Suggested additions since June 2006 are underlined. Suggested deletions are bracketed. Adrienne, Is ten minutes enough time to present this decision item?

Green Party of California Proposals (April 2004) Healing in Court (3/14/07 version)

SPONSOR: PLATFORM WORKING GROUP

PRESENTER: Adrienne Prince adrienneprince@hotmail.com

CONTACT: Adrienne Prince and Elizabeth, info@green247.org

SUBJECT: Promoting a Peace Economy and Preventing Violence. [Grassroots democracy] social justice and equal opportunity, feminism and gender equity, respect for diversity, and personal and global responsibility are the involved 10 Key Values of the GP.

BACKGROUND: Sometimes, a juror is biased. "An experiment was conducted to examine the effects of repeated exposure to sexually violent films on emotional desensitization and callousness toward domestic abuse victims. Results indicated that emotional response, self-reported physiological arousal, and ratings of the extent to which the films were sexually violent all diminished with repeated film exposure. Three days following exposure to the final film, experimental participants expressed significantly less sympathy for domestic violence victims, and rated their injuries as less severe, than did a no-exposure comparison group."(1) In another study, 41% of judges surveyed believed that juries give sexual assault victims less credibility than other crime victims. Detecting jury bias is a lengthy and expensive process. We, the people, must provide victims with an unbiased jury, with the means to detect a biased juror before trial or with restitution that compensates for possible jury bias.

Damages award "suits have become common enough that the researchers were able to obtain data from 1,106 jury awards and settlements to assault survivors and 361 to rape survivors (including 39 assault awards and many rape awards involving psychological injury only), ... For example, the researchers estimated that the 1.1 million rape victims suffer 1.45 million rape victimizations annually. That means annual rape victimizations average 1.27 per victim. Multiplying 1.27 by the $81,400 quality of life loss per rape victimization yields estimated quality of life losses of $103,400 per rape victim. ... This study's estimate of the cost per rape victim is $110,000."(2)

PURPOSE: Amendment of the Human Rights/Civil Liberties or Violence in Society plank of the GPCA Platform in the form of one or two talking points.

PROPOSAL 1: The GPCA immediately adds the following statement(s) to the Human Rights/Civil Liberties or Violence in Society plank of its Platform as one or two talking points.

1. The GPCA supports facilitating healing by minimizing aggravated damages caused by jury bias and by invading the privacy of a victim-witness-informant to quantify damages. The GPCA supports the following way(s) of facilitating healing:

2. Fund restitution or restoration for individual victims of civil rights violence in the amounts reported as average costs by the Bureau of Justice Statistics and scientific publications, as ordered by courts to restore health, career, home, family, and social support. [Minimize aggravated damages.]

3. Fund a judiciary budget for outreach to the disenfranchised to inform them how to use the courts.

COMMITTEE DECISION: The ideas were first presented to the Green Issues WG at the 2003 San Francisco plenary. An initial written form was posted on the Women's Caucus discussion board in April 2004. It was first posted on the Platform WG list-serve in May 2004, enabled for further consideration at the May 2004 Ventura Plenary, revised extensively thereafter, and was voted at the Sylmar Plenary of May 2005 to receive General Assembly assessment. It was included for General Assembly discussion at the Yolo Plenary of December 2005 but was not published in the Plenary program but had comments at and after the Platform Working Group Meeting at that Plenary. It was revised and invited back by the General Assembly at the Ventura Plenary of June 2006. On June 25, 2006, the GPCA determined that this content shall be proposed to the General Assembly for decision in the form of proposed amendment to an existing plank in the GPCA Platform. On June 25, 2006, the Platform Committee elected a new presenter by consensus.

TIMELINE: The text goes into the platform upon approval by the GA.

RESOURCES: The platform is enhanced by up-to-date supporting materials. Platform printing and Platform Committee expenses are included in the 2007-2008 budget.

REFERENCES: 1. J Pers Soc Psychol. 1995 Sep;69(3):449-59. Desensitization and resensitization to violence against women: effects of exposure to sexually violent films on judgments of domestic violence victims. Mullin CR, Linz D. Department of Communication, University of California, Santa Barbara 93106-4020, USA. 2. Victim Costs and Consequences: A New Look. Series: NIJ Research Report Published: January 1996