Today was my first day of second-year classes! I only had one class today – Income Tax – which was not excessively taxing (ha!); I have Evidence and Criminal Procedure tomorrow, and the first meeting of my domestic violence seminar won't be until next week. (Evidence, Crim Pro, and the DV seminar are for my actual specialization plans; Tax is because I needed something to fill out my schedule and didn't have enough bid points left to get into Property [which is a required class]. Still, Tax is fun so far.) I have two roommates this year, both 1Ls, and they both seem really nice!

I'm currently working desperately to finish my TRSB fic; the mods are actual saints and gave me an extension through Friday. (Moving back into student housing was A Lot.) My room is a complete disaster – I'm far from finished with unpacking – but that's something for me to worry about on Saturday morning and not a minute before. I preordered the Kindle edition of NoME, and it's being (digitally) delivered tomorrow, but I'm not letting myself read it until I've finished my TRSB fic.

And finally, please enjoy the saga of this guy's brother-in-law and a truckful of rice.

Comments

[independence1776]

I hope your second year is not too stressful. What are you planning on specializing in?

Good luck with TRSB!

[ermingarden]

Thanks! Shouldn't be as bad as last year – for one thing, classes are in person, and I won't have just moved across the country in the middle of a pandemic.... I'm planning to go into criminal law, specifically prosecution. I worked on a lot of DV cases when I interned in a DA's office last summer, which got me interested in the legal issues there.

Thank you!

[unnamedelement]

1) What a hilarious saga! 2) Sounds like you're doing some interesting work in law school! I used to work in family and domestic violence until graduate school. Would love to learn more about what you're specializing in!

Take care, and good luck with TRSB! I am also still working away.

[ermingarden]

It is, isn't it? Can't imagine what the poor truck driver was thinking through the whole thing!

That's so cool! I'm planning to go into criminal law, specifically prosecution. I worked on a lot of DV cases when I interned in a DA's office last summer, which got me interested in the legal issues there.

Thank you, and good luck to you, too!

[unnamedelement]

Oh awesome! I was a child forensic interviewer on a multidisc team, so worked closely with prosecution on kids cases. People going into prosecution with a specific interest in DV and fam violence are *highly* needed. 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼Best of luck!

[ermingarden]

Wow! I am so appreciative of the work child forensic interviewers do – I also assisted with a child molest trial in which one of the vics was still a kid, so I saw first-hand how important interview technique is.

Thank you!

[unnamedelement]

Also, goodness, yes the legal issues surrounding DV are fascinating and endless and…(a) extremely systemic and (b) not often based in memory and trauma science. (Imho.) have fun in your courses! I never had a chance to take legal courses so learned through work and research, and I’m always wondering what it is I’m missing as I was often flabbergasted when working in the field.

Anyway. Take care!

[ermingarden]

Yeah, DV cases usually have the fairly unique challenge of having the victim testify that no, actually, none of that really happened... In No Visible Bruises, Rachel Snyder notes that "murder trials happen every day in this country without victim cooperation." Well, a corpse can actually tell you all sorts of things – and, most importantly, it won't lie on the stand. Which isn't to blame victims who do recant! It's just such a messy situation, because of course people recant for all kinds of reasons, including fear/self-preservation, but way too often there's simply no case without victim testimony, even when there's physical evidence. (I wrote the response brief in a DV appeal that was a pretty open-and-shut case even though the vic recanted because there was actually an audio recording of the crime; if not for that, the DA would probably have gotten exactly nowhere.)

[unnamedelement]

Ah, recantation is such a fascinating subject! I’m obviously more knowledgeable about it in child cases (which is where a recorded interview with good technique and corroborated evidence is so key!), but I worked with women in shelter later during grad school and witnessed some of them make the decision to recant, and it always broke my heart. It’s of course more complex with the issue of adults of legal age vs children, where the role of the state is different. So complicated.

What an interesting case, though, that you’ve shared—yes, I can only bet that recording was key for pros! I hope the survivor got enough resources to stay safe once her perpetrator was/is released. Another horrifying thing about DV cases, to me, is how short sentences often are, with the system unable to wrap around victims enough to allow them to escape from complex situations before the offenders are released and return. (Oof, it’s late and my words are a bit fuzzy! Sorry!)

In my last few years as an FI, I got really interested in the potential of FIs as corroboration for DV (the Duluth CAC in Minnesota does some really interesting trainings on the role of the interviewer in co-occurring DV cases); and we had one or two kids cases end up getting tied in with DV cases so charges were brought against an offender on both child and adult victims, even when the mom wasn’t willing to press charges. Even in the cases when that wasn’t possible, the inherently intertwined nature of child abuse and DV… Finding ways to illuminate that during an interview—identifying and then illuminating the constraints placed on a parent’s attempts to protect their children in the context of their own abuse—became really important to me, and laid a bit of paper trail for any future DV incidents.

(Not that they ever used them, ha! But they were there.)

Gosh, I could talk about this for hours, but perhaps another time. Would love to hear more about law school and your experiences when it is not 12:30 for me, if you want to share. Take care and good luck w the semester

[ermingarden]

Amusingly, it is also 12:30 for me....

Exactly! In the molest case I helped with, since one of the vics was under 12 at the time of the trial, CA law allowed the recording of the interview itself to be played for the jury – good thing, since the poor kid wouldn't even hint at what happened to him on the stand. (The mother was the defendant, kid was living with father, the father's a useless scumbag who supported the defendant.)

witnessed some of them make the decision to recant – that really does sound like it was heartbreaking to see, especially if you knew them and their situations well.

That case definitely was an unusual set of facts, in more ways than one; if you're really interested, the brief is a matter of public record, so I can send it to you. Unfortunately, it was only a misdemeanor, and I believe the defendant didn't serve any time. (Well, fortunate that she wasn't hurt worse. Unfortunate that there weren't more severe consequences for him.)

Now that is super interesting! Definitely saw a lot of that connection – frequently a child trying to protect their parent and getting in between the vic and the abuser. I would definitely enjoy hearing more of your thoughts! You know so much more about this than I do, and I'm always curious.

I'm looking forward to studying DV formally, having a framework of theoretical knowledge rather than just what I saw in practice over the summer and what I've picked up from reading on my own time. According to the seminar's course description, "Discussion topics will include: the dynamics of abuse; theories of causation and the social context of battering; the historical treatment of domestic violence by the justice system; changes in state and federal legislation, including the Violence Against Women Act and federal gun laws; developments in international human rights law; strategies in police and prosecution response; issues involving battered women defendants; evidentiary issues in domestic violence cases; the impact of changes in family law on domestic violence victims; the interplay between the criminal justice and child welfare systems; and changing court responses to domestic violence cases." Very excited!

[chestnut_pod]

Wow, welcome to your second year and also your new living space! Wishing you lots of luck with work, unpacking, and writing.

[ermingarden]

Thank you!! (I'll need it for all three!)

[shirebound]

I'm glad things are going well! :)

[ermingarden]

Thanks!

[pauraque]

Good luck with your second year!

I read through your exchange with unnamedelement and the work you've been doing sounds fascinating, and also like something I could never do in a million years. I'm sure there is a great need for people to specialize in those cases. I would guess there must be a high burnout rate there.

[ermingarden]

Thank you!

Yeah, a lot of prosecutors don't like DV cases (because of logistical/evidentiary challenges) or cases with child victims (because of emotional challenges). People are really different in terms of emotional reactions! For me, it makes a huge difference when it's something I can do something about. Like, when I was listening to recorded interview to prep for the molest trial, obviously it was all awful, but I didn't find it upsetting because I was able to do something in response to it. Whereas reading news from Afghanistan, for example, or about Hurricane Ida, is actually more distressing to me, because I can't do anything.

[pauraque]

Now that you put it that way, that makes a lot of sense! Having some agency in the situation is very different from having to just sit there and watch it unfold.