Wasting Our Precious Resources
Legislative Briefing Presentation
SORNA
Massachusetts Children and Families Committee
June 23, 2009
Should you think that I am soft on violent and sexual crime, let me assure you that there is a dark painful part of my soul that wants people who hurt other people to never take another comfortable breath. However let us be intelligent. Given that we are a society of law, let us demand that the laws we do enact achieve their intended mission. Let us stop creating a false sense of security and wasting our precious resources on laws that simply do not work.
Andrea M. Casanova
The ALLY Institute at RAND
The ALLY Foundation has made definitive steps toward the success of our mission. We have recently partnered with impeccably credentialed
RAND Corporation to establish and manage a clearinghouse for the collection, analysis and dissemination of applied research and evidence-based practices for the prevention, management and economics of violent and sexual crime.
This Institute will be available to inform legislation and the public by providing their resulting data to differing audiences, with sections for researchers, policy makers, and community members that match their interests.
The partnership with RAND Corporation provides the research credibility that The ALLY Foundation could never have achieved in isolation. It allows us to move forward to focus on the igniting awareness on the campuses of our nation and the in enclaves of the normal citizens to make this prevention goal a reality.
The ALLY Foundation and RAND support the implementation of a prevention approach that is comprehensive and systematically linked. All aspects and disciplines from architecture, business, criminal justice, treatment, management in the community and use of preventive technology are incorporated. Two integral areas of focus will be Juvenile Intervention and the use of Actuarial Risk Assessment where pivotal.
Now that we can rely upon the ALLY Institute at RANDs research as well as other invested organizations, we will turn our focus to the development and support of vehicles to ignite public awareness and relentlessly market the vision that we can create an effective difference. Our target is to be perceived as the national awareness voice for the prevention of violent and sexual crime and victimization. Our credentials are borne of our devastating personal loss.
Senator Scott Brown
When Scott Brown smiles you think wow, what an engaging guy. His easy confidence and profound love of his family leads you to believe that he has had a flawless life.
Senator Brown's revelation this week stunned us all, but once past the painful wince, imagining what might have happened to him, we see what he has made of tremendous adversity.
The most under reported crime in our justice system, sexual abuse impacts us all. Sexual assault causes extreme psychological damage with long term impacts including substance abuse, withdrawal, depression, aggression and sexual behavior problems.
It never fails that following a presentation or at an event, someone will take me aside and reveal that they have been a victim, most often, never having reported it. Our "statistics" cannot be an accurate reflection of the incidence.
Sexual offenses are one of the most complex crimes we have to face as a society. They frequently cause us to react on a visceral and fearful level, leading us to false conclusions of who an offender is, what they are capable of, their level of dangerousness and risk, who their potential future victims are and what offenders look like.
And.....what we can effectively and realistically do to prevent offender abuse.
We feel that our national priorities do not reflect a key influence that undermines the wellness of our society. Human Safety is the most basic component of a healthy society. Violent and sexual abuse erode our civilization; it violates all the rules as we know them.
It is a civil right to be safe.
Laws must be evidence based to be effective. "It" is not just about crime, but all the conditions that fail to prevent it. A total systems, evidence based, root cause model must be applied to the ecosystem of crime. Given this continuum perspective, we are able to move from the failings of our systems to the causes and help save lives and the fabric of our culture.
Senator Brown has been a supporter of our work at The ALLY Foundation. His recently released "Against All Odds", is a generous support to those who also have suffered sexual abuse, and we hope that it helps take this issue to the spotlight.
An unpleasant and undiscussed topic, about as in vogue as HIV/AIDS and breast cancer were twenty-five years ago, we now have the opportunity of overcome the social stigma, and increase awareness that prevention is possible.
Thank you Senator Brown for enlightening us, for sharing and for moving us closer to eliminating the shame, so that we can focus on solutions.....
Thank your family for all their support.
