Beyond Fear

Episode 16: Understanding Work

The topic of work can illicit strong stereotypes, incorrect assumptions, and ill-advised suggestions on how this issue should or should not be addressed by the criminal legal system and society in general. Regardless of what comes to mind, people who engage in work frequently face dehumanizing treatment simply based on what they do for a living – who they ARE is rarely part of the equation.Our goal this season was to humanize many of the controversial and misunderstood topics related to sexual harm by speaking to the people directly impacted by them. In “Understanding Work” we speak to Sive Sanchez – a person that has engaged in work for many years in San Francisco. During our conversation, they demystify what work is, who does it, and why. Sive also shares some of the struggles they have faced and many of them stem from the fact that work is illegal.There has been a significant shift to decriminalize work. A critical part of this conversation has to do with police interactions with workers. Research shows that in criminalized contexts, workers are often physically or sexually coerced by police through threat of detention, violence (including rape) or extortion. Due to discrimination and mistrust of police and the high risk of being arrested, workers are not likely to report crimes against them or cooperate with the police in investigations. Decriminalization would also eliminate the fear of arrest that frequently prevents workers from seeking justice and would better protect workers from violence at the hands of their clients (see list of resources below).We learned a lot from our conversation with Sive and believe that their story is invaluable for you to hear. We hope this will encourage you to lean into difficult conversations and share what you have learned here. As always, we thank you for continuing to journey with us Beyond Fear. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Season 2 of Beyond Fear: The Crimes Podcast

Welcome to Season 2 of Beyond Fear: The Crimes Podcast. We are so excited to share this newseason with you. This time around, we will be diving deeper into critical issues related to crimes.Many of the episodes feature people directly impacted by these topics. Guests include experts as well aspeople that are directly impacted by them.We are also excited to announce that we have joined the Article III podcasting network. During thisepisode, we talk to Dr. Meghan Sacks and Dr. Amy Schlosberg - co-founders of Article III and co-hosts ofthe popular podcasts Direct Appeal and Women and Crime. Meghan and Amy join us to discuss how thispartnership came about and we also analyze the case of Ellie Nesler. Meghan and Amy recently did adeep dive into this case on an episode of Women and Crime and we highly recommend that you check itout before listening to this episode.Here we give you our take as criminologists and break down many of the themes that run throughoutBeyond Fear including the ripple effects of sexual harm, the impact on survivors, as well as the criminallegal response to crimes and more!We hope you enjoy it and stick with us as we continue to move Beyond Fear!Please follow this link for a direct download of the episode.Be sure to check out Meghan and Amy’s podcasts Women and Crime and Direct Appeal.Guest BiosMeghan Sacks, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor and the criminal justice Graduate Program Director atFairleigh Dickinson University. She teaches classes on Women and Crime, Serial Killers, and Crime Policy.Her research interests include bail reform, plea bargaining, sentencing policy and corrections. She haspublished her work in several journal articles and periodicals, co-authored two books and contributed toseveral more. Meghan received her PhD and master’s from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.Prior to her academic career, Meghan served as a United States Probation Officer in the SouthernDistrict of New York. She is also the co-creator and co-host of two true crime podcasts: Women & Crimeand Direct Appeal.Amy Shlosberg, Ph.D., is Department Chair and an Associate Professor of Criminology at FairleighDickinson University. Her primary research focuses on miscarriages of justice, the negative implicationsof incarceration and issues surrounding reentry, with an emphasis on policy and procedural reform. Herworks in this area have been accepted for publication in several academic journals, including the AlbanyLaw Review, Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, Psychology, Crime & Law, Wrongful Conviction LawReview and Criminal Justice Policy Review. She is also the co-creator and co-host of two true crimepodcasts: Women & Crime and Direct Appeal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bonus Episode: The Things Left Unsaid

Throughout the first season of Beyond Fear: The Crimes Podcast, we have received dozens of questions and comments from listeners. The conversations we have had one-on-one with each other and those we have had with some of you who have reached out have affirmed our belief that the work we do and the way we accomplish it are both incredibly important.We’ve learned over the years that bringing our full selves to the table is critical. It is with that lesson in mind that we bring you the bonus episode of season one. As we noted, we have received dozens of interesting and important questions from our dedicated listeners. We could not possibly answer all of these questions in a single episode and will use many of them as topics for our second season.Instead, we decided to tackle two questions that survivors ask us all the time. We decided to answer them intimately and authentically – perhaps with an honesty and openness with which we have not always answered. The greatest gift we can give others is to be one hundred percent ourselves. We want anyone who has been harmed and those who have caused harm to fully understand the indelible impact that sexual harm can have. We also want listeners to understand that healing is not linear, that is is complicated and messy. It is layered. Healing is sometimes, as in the case for both of us, entangled in navigating both sexual trauma and mental illness.The two questions we tackle in this deeply personal episode include:
How do I know I am “over it”?
How to I navigate medical doctors/procedures/appointments as a survivor?
In the episode we talk about two books that have been integral to our understanding of trauma. The first is called The Body Keeps the Score, by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk. This book helped us both to understand how trauma impacts us and changes us as a cellular level. The second book is called Trauma and Recovery, by Dr. Judith Herman. It was this live changing book, which was first published in 1992, that helped us both to fully recognize that we were not alone.Later in the episode we talk about the importance of trauma informed medicine. We believe that trauma informed care is critical for survivors of all forms of trauma to receive the medical care they need.Our friend Christine “Cissy” White, whose work can be found at http://www.healwritenow.com, talks about how it is not trauma informed if it isn’t informed by trauma survivors. Her work has significantly impacted how we think about medical care.Finally, we discuss a potentially important and impactful intervention called pelvic floor physical therapy. This is not a very well known intervention, but many survivors who experience chronic pelvic pain, it can be life changing. You can learn more about pelvic floor physical therapy from thee following links:Why Going to Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy Transformed My LifePelvic Physical Therapy: Another Potential Treatment OptionFor a transcript of this episode click here.For a direct download of this episode Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 13: Get Curious

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Episode 12: Building a Better Life

In Episode 12 of Beyond Fear, we interview David Prescott, an internationally known expert on treatment for those who sexually offend.A mental health practitioner of 36 years, David Prescott is the Editor of Safer Society Press. He is the author and editor of 20 books in the areas of understanding and improving services to at-risk clients. He is best known for his work in the areas of understanding, assessing, and treating sexual violence and trauma. Mr. Prescott is the recipient of the 2014 Distinguished Contribution Award from the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers and the 2018 recipient of the National Adolescent Perpetration Network’s C. Henry Kempe Lifetime Achievement Award. Mr. Prescott currently trains and lectures around the world.In this episode, we talked about everything from the history of treatment, to the need for trauma informed practice, to the use of person-first language.David recently co-authored a book Trauma-Informed Care: Transforming Treatment for People Who Have Sexually Abused.In the episode, we talked about a recent blog post on person first language that you can find here.For a transcript of this episode, click here.For a direct download of this episode, click here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 11: ”Do Women Do Those Things?!”

The image that comes to mind when we think about a person who commits a sexual offense is more often than not, male. While it is true that the vast majority of sexual harm around the world is committed by men, women can – and do – commit crimes. In this episode of Beyond Fear, Alissa interviews Alexa about her expertise on female sexual offending. Alexa sheds light on this important, understudied and often misunderstood issue.The names that come to mind when we think about women who sexuall offend are those that have become household names: Mary Kay Letourneau and Debra LaFave. Both were attractive, relatively young school teachers who sexually abused younger boys. However, we cannot and should not reconcile all sexual abuse committed by women with that which was committed by these two women.Sexual abuse by women happens for a variety of reasons. Some of these reasons are similar to those we understand about men who sexually offend and some are quite different. It is important that we recognize and understand these reasons so we can promote prevention efforts.A few important things we do know:
Women who sexually offend have significantly high rates of all forms of abuse and family dysfunction in childhood.
Approximately 10% of crimes are committed by women.
Women are likely to offend with a co-offending male partner.
Sexual abuse by women causes similar harm to sexual abuse by men, but it is far less likely to be reported.
For an interview with Debra LaFave click here.For a transcript of episode 11 click here.For a direct download of the episode click here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 10: Once You See, You Can’t Unsee

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Episode 9: Why Should I Care?!

In Episode 9, “Why Should I Care?!”, Alexa interviews Dr. Alissa Ackerman about crimes policies in the U.S. Alissa is widely considered an expert on crimes policy and much of her research has examined the efficacy of the offense registry, residence restrictions, and community notification. Notably, her research, and that of most other researchers, have found that crimes policies have done nothing to make society safer and have not reduced rates of sexual violence since their implementation.  In this episode, we discuss two policies that apply only to those who have committed what the law defines as a “ crime”: the publicly available offender registry and residence restrictions. These policies were enacted after the high-profile abductions and murders of young children by a known “ offender”. The names of these child victims, Adam Walsh, Megan Kanka, and Jacob Wetterling, are well known. Unfortunately, these cases do not represent typical offenses. In fact, these are the rarest type of crimes. The assumptions underlying crimes policies is the notion that offenders are somehow different from everyone else. That they do not stop offending and each offense is more violent than the last. As we discussed in Episode 8 with Dr. Danielle Harris, most people who have committed offenses do desist, or stop offending. Additionally, studies of recidivism rates consistently indicate that people who offend sexually recidivate at lower rates than most other offenders and are more likely to recidivate with a non-sexual offense than a sexual one. The collateral consequences of these laws, the shame, stigma, inability to find housing and employment, are precisely the elements that are necessary for a person to reintegrate into their community in a positive, prosocial way.  Why should you care?! Anyone that wants to end sexual violence should care about the ineffectiveness of crimes policies and their collateral consequences. Instead of spending money on policies that are doing nothing to decrease rates of sexual violence, money and legislative efforts could be better directed toward sexual violence prevention.  In this episode we referenced several studies. You will find links to those research articles below. If you would like more information, please feel free to email us.  To read about Alissa’s work with the data from NCMEC, click here. To read more about the offender registry in an article by Dr. Alissa Ackerman, Dr. Andrew Harris, Dr. Jill Levenson, and Dr. Kristen Zgoba click here. To read more about research on the efficacy of offense policies on reducing rates of sexual violence, read an article by Dr. Alissa Ackerman, Dr. Meghan Sachs, and Dr. David Greenberg here. We highly recommend the documentary Untouchable which provides a comprehensive understanding of these policies and the very human impact of them.  Please note that Alissa references the findings of a meta-analysis conducted to evaluate the impact of offense legislation. She actually was referring to a comprehensive literature review on the topic which can be accessed here.  For a transcript of this episode, please Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 8: The Deliberate Shift

Research shows that, like people who commit other crimes, those who sexually offend also desist from offending. This is both hard to hear and important to acknowledge. In Episode 8 of Beyond Fear, we made the deliberate decision to pivot from conversations about survivor experiences to a focus on the experience of individuals who have sexually offended.When we first started studying sexual violence, we both wanted to study the effects of victimization, but it didn't take us much time to figure out that in order to stop sexual violence we had to go further upstream. Victimization doesn't end without stopping offending.In this episode we interview Dr. Danielle Harris, a friend and colleague based at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, whose work focuses almost exclusively on desistance from sexual offending. What we know from the research is that recidivism rates, or reoffense rates, for people who sexually offend is quite low. In fact, studies consistently find that sexual recidivism rates for those who sexually offend are low.So why does this matter? Why should we care about people who sexually offend? Why do their experiences of reintegration matter to us? And why should they matter to you?Well the answer is quite simple, actually. What we are doing doesn't work. First, the vast majority of people who commit crimes will never be processed through the criminal justice system and even if they were, this still wouldn't end sexual violence (this is an entire episode in itself). Second, people who commit crimes are not monsters or boogeymen. They are our family members, our friends, our clergy, our coaches, our teachers... they are people we know and they are people we love. It is easy to treat people as castaways when we treat them as "the other", but people who commit crimes are just that.... people... who commit crimes.This requires that we understand why they offend in the first place and how to help them to stop. This is at the heart of Danielle's work.In "The Deliberate Shift", we talk about Danielle's path to this work, the major findings of her research, why she continues this research agenda, and why we advocate for a better understanding of those who sexually offend.In this episode we referenced several books and studies.To find out more or to purchase Desistance from Sexual Offending, click here.To find out more or to purchase Making Good, https://www.apa.org/pubs/books/4316097 click here.Sample, L. L., & Bray, T. M. (2003). Are offenders dangerous? click here.For additional reading, check out Chapter 5 of the Offender Management and Planning Initiative Report on adult sexual recidivism https://smart.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh231/files/media/document/recidivismofadultsexualoffenders.pdfFor a transcript of this episode, please https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wQhExAdX0xsADwpruVLi7rStx8dgSaZV4rNkDNAOUcI/editTo download a direct MP3,https://www.buzzsprout.com/1054714/5110456-episode-8-the-deliberate-shift.mp3 please click here.Follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/fearcrimes, on Instagram @beyondfearpodcast, and on Twitter @fearcrimes,If you have questions about this episode or any of our previous ones, please reach out to us at beyondfearpodcast@gmail.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 7: The Second Rape

The Beyond Fear Podcast is one continuous story, where episodes build from one to the next with the ability to reach back to previous episodes when necessary. Yet, when we started writing the story in episode 1, we didn’t fully recognize the impact that telling the story would have on us. Recording Episode 7 was one of those experiences that is hard to put into words.In this Episode, we sit down with Alexa’s mom, Stacey Branchini, for a intimate, unscripted and candid conversation about the impact of a criminal trial on a survivor and their family. Often referred to as “the second rape”, the criminal trial is often just as traumatizing as the assault itself. This is evident in our decision to invite Stacey to talk with us, because as we worked on writing this episode Alexa was unable to remember many o f the details from after her rape. Including Stacey provides a unique perspective of this process and also highlights how trauma due to the rape impacted Alexa’s ability to recall certain events around that time. In this episode, Stacey and Alexa often refer to “the foundation”. After Alexa’s rape and the criminal justice process that ensued, her family founded the “It Happened to Alexa Foundation” to help survivors and their families navigate the justice process. Specifically, the It Happened to Alexa Foundation provided financial support for survivors and their support networks at the time of trial. This included airfare, lodging, money for meals, and more throughout the time of the trial.We hope that this episode provides insight for our listeners into “the second rape”. When we first began working on this episode we envisioned a more academic episode, but we believe Alexa’s story highlights what the justice process is often like for survivors and their families.We know that material like this can be difficult to listen to. It is okay to listen in short chunks, to listen with a friend, or to turn us off.If you have questions about this or any of our previous episodes, or if there is anything you’d like to know about our work, we hope you will email us at beyondfearpodcast@gmail.com.For a transcript of this episode of Beyond Fear, click here.For a direct download of this episode of Beyond Fear (MP3), click here.Follow us on Facebook at Beyond Fear: The Crimes Podcast, on Instagram @beyondfearpodcast, and on Twitter @fearcrimes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices