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This article was researched and written by Jenna Grace Piehl (rising fourth-year in Journalism and Legal Studies) & Mariana Leone (rising fourth year in Political Science and Theatre), Northwestern University students and Summer 2021 Communications Interns for Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts. The information herein is anecdotal and not based on a full evaluation of Cook County’s Domestic Violence Court, nor does it examine the facts and issues faced in the specific proceedings, but instead looks at the culture in courtrooms which leads victims and advocates to feel they are neither heard nor respected in the process. The opinions of the advocates interviewed here may not reflect the views of others. The purpose of this investigative piece is to examine the experiences of marginalized groups in the courts from their own perspective. Regardless of possibly unfavorable actions or comments by individual judges, the commentary herein exemplifies the questionable actions of the court system generally — things that constrain all judges, attorneys, and advocates and must be studied and addressed systemically.

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In one year alone, approximately 10 million people will experience domestic violence in the United States, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information. In that same year, 1,500 people will die from domestic violence. 

Chicago’s designated domestic violence courthouse at 555 West Harrison opened in 2005 to provide people with a safe environment to seek justice and to streamline the criminal and civil legal process. Yet, according to many advocacy groups we spoke with, survivors who are not white, cis-gender, or heterosexual face countless barriers to safety and healing. Language and translation barriers, gendered lines, microaggressions from court staff, fear of deportation, and many other factors prevent under-resourced and vulnerable groups — who experience domestic violence at higher rates — from the safe haven 555 West Harrison promised when it opened 15 years ago. 

In 2020, nearly 80% of the Illinois Domestic Violence Hotline callers were people of color. Approximately 36% of cis-gendered women and 34% of cis-gendered men experience intimate partner violence at some point in their lives, compared to nearly half of all transgender and gender non-conforming people..

Advocates from multiple organizations repeatedly told Chicago Appleseed that survivors of color and transgender or gender non-conforming survivors encounter domestic violence at rates higher than the general population, but as they enter the courthouse at 555 West Harrison, they face barriers that reveal the court’s inherit assumption that American-born white women are the “victims” and that people of any other race or gender are the “perpetrators.”

“There is a real palpable sense that every black person is a defendant,” an advocate with Love & Protect said, which “makes it really hard to feel like [555 West Harrison] is a place that is supposed to generate safety for someone.”

Immediately as you walk into the lobby of 555 West Harrison, you are forced to enter one of  two security lines: the one designated for women or the one designated for men. The presumption being that by separating the genders, they separate the petitioner and respondent, an advocate with the Center on Halsted, a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community center explained. This process ignores the experiences of non-binary survivors and those in non-heterosexual relationships, and could even place a survivor in the same line, feet away from the person who harmed them. These lines force non-binary or gender non-conforming people to misgender themselves the second they step through the doors, further perpetuating trauma. Further, the necessary legal forms that people must complete to receive an order of protection do not include a space for individuals to specify their pronouns, leaving trans and non-binary people to face constant misgendering throughout the court process. The fear of harassment, misgendering, or even of outing someone to the public can deter survivors in the LGBTQ+ community from reporting or proceeding with a case, according to the Center on Halsted advocate. 

A lot of survivors also share that they do not want their partner to be harmed or they’re really worried about the legal consequences for their partner. Their partner may be trans and non-binary, and then that may be outing them and going through the court process because, again, using a partner’s legal name or a dead name versus the name that they use, or having to out themselves by going through that system too that somebody may not be out as bi, gay, lesbian, queer, to their workplace or to even their family members or friends. 

Advocate (Center on Halsted)

Domestic and sexual violence advocates, who often enter the courtroom with survivors, overwhelmingly reported experiencing harmful and victim-blaming comments from the judges: from offensive assumptions about the extent of the violence in non-heterosexual relationships to dismissing cases because of a lack of obvious physical evidence. The Center on Halsted advocate cited examples, including an instance of law enforcement calling a violent situation between two women a “catfight.” In another instance, the advocate said a judge “just told [two men] to sleep in separate rooms” without understanding this was an instance of intimate partner violence. 

In 2015, the National Transgender Survey found that 53% of transgender and gender non-conforming people of color with court involvement or experiences reported hearing discriminatory comments about sexual orientation or their gender identity or expression. 

Littered throughout the Domestic Violence Courthouse at 555 West Harrison are discriminatory comments, interviews with advocates indicated. Judges and court staff have treated survivors of color with disbelief and aggression — and even blamed survivors for not leaving their perpetrator sooner.

“There’s a lot of focus on the victims’ actions: ‘Why didn’t you call the police? Why didn’t you proceed with charges?’ as opposed to, well, ‘why did you abuse this person?’ Like the accountability is — it’s astonishing to me how lopsided it is the expectations put on the victim as opposed to the actual abuser,” Virginia Torres Ryan, a former legal advocate and current owner of Family Horizons PLLC, a counseling service offering individual or family counseling and forensic services in conjunction with family law cases, recounted. 

It can be extremely difficult for survivors and advocates to discern whether their pleas for protection are denied due to a judge’s insensitivity or for the legitimate lack of evidence. As one advocate recalled to us:

If [survivors] are not like bruised up, if they don’t have the pictures of their face being bruised up or, you know, arm broken or the evidence to show them that they are actually being abused…[judges] wouldn’t hear that, that’s what our clients always say, especially when you’re not experiencing physical abuse, or like, emotional, or other kinds of abuses, right, and they can’t be really shown, face to face. The judges are more likely to deny them saying it’s just a family issue like marital issues.

Advocate (Anonymous)

Advocates from Mujeres Latinas de Acción, a domestic violence organization centered around helping Latinx women and children, said that in some hearings, a judge will refuse to hear a survivor’s story altogether. Instead, they will force the survivor to stop speaking and make their ruling without full testimony.

But sometimes the judges do not allow the time and allow the survivors to express those very important details…and [advocates] have seen judges stop our survivors from talking…an example [of what] I’ve heard: “Just stop right there. I don’t want to hear it. This is what I’m going to do and that’s that.”

Advocate (Mujeres Latinas de Acción)

Non-English-speaking or non-citizen survivors may even be more vulnerable to domestic violence, as they often depend on partners for their legal residence. Latina survivors who have temporary legal statuses and fear deportation are overwhelmingly less likely to seek out resources and help, a study from The National Latina Network found. While in court, non-English speaking survivors face additional roadblocks as English-only forms, a lack of reliable interpreters, and sometimes even an underlying fear of deportation can all impact a survivor’s safe navigation through the domestic violence court system.

The National Latina Network’s study found that 18% of Latina survivors said they had trouble accessing advocacy or court services because they were not offered in their language.

The Cook County Circuit Court system has a limited number of interpreters that cycle through the various courthouses. Interpreter services are available on a “first come, first serve” basis, according to the Court’s website, and although interpreters are listed as available for dozens of different languages, only Spanish, Polish, and American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters are available on a “daily basis.” Moreover, these interpreter services are typically only available once a survivor enters a courtroom, meaning that non-English speaking survivors must navigate the courthouse without understanding the personnel, the forms, or the signage. People who do not speak English are essentially left to their own devices until they arrive in a courtroom — and then, at that point, the wait-time for interpreter services could be excessive.

If you do not speak English or…have limited ability to read, speak, write or understand English…when you arrive in the courtroom, you must tell the court clerk or the judge when you arrive in the courtroom that you need the services of an interpreter. If the court determines the services of a court foreign language interpreter are necessary, an order appointing an interpreter will be entered. Court staff will contact the court’s Office of Interpreter Services to arrange for an interpreter on your behalf.

Office of Interpreter Services, Circuit Court of Cook County

Survivors are forced to figure out a complex system in a foreign language by themselves. Even with many practiced, culturally competent advocacy groups in Cook County, it can be difficult for survivors to know where to look for support. While some judges attempt to clarify basic information in common languages like Spanish, this may not be enough for survivors to understand. Advocates from both Mujeres Latinas de Acción and KAN-WIN (an organization focused on eradicating gender-based violence for women and children across Asian American communities) expressed that language barriers prevent immigrant survivors from accessing services and from receiving a just and fair trial. 

Though the court does attempt to provide interpreters for court dates, as the law requires, advocates said that many interpreters do not show up. This forces the survivor to wait hours for their interpreter to appear or even another few weeks or more for a rescheduled court date. Other interpreters do not understand how to “become the survivor’s voice,” creating more frustration. Interpreter services within DV court are incredibly sensitive and require complete accuracy. Advocates from KAN-WIN and Family Horizons say not all interpreters’ are equally skilled. Not only can this affect the clarity with which the survivor’s story is delivered to the judge, it can also affect how well the survivors understand their own proceedings. This can severely affect some survivors’ path justice.

An advocate from Mujeres Latinas de Acción recounted experiences of interpreters “screaming” at survivors when they lost their patience.

I can only imagine what…it’s like for the survivor having to explain their whole story, personal story, now, everyone is listening to the whole story. This is, everything is public. It’s a very intimidating process. And for someone else [like the interpreter], a third party — a whole different person that has nothing to do with the whole situation — to be acting in a way that is going to mentally drag down survivors, it’s very, very disturbing, to say the least.

Advocate (Mujeres Latinas de Acción)

Non-English speaking survivors are punished by the court before even arriving. An advocate from a domestic violence advocacy organization in Chicago recalled one instance where the police arrested a non-English speaking survivor after the person causing them harm spoke to the police in English and convinced authorities that the survivor was actually the harmer. With this incorrect label as an ‘abuser,’ legal and safety resources become limited, as some organizations refuse to offer assistance to respondents or defendants. 

I’ve seen our victims get punished. They’ll be locked up 72 hours in the prison, in the jail, and they don’t know what’s happening. Because, well, [speaking as the survivor], “my husband called the police on me. I became the abuser, all of sudden.”

Advocate (Chicago)

For many non-citizen survivors of domestic violence navigating the courtroom, an underlying fear of deportation follows them. While the survivor can choose not to answer whether or not they are a “legal” citizen, not answering reveals the truth that they may be undocumented. Survivors and their children who are undocumented may derive legal status from the person causing them harm, and by separating from them, they may face deportation. 

Fear of deportation for themselves, their children and the perpetrator all prevent survivors from feeling safe enough to seek help. Approximately 49.5% of immigrant women experience abuse, almost three times the national average, according to the National Organization for Women. Yet, when they attempt to seek help, the courts punish them in both tangible and collateral ways. 

This fear is not unfounded. In one case, immigration enforcement interrupted a civil order of protection court proceeding to arrest and deport the perpetrator, one advocate from Mujeres Latinas de Acción told us. At that moment, the survivor’s children lost their father, devastating the survivor who never wanted him to be deported. “This was a threat, not only for that survivor alone, but it was like, what is going to happen with all the undocumented survivors that would learn about this…space not being safe, and they will not choose their legal rights,” the advocate said. 

The culmination of the fear of deportation, difficulties with interpreters, and overall lack of empathy in the courtroom all result in an overwhelming sense of distrust in the court system among immigrant communities. Not only do survivors come to expect to experience harassment in court, but they also feel a sense of hopelessness that judges will take their case seriously, one advocate said. This distrust can affect non-immigrant survivors as well, including Black and Indigenous people who may have experienced or observed the police brutality, constant harassment, over-incarceration, and excessive prosecution of people from their communities. Advocates across all organizations we spoke with expressed their frustrations with the judges in Cook County’s Domestic Violence Courthouse at 555 West Harrison, explaining that inadequate training for and bad temperament of judges can make survivors less safe. 

The individuals interviewed expressed concern with the limited options available for survivors; orders of protection are not a ‘one size fits all’ fix and may not work in all situations but they are often the only remedy judges are able to offer. One advocate, who will remain anonymous for the information they provided, spoke about their frustration surrounding the civil court’s inability to provide survivors with more protection than an order of protection. In their words, an order of protection is simply “a piece of paper that says you can’t be abusive to me anymore.”

Let’s say you’re just trying to get a civil order protection, that’s really your only remedy  as a victim of domestic violence [if you are not pursuing a criminal case] is really frustrating for me sometimes when I would have somebody who’s maybe coming into the courthouse, with a black eye, you know, or with some visible injuries, just to get an order protection.

Advocate (Anonymous)

One time in court, the advocate told us, a defendant virtually admitted to attempted murder and all the judge offered the survivor was an order of protection. “I honestly think she only got [the order of protection] because he admitted that he did it,” the advocate said. 

Respondents in civil order of protection cases can also take countless actions to delay petitioners from being granted more permanent orders, such as evading service at their address for months. One court-watcher from Chicago Appleseed observed a judge tell a petitioner that there was nothing the judge could do — even as the petitioner expressed fear for their life after multiple attacks. “That’s an awfully rough way to put it, but that’s the position you and I are in and everyone in this world,” the judge said when the petitioner asked if they should just wait to be killed. The petitioner was forced to wait weeks until their next court date because the perpetrator managed to avoid being served. Even with a temporary emergency order of protection and physical evidence of abuse, this young petitioner of color is vulnerable to further attacks. 

Regardless of possibly unfavorable actions or comments by individual judges, the commentary herein exemplifies the questionable actions of the court system generally — things that constrain all judges, attorneys, and advocates and must be studied and addressed systemically. After hours and days and weeks of navigating the legal system and preparing for court, survivors are likely to be re-traumatized, Virginia Torres Ryan said. They relive their stories to judges who may not be trained or sensitive to interpersonal issues, to interpreters who are impatient, and to the people who have harmed them. Survivors tell their story of trauma to a room full of strangers, one of whom holds the fate of the survivor in their hands and may have both inadequate options for resolving the case and may be inadequately invested in the need to create meaningful solutions.

For more information on barriers to justice in Domestic Violence Courts, click here for a fact sheet.

To get help and learn more about the resources available for survivors, visit the-network.org/get-help/.