Resources & Information on Police Sexual Violence

Kiara’s story in Nightcrawling is a fictional representation of a type of violence that is routine. The neglect and dismissal of women of color and marginalized groups, including sex workers, trans women, and low income folks, as well as the lack of alternative places to report instances of assault, means that there isn’t a wealth of documentation on police sexual violence.

Investing in the protection of black girls and women means recognizing the impact of sexual violence by law enforcement and pursuing abolition.

Andrea J. Ritchie, author of Invisible No More, has produced a report with the Interrupting Criminalization initiative on police sexual violence and a curriculum guide for sexual assault service providers. Both are available here. As Ritchie outlines, we need to minimize the contact between police and women of color through policy changes like decriminalizing sex work, drug related offenses, ‘broken window’ offenses, and more.

The In Our Names Network is also working to document police sexual violence in schools.

The only way to entirely eliminate police sexual misconduct is to eliminate police as a whole. For more about abolition, read Derecka Purnell’s article, Purnell’s book Becoming Abolitionists, and Cat Brooks’ article about refunding community.

Many local organizations are developing alternative models of care and response. Find some of these resources at Don’t Call the Police.