Trauma & the Criminal Legal System: Part I

The courtroom can be a traumatizing place for survivors, who can experience retraumatization by having to relive and retell experiences. In addition, the outcome of the courtroom process is often not what they hoped or expected from the criminal justice system.

Don’t miss this episode of TraumaTies as hosts Bridgette Stumpf and Lindsey Silverberg dive deep into trauma-informed justice with Kristin. They talk about what it’s like to represent survivors in court; the best trauma-informed practices that can make courtrooms more accessible and welcoming to survivors; and emerging trends in alternative justice and harm reduction like restorative justice practices.

Featured Guest

Name: Kristin Eliason

What she does: Kristin is the Legal Director at NVRDC, where she oversees a legal staff of 13. She has over a decade of experience representing survivors of various types of violence in protective order matters and higher education campus proceedings under Title IX and the Clery Act. She also worked representing victims of a variety of crime types in the assertion of their crime victims’ rights in criminal cases.

Company: Network for Victim Recovery of DC (NVRDC)

Connect: LinkedIn

Episode Highlights

[03:14] Strong motivations: Today’s guest, Kristin Eliason, explains how her personal lived experiences influenced her interest in law and victims’ rights issues.

[06:39] Learning from experience: Kristin shares some of the biggest lessons she learned both as a law school student and as a lawyer, and how her own experience as a survivor informed how she navigated the field.

[12:31] How attorneys can help survivors: Victim advocacy is different from victim representation.

[19:03] Giving survivors a voice: Kristin and hosts Lindsey and Bridgette discuss how victims’ rights lawyers, as actors with power within the legal system, can help uplift survivors' voices.

[25:42] The system does not incentivize accountability: Restorative or transformative justice can be effective ways of repairing harm caused by crime.

[28:58] Societal shifts: Kristin discusses the injustices within the carceral system that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to light.

[31:23] Managing expectations: How can you have trauma-informed conversations about alternative justice options with survivors who may be coming in with misconceptions about the legal system?

[37:50] The right approach: Kristin discusses why a justice system based on punishment is not trauma-informed and can amplify harm caused to all involved.

[45:01] Our legal system is not accessible: Before we can even get to a trauma-responsive system, we must allow people into that system by addressing accessibility issues.

[49:26] The trauma-informed courtroom: While we want to change the system, we still have to operate within the one we have now. Kristin weighs in on what judges can do differently to make that system better.

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Brought to you by Network for Victim Recovery of DC (NVRDC), TraumaTies: Untangling Societal Harm & Healing After Crime is a podcast that creates space and conversations to dissect the structural and systemic knots that keep us from addressing trauma.

Rooted in a belief that survivors of crime deserve respect for their dignity in the aftermath of victimization, NVRDC seeks to empower survivors by informing them of all of the options available and working to transform existing response systems to be more inclusive of the diverse needs that survivors often have after crime.

NVRDC also provides free, holistic, and comprehensive advocacy, case management, and legal services to victims of all crime types in Washington, DC. Visit our website to learn more about how to access our trauma-informed education training and how to partner with us to expand survivor-defined justice.