When I first began reporting on incarcerated women, I was fascinated by studies that showed that showed that upwards of 70 percent of women in jails and prisons were subjected to intimate partner violence before they were incarcerated. But as I covered more stories on the topic, I started to see that, more disturbingly, many women I interviewed had been incarcerated because they responded to violence perpetuated against them. Again and again in my research, I came upon cases in which a woman claimed that she had acted in self-defense, or had followed orders from an abuser because she...

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The case signals a shift in how victims of trafficking are treated when they commit crimes related to their abuse.

A new batch of complaints filed Tuesday include 107 new cases of alleged sexual abuse at Illinois Youth Centers and the Cook County juvenile jail.

I’m a mother of three and criminalized survivor of domestic violence. We must do more to protect vulnerable women, not punish them.