Reforming Law Enforcement Training Could Reduce The High Rate of Sexual Assault Case Attrition

Washington state has started addressing the imperative of sexual assault case attrition in a very unique way. Its first-in-the nation sexual assault case review program should become a national best practice for any jurisdiction that wants to reform the criminal justice system’s response to sexual assault survivors and sexual assault cases. 

Keeping Score: Olympics Ban Swim Caps Made for Black Hair; Abortion Restrictions Reach Record High in 2021; Biden Administration Boasts Narrowest Pay Gap in History

In every issue of Ms., we track research on our progress in the fight for equality, catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones. We’re Keeping Score online, too—in in this biweekly round-up.

This week: abortion restrictions skyrocket in 2021; Olympic policies disproportionately target Black women; Supreme Court rules in favor of free speech and gender expression; state legislatures endanger voting rights; and more.

Building a Future Without Youth Incarceration: “These Four Walls Aren’t the Answer”

The #NoKidsinPrison digital experience is one initiative working to reimagine a future without children behind bars. The interactive website—launched by a partnership with No Kids in Prison, Youth First and the Columbia Justice Lab—takes viewers through the history of youth incarceration, the immediate experiences of children who were incarcerated, and current youth activist efforts.

Law Enforcement Officers Keep Arresting Black Women Elected Officials

“Black women’s bodies are a site for state-sponsored violence.”

A growth in Black women’s representation in statehouses and other levels of government in recent years has increased their political power. Black women elected officials often are the ones who challenge policies over issues like police killings, racist monuments and voting restrictions.

It has also led to increasingly visible resistance, with several Black women being arrested or facing criminal charges in the midst of their work in statehouses or in their communities.

When Cops Become Clinic Protesters

Last week in Louisville, an armed police officer joined an anti-abortion protest outside of one of only two remaining abortion clinics in Kentucky.

The Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection spurred several investigations into how police cooperated with rioters. It seems on the local level, too, we are in need of such investigations.

When the thin blue line of the police becomes aligned against upholding the law, injustice prevails.