BOSTON, April 16, 2018—Two members of Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley’s office have been awarded scholarships to participate in the highest quality workshops, computer labs, and case studies at the thirteenth annual Conference on Crimes Against Women (CCAW) this week.
Assistant District Attorney Judith Lyons, chief of the DA’s Major Felony Bureau, and Deputy Chief of Staff Catherine Rodriguez will join hundreds of police officials, prosecutors, and victim advocates from across the nation who work with female victims of crime. Their attendance was made possible through a CCAW scholarship that provides access to critical training for those who would otherwise be unable to attend due to increasing budget constraints upon their agencies. Presented by Genesis Women’s Shelter & Support and the Dallas Police Department, CCAW is a national clearinghouse for training and best practices regarding the identification, investigation, and prosecution of all types of violent crimes against women, including domestic and dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, and human trafficking. This year the conference will welcome over 2,500 professionals from all 50 states. Hosted in Dallas, Texas, the 2018 conference will be held April 16th through 19th.
Because scholarship proceeds cover registration, travel, and hotel costs, teams are able to attend the conference and then return to their departments with newfound knowledge of how to combat the many and varied forms of crimes against women. The conference promotes strategies that improve public safety and support victims of crime across the nation. Classes are taught at CCAW with the intention of not only educating attendees, but also equipping them with the necessary tools to convey information to their departments and colleagues, thereby systematically improving agencies and increasing collective skill and competency levels. Ultimately, this training facilitates improvement of policies, practices, strategies, and collaborative responses to all crimes against women.
The conference will feature keynote speaker, FBI Special Agent John Douglas. As an innovator at the FBI in the late 1970s, John Douglas developed new investigative techniques for hunting serial killers, sex offenders and other violent offenders. Douglas became widely recognized as the top authority on criminal profiling, a mix of psychology, pattern recognition, and inductive/deductive reasoning. While leading the FBI’s Investigate Support Unit, Douglas used profiling in numerous prominent cases. He entered popular culture as the model for Jack Crawford in the film The Silence of the Lambs, and his book, Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit, was recently made into a Netflix series based on Douglas’ life story, starring Jonathan Groff.
More than one in three women will experience abuse during her lifetime. One in four women will be the victim of an attempted or completed sexual assault. CCAW serves the overwhelming number of victims impacted each year by sexual assault, domestic violence, stalking and human trafficking across North America and beyond. The conference curriculum focuses exclusively on women and girls who come from all ethnicities, cultures, and socio-economic backgrounds. Due to tremendous safety implications, the often-repeated trauma that victims have suffered, and the intimate, private nature of these crimes, victims require the highest level of sensitive and skilled assistance by every professional that comes into contact with them. CCAW simultaneously addresses traditionally underserved women and girls—indigent, tribal, minorities, the disabled, and those who face other unique barriers to safety and self-sufficiency—who require an added layer of understanding of the multitude of challenges that they face on their road to physical and emotional safety and wellbeing.
About the Conference on Crimes Against Women:
The goal of the Conference on Crimes Against Women is absolutely to create an overall reduction in the rate of crimes against women, and ultimately, eliminate violence against women. It is also, however, a primary part of our mission to improve the way crimes against women are investigated and prosecuted, as well as to improve the way victims are treated throughout the criminal justice system. The problem of domestic violence is so pervasive and at such epidemic proportions, that tangible decreases in the rate of violence against women will not be seen until all women are safe in their homes. Conferences like CCAW create the momentum and the network to allow for the culture shifts necessary to end the epidemic of violence against women. For additional information about the Conference, please visit www.conferencecaw.org.
About Genesis Women’s Shelter & Support:
Since its founding in 1985, Genesis Women’s Shelter & Support has been committed to providing quality safety and shelter to battered women and their children through crisis intervention and short-term crisis therapeutics and to reduce the occurrence of violence against women and children in the greater Dallas area. Genesis is also committed to raising the level of community awareness regarding the pervasiveness and effects of domestic violence. The organization provides free and confidential counseling and case management to more than 700 residential clients and 2,500 non-residential clients each year. For additional information about Genesis Women’s Shelter & Support, please visit www.genesisshelter.org.
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