Beyond Fear

Latest Episodes:

Episode 26: Q&A Sep 21, 2022

As we close out the season, we invite our listeners to submit any questions they may have for the season 2 finale! Send us any questions you may have at beyondfearpodcast@gmail.com

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Episode 25: Sexual Harm in Religious Spaces Sep 07, 2022

This episode of Beyond Fear is truly groundbreaking. We welcomed four esteemed guests - Nadiah Mohajir, MPH, Dr. Maryyum Mehmood, Dr. Guila Benchimol, and the Rev. Dr. Danielle Tumminio Hansen - to lead a discussion about sexual harm that occurs across different religions including Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. You may remember that we spoke to Dr. Karen Terry in Season 1 about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. That episode focused on the institutional response to the abuse that was eventually uncovered and what the data showed about those that experienced abuse and those that perpetrated it.

In this episode, we dig deeper and discuss how abuse across these different religious spaces is and is not being addressed. Our guests talk about the scope of the sexual harm occurring, their thoughts as to why sexual harm occurs in religious spaces, the role that lay members of their faiths play in sexual harm, and how this type of harm impacts survivors.

Recording this episode was fascinating and we could have continued talking for another hour or two. We know that you will find it just as informative and interesting as we did!

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Episode 24: Catching Up with Your Co-Hosts Aug 24, 2022

Welcome to Episode 10 Beyond Fear listeners! We realized that it has been a while since we caught you up on the work that we have been doing outside of the podcast. In this episode, we interview each other about the projects that have been keeping us busy.

Alissa shares her journey of co-founding Ampersands Restorative Justice – an organization dedicated to restoring the world from sexual harm. Among other things, Ampersands facilitates restorative processes for cases of sexual harm and trains other folks to facilitate these cases. Alissa shares what it has been like to see her dream become a reality.

Alexa speaks about a project that is close to her heart as well. In 2020, she and Dr. Nicole Fox found out about the Survivors Memorial located in Minneapolis, MN. It is the first ever memorial dedicated to honoring survivors of sexual harm. Alexa describes what she and Dr. Fox discovered after speaking to the people that were involved in all aspects of making the memorial a reality. She also discusses the next step in their research on the Survivors Memorial which is designed to uncover how it functions in the community as a site of healing, education, prevention, and more.

We hope you enjoy catching-up with us! Don’t forget that we are planning a final episode dedicated to answering your questions. So, send us questions you have about us, our work, or the topics that we have covered to beyondfearpodcast@gmail.com.

Additional Readings and Resources:

Ampersands Restorative Justice

Restorative Justice in Cases of Sexual Harm (2022) by Alexa Sardina & Alissa R. Ackerman published in CUNY Law Review

The Survivors Memorial

Memorial for Survivors of Sexual Violence Vandalized (May 16, 2022) – KARE 11 News

America’s First Memorial Honoring Survivors of Sexual Violence (2022) by Alexa Sardina & Nicole Fox – Journal of Interpersonal Violence

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Episode 23: Broken Trust: When Institutions Fail Survivors Aug 10, 2022

Throughout this podcast, we have discussed the ways in which sexual harm impacts survivors psychologically, emotionally, and physically. A less talked about consequence stems from abuse that occurs within the context of institutional environments that are expected to be safe.

In this episode we speak to Dr. Caroline Heldman an expert on the consequences of sexual harm that takes place within institutional environments. Institutional betrayal refers to the harm that an institution does to those who depend on it. As you will hear, this betrayal can be explicit policies or when an institution fails to respond to sexual harm. This is often seen in the context of college campuses, the military, and religions organizations.

Additional Readings and Resources:

Faculty Against Rape

The Hunting Ground

End Rape on Campus

The New Campus Anti-Rape Movement: Internet Activism and Social Justice – Caroline Heldman, Alissa R. Ackerman, and Ian Breckenridge-Jackson

Blowing the Whistle on Campus Rape – Caroline Heldman, PhD and Danielle Dirks

Institutional Betrayal and Institutional Courage – Dr. Jennifer J. Freyd, PhD

Guest Bio:

Caroline Heldman, PhD is Chair of the Critical Theory & Social Justice Department and Chair of Gender, Women, & Sexuality Studies at Occidental College in Los Angeles. She is also Executive Director of The Representation Project and a political commentator for Spectrum and CNN International. Her research specializes in media, the presidency, and systems of power.

Dr. Heldman has published six books on gender justice and politics and her work has been featured in numerous documentaries, including Miss Representation, The Mask You Live In, The Hunting Ground, Informant, Equal Means Equal, Liberated, Nevertheless, and The Great American Lie.

Dr. Heldman splits her time between Los Angeles and New Orleans where she co-founded the New Orleans Women’s Shelter and the Lower Ninth Ward Living Museum. She also co-founded End Rape on Campus (EROC), Faculty Against Rape (FAR), and End Rape Statute of Limitations (ERSOL) that successfully abolished the time limit on prosecuting rape in California. She is currently curating the first Civil Rights museum in New Orleans with Miss Leona Tate, one of the four little girls who desegregated the Deep South in 1960.

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Episode 22: Invisible Victims: Black Survivors of Sexual Harm Jul 13, 2022

In our last episode, Who is the Ideal Victim? we spoke with Dr. Danielle Slakoff about media depictions of survivors of interpersonal and sexual harm. Specifically, we unpacked the way that race influences media narratives about who qualifies as a “real victim” worthy of help and sympathy. Black and Latina victims are frequently portrayed as somehow to blame for their victimization.

The sexual harm experienced by Black women and girls is often undisclosed, unaddressed, and unseen. In this episode, Dr. Carolyn M. West and Dr. LaDonna Long share their work that exposes the ways in which Black women and girls are treated not only by the media but also by the criminal legal system and its actors.

Much of our conversation centers on the need to understand and acknowledge our country’s racist past in order to make sense of the way that Black women and girls are treated by the criminal legal system. For most of this country's history the rape of Black women and girls was not illegal because they were considered property and were not seen as human beings. This permeated our legal system, and the consequences are still felt today.

Ultimately, it will take all of us to make the changes necessary to reverse these injustices and we hope that our conversation will take us one step closer to understanding the way forward.

Additional readings and resources:

Love with Accountability: Digging up the Roots of Child Sexual Abuse – edited by Aishah Shahidah Simmons

Pornography Consumers of Color and Problematic Pornography Use: Clinical Implications (2022) – Carolyn M. West, PhD

Mammy, Sapphire, and Jezebel: Historical Images of Black Women and their Implications for Psychotherapy (1995) – Carolyn M. West, PhD

Let me Tell Y’all bout Black Chicks: Images of Black Women in Pornography by Carolyn M. West, PhD

Sara Bartman – Black Past

Girlhood Interrupted: The Erasure of Black Girls’ Childhood by Rebecca Epstein, Jamilia J. Blake, and Thalia Gonzalez

Race and Prostitution in the United States by Donna M. Hughes

New Docuseries ‘Hunt for the Chicago Strangler’ focuses on Murders of Dozens of Black Women over 20 Years – Fox 32 Chicago

Surviving the Silence: Black Women’s Stories of Rape by Charlotte Pierce-Baker

Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence, and America’s Prison Nation by Beth E. Richie

Black and Missing Foundation

Black Women’s Blueprint

We as Ourselves

Guest Bios:

Carolyn M. West, PhD is Professor of Clinical Psychology and Associate Dean of Special Initiatives at the University of Washington. She is an award-winning author, internationally recognized speaker, documentary filmmaker, and expert witness. For more than three decades, she has been investigating gender-based violence, with a special focus on domestic violence and sexual assault in the lives of African American women. Her mission is to deliver keynote addresses, conduct workshops, and customize innovative training material to educate and equip professionals with the skills to provide culturally responsive services. Her vision is to educate, empower, and inspire a multicultural alliance of survivors and professionals to prevent all forms of violence.

LaDonna Long, PhD is an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at Roosevelt University. Her research focuses on women’s experiences with victimization, particularly how race, class, and gender influences post-assault coping mechanisms. Her prior work focused on age and educational differences in African American women who have experienced sexual victimization as well as factors that predict disclosure of sexual victimization to health professionals. She has also published work on medical advocates’ experiences in the emergency room with survivors and law enforcement as well as vicarious trauma.

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Episode 21: Who is the 'Ideal Victim'? Jun 29, 2022

Throughout season 1, we have discussed how society, often times through the media, blames survivors of sexual violence. Frequently, media portrayals impact trial outcomes, a survivor’s willingness to report, and more. In this episode, we speak to Dr. Danielle Slakoff, a professor and prominent researcher that studies the ways in which the media inaccurately portrays survivors of domestic violence and sexual harm.

During the episode, we also talk about ‘the ideal victim’. According to her research and analysis of newspaper stories, women that are missing, that experience sexual harm or domestic abuse are portrayed differently based on race. The ideal victim has historically been white women and girls. They are frequently portrayed as being blameless and in need of protection. Black and Latina women, women that do not conform to this stereotype, are often blamed for the victimization.

According to Dr. Slakoff’s research, Latina and Black women and girls were portrayed much more negatively than the white women and girl victims. Specifically, they were portrayed as risk-taking at the time that the crime occurred and somehow responsible for the harm they experienced. This deep dive into the ways in which the media influences the way we think about who experiences harm and why is a critical piece of a broader conversation about race and the criminal justice system.

Additional Readings and Resources:

Media Messages Surrounding Missing Women and Girls: The “Missing White Woman Syndrome” and Other Factors that Influence Newsworthiness - Danielle C. Slakoff and Henry F. Fradella

A Timeline of 22 Year Old Gabby Petito’s Case - CNN

White, Black, and Latina Female Victims in U.S. News: A Multivariate and Intersectional Analysis of Story Differences- Danielle C. Slakoff and Pauline Brennan

How Social Media Shone a Light on the Lauren Smith-Fields Case - Time Magazine

The Black and Missing Foundation

Restoring Justice for Indigenous Peoples

Guest Bio:

Dr. Danielle Slakoff is an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at California State University, Sacramento. Her research interests include media representations of women and girl victims and perpetrators, women’s issues within the criminal justice system, race/ethnicity, true crime, and domestic violence. Dr. Slakoff’s commentary on media portrayals of the justice system has been featured in outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Time Magazine. You can find her on Twitter at @DSlakoffPhD.

Follow us on Facebook at Beyond Fear: The Sex Crimes Podcast, on Instagram @beyondfearpodcast, and on Twitter @fearcrimes. If you have questions about this or any of our previous episodes, or if there is anything you'd like to know about our work, we hope you will email us at beyondfearpodcast@gmail.com or you can contact us on our site here.

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Episode 20: Child Sexual Abuse Material: One Click Away Jun 15, 2022

Child sexual abuse material (CSAM), previously known as child pornography, can be a confronting and uncomfortable topic. CSAM can refer to the possession, viewing, sharing, and creation of images or videos that involve the visual depiction of children involved in a sex act. Although CSAM was almost completely eradicated in the 1980s, the dawn of the Internet ushered the proliferation of it. The anonymity of the Internet and the ease of sharing digital images of children makes this material ‘one click away’.

During this episode, we speak to Nicholas a person who was convicted of and served prison time for the possession of child sexual abuse material. Importantly, Nicholas emphasizes the fact that although his committed a non-contact offense, his crime was not victim-less. His description of his life before, during and after the offense provides critical insights regarding the factors that can lead someone to consuming CSAM, the importance and effectiveness of treatment, the challenges of life after prison for someone convicted of an act of sexual harm, and many other topics that we have covered during previous episodes.

We understand that hearing Nicholas’ story can be confronting and uncomfortable, but we think his account provides important information that can be used to combat the proliferation of child sexual abuse material in the future.

Additional Readings and Resources:

Child Pornography– The United States Department of Justice

Citizen’s Guide to U.S. Federal Law on Child Pornography – The United States Department of Justice

Child Pornography Offenders: Quick Facts– United States Sentencing Commission

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Episode 19: Surviving Trafficking Jun 01, 2022

Episode 5 is the last part of our series of episodes dedicated to human trafficking. In this episode, you will hear Jess’s story of surviving trafficking. Our conversation exposes some of the many myths about the crime of human trafficking (which often includes sex trafficking), including who perpetrates it, who experiences it, and the context within which it occurs.

Traffickers do not usually target victims they do not know. In fact, like other types of sexual harm, survivors are usually trafficked by someone they know, such as a family member. People often assume that trafficking involves traveling or transporting a person. While this is sometimes the case, as Dr. Branchini-Risko noted in Episode 4, trafficking does not require movement across boarders. And as we hear in the case of Jess, a child may be trafficked or exploited from their own home. Furthermore, people who are trafficked are often not held against their will but may be controlled through other means, like a lack of financial independence.

Jess’s story of healing is emblematic of what many survivors of sex trafficking experience. The psychological harm may take many years to heal and often include post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation.

Additional readings and resources:

Centering Survivors– Polaris Project

Survivors of Human Trafficking Recount Experiences, Provide Advice– U.S. Department of Defense

Faces of Human Trafficking– Office for Victims of Crime (OVC)

Helping Human Trafficking Victims– Center for Prevention of Abuse

Guest Bio

Jess grew-up in the duality of New York City and Seattle. They settled in the Pacific Northwest and earned their bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice, from the University of Washington. While attending undergrad courses, Jess found a passion for Restorative Justice and a desire to influence policies responding to real life circumstances. Advocating for change, Jess challenges systemic racism and the false narratives of popular culture.

After several years in the Social Justice arena, Jess made the decision to pursue their master’s degree in Social Work to expand their professional process. Embracing adversity and a colorfully diverse background, Jess is focused on the advancement of Transformative Justice and continues their commitment to harm-reduction and enhancing repair, one person at a time.

Follow us on Facebook at Beyond Fear: The Sex Crimes Podcast, on Instagram @beyondfearpodcast, and on Twitter @fearcrimes. If you have questions about this or any of our previous episodes, or if there is anything you’d like to know about our work, we hope you will email us at beyondfearpodcast@gmail.com or you can contact us on our site here.

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Episode 18: Understanding Trafficking: Part 2 May 18, 2022

Human trafficking is an incredibly complex issue that includes several different important topics we felt should be covered during our second season. Due to this complexity, we agreed to dedicate three episodes to cover it.

Welcome to Understanding Trafficking Part 2! During this episode, we speak with Dr. Casey Branchini Risko, an expert on international labor and sex trafficking. The interview with Dr. Branchini Risko gives further insight into the many ways that trafficking is associated with other crimes perpetrated against the most vulnerable people in societies across the globe. Importantly, Dr. Branchini Risko also emphasizes that there is often significant overlap between labor and sex trafficking. We also talked to Dr. Branchini Risko about more specific offenses, including sex tourism.

Stay tuned for Episode 5 next week when our discussion of trafficking comes full circle and we hear the story of a trafficking survivor.

Additional Resources and Organizations

Polaris Project (United states)

Winrock International

Kachin Women's Association Thailand

Tenaganita

Guest Bio

Casey Branchini Risko, PhD is a public health researcher with more than a decade of experience working in the anti-trafficking field – both on research and programming. Her work focuses on using rigorous methods to better understand how human trafficking impacts health, including how to accurately measure these issues and conduct monitoring and evaluation of interventions. She has spent much of her career traveling throughout Southeast Asia and other parts of the world to better understand risks and protective factors associated with trafficking and to find new and innovative ways to prevent and respond to the crime.

Dr. Branchini Risko received both her PhD and MHS in International Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. While at Hopkins, she also served as a co-investigator on studies estimating the prevalence of forced marriage and childbearing among Burmese women trafficked to China as well as on the health impact of human rights violations, including trafficking, among North Korean children.

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Episode 17: Understanding Trafficking: Part I May 04, 2022

Human trafficking has moved into the public consciousness as a serious offense both domestically and internationally. Over the course of the next three episodes of Beyond Fear, we will cover trafficking from the perspective of researchers and a survivor.

Human trafficking, including sex trafficking, is a multi-billion-dollar industry that impacts an estimated 24.9 million people globally. In the U.S., human trafficking is defined as using force, fraud, or coercion, to compel a person into commercial sex acts or labor services against their will. In some instances, people are trafficked for the purpose of commercial sex and in others people are trafficked and forced to work under inhumane or illegal conditions.

In Understanding Trafficking Part I, we speak to Katie Gosch and Dr. Katherine Gomez – experts on domestic sex trafficking. Our conversation touched on several important topics including who is most at risk for victimization, the demographic profile of traffickers, ways to combat trafficking and more.

This episode is the beginning of our exploration of human trafficking. So, stay tuned next week for our discussion as we discuss human trafficking from a global perspective.

For additional reading, check out:

Human Trafficking Hotline

Sex Trafficking – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

What is Human Trafficking? Department of Homeland Security

Polaris Project

Guest Bios:

Katherine C. Gomez, PhD (she/her) currently serves as the Director of Human Trafficking Intervention for the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (FDJJ). She holds a PhD in Public Affairs from the University of Central Florida. She has served Florida since 2006 as a juvenile probation officer, trainer, researcher, and senior administrator. She specializes in working with juvenile justice system-involved youth who have experienced human trafficking, youth charged with sexually-related offenses, youth who identify as part of the LGBTQI community, and high-profile multi-jurisdictional cases.

Ms. Gotch has worked in the field of sexual abuse prevention for over twenty years as a clinician, evaluator, trainer, educator, and in the development of evidence-informed public policy. She currently maintains a private practice, Integrated Clinical & Correctional Services, which provides specialized clinical and consultation services related to adults with sexual behavior problems and other forms of abusive/violent behavior. She is a Clinical Member & Public Policy Executive Board Member – ATSA, Former Board Member & Public Policy Advisor – Oregon ATSA, and Advisory Board Member & Former Public Policy & Engagement Action Team Co-Chair – NPEIV National Partnership to End Interpersonal Violence. She frequently provides training to correctional agencies, treatment providers, policy makers, and other community partners on sexual offense specific management and treatment, static and dynamic risk, public policy, public engagement, and related topics.

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Episode 16: Understanding Sex Work Apr 20, 2022

The topic of sex work can illicit strong stereotypes, incorrect assumptions, and ill-advised suggestions on how this issue should or should not be addressed by the criminal legal system and society in general. Regardless of what comes to mind, people who engage in sex work frequently face dehumanizing treatment simply based on what they do for a living – who they ARE is rarely part of the equation.

Our goal this season was to humanize many of the controversial and misunderstood topics related to sexual harm by speaking to the people directly impacted by them. In “Understanding Sex Work” we speak to Sive Sanchez – a person that has engaged in sex work for many years in San Francisco. During our conversation, they demystify what sex work is, who does it, and why. Sive also shares some of the struggles they have faced and many of them stem from the fact that sex work is illegal.

There has been a significant shift to decriminalize sex work. A critical part of this conversation has to do with police interactions with sex workers. Research shows that in criminalized contexts, sex workers are often physically or sexually coerced by police through threat of detention, violence (including rape) or extortion. Due to discrimination and mistrust of police and the high risk of being arrested, sex workers are not likely to report crimes against them or cooperate with the police in investigations. Decriminalization would also eliminate the fear of arrest that frequently prevents sex workers from seeking justice and would better protect sex workers from violence at the hands of their clients (see list of resources below).

We learned a lot from our conversation with Sive and believe that their story is invaluable for you to hear. We hope this will encourage you to lean into difficult conversations and share what you have learned here. As always, we thank you for continuing to journey with us Beyond Fear.

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Welcome to Season 2 of Beyond Fear: The Sex Crimes Podcast Apr 06, 2022

Welcome to Season 2 of Beyond Fear: The Sex Crimes Podcast. We are so excited to share this new

season with you. This time around, we will be diving deeper into critical issues related to sex crimes.

Many of the episodes feature people directly impacted by these topics. Guests include experts as well as

people that are directly impacted by them.

We are also excited to announce that we have joined the Article III podcasting network. During this

episode, we talk to Dr. Meghan Sacks and Dr. Amy Schlosberg - co-founders of Article III and co-hosts of

the popular podcasts Direct Appeal and Women and Crime. Meghan and Amy join us to discuss how this

partnership came about and we also analyze the case of Ellie Nesler. Meghan and Amy recently did a

deep dive into this case on an episode of Women and Crime and we highly recommend that you check it

out before listening to this episode.

Here we give you our take as criminologists and break down many of the themes that run throughout

Beyond Fear including the ripple effects of sexual harm, the impact on survivors, as well as the criminal

legal response to sex crimes and more!

We hope you enjoy it and stick with us as we continue to move Beyond Fear!

Please follow this link for a direct download of the episode.

Be sure to check out Meghan and Amy’s podcasts Women and Crime and Direct Appeal.

Guest Bios

Meghan Sacks, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor and the criminal justice Graduate Program Director at

Fairleigh Dickinson University. She teaches classes on Women and Crime, Serial Killers, and Crime Policy.

Her research interests include bail reform, plea bargaining, sentencing policy and corrections. She has

published her work in several journal articles and periodicals, co-authored two books and contributed to

several more. Meghan received her PhD and master’s from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Prior to her academic career, Meghan served as a United States Probation Officer in the Southern

District of New York. She is also the co-creator and co-host of two true crime podcasts: Women & Crime

and Direct Appeal.

Amy Shlosberg, Ph.D., is Department Chair and an Associate Professor of Criminology at Fairleigh

Dickinson University. Her primary research focuses on miscarriages of justice, the negative implications

of incarceration and issues surrounding reentry, with an emphasis on policy and procedural reform. Her

works in this area have been accepted for publication in several academic journals, including the Albany

Law Review, Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, Psychology, Crime & Law, Wrongful Conviction Law

Review and Criminal Justice Policy Review. She is also the co-creator and co-host of two true crime

podcasts: Women & Crime and Direct Appeal.

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Bonus Episode: The Things Left Unsaid Dec 02, 2020

Throughout the first season of Beyond Fear: The Sex Crimes Podcast, we have received dozens of questions and comments from listeners. The conversations we have had one-on-one with each other and those we have had with some of you who have reached out have affirmed our belief that the work we do and the way we accomplish it are both incredibly important.

We’ve learned over the years that bringing our full selves to the table is critical. It is with that lesson in mind that we bring you the bonus episode of season one. As we noted, we have received dozens of interesting and important questions from our dedicated listeners. We could not possibly answer all of these questions in a single episode and will use many of them as topics for our second season.

Instead, we decided to tackle two questions that survivors ask us all the time. We decided to answer them intimately and authentically – perhaps with an honesty and openness with which we have not always answered. The greatest gift we can give others is to be one hundred percent ourselves. We want anyone who has been harmed and those who have caused harm to fully understand the indelible impact that sexual harm can have. We also want listeners to understand that healing is not linear, that is is complicated and messy. It is layered. Healing is sometimes, as in the case for both of us, entangled in navigating both sexual trauma and mental illness.

The two questions we tackle in this deeply personal episode include:

How do I know I am “over it”?
How to I navigate medical doctors/procedures/appointments as a survivor?

In the episode we talk about two books that have been integral to our understanding of trauma. The first is called The Body Keeps the Score, by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk. This book helped us both to understand how trauma impacts us and changes us as a cellular level. The second book is called Trauma and Recovery, by Dr. Judith Herman. It was this live changing book, which was first published in 1992, that helped us both to fully recognize that we were not alone.

Later in the episode we talk about the importance of trauma informed medicine. We believe that trauma informed care is critical for survivors of all forms of trauma to receive the medical care they need.

Our friend Christine “Cissy” White, whose work can be found at http://www.healwritenow.com, talks about how it is not trauma informed if it isn’t informed by trauma survivors. Her work has significantly impacted how we think about medical care.

Finally, we discuss a potentially important and impactful intervention called pelvic floor physical therapy. This is not a very well known intervention, but many survivors who experience chronic pelvic pain, it can be life changing. You can learn more about pelvic floor physical therapy from thee following links:

Why Going to Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy Transformed My Life

Pelvic Physical Therapy: Another Potential Treatment Option

For a transcript of this episode click here.

For a direct download of this episode

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Episode 13: Get Curious Nov 11, 2020

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Episode 12: Building a Better Life Oct 21, 2020

In Episode 12 of Beyond Fear, we interview David Prescott, an internationally known expert on treatment for those who sexually offend.

A mental health practitioner of 36 years, David Prescott is the Editor of Safer Society Press. He is the author and editor of 20 books in the areas of understanding and improving services to at-risk clients. He is best known for his work in the areas of understanding, assessing, and treating sexual violence and trauma. Mr. Prescott is the recipient of the 2014 Distinguished Contribution Award from the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers and the 2018 recipient of the National Adolescent Perpetration Network’s C. Henry Kempe Lifetime Achievement Award. Mr. Prescott currently trains and lectures around the world.

In this episode, we talked about everything from the history of treatment, to the need for trauma informed practice, to the use of person-first language.

David recently co-authored a book Trauma-Informed Care: Transforming Treatment for People Who Have Sexually Abused.

In the episode, we talked about a recent blog post on person first language that you can find here.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

For a direct download of this episode, click here.

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Episode 11: "Do Women Do Those Things?!" Oct 07, 2020

The image that comes to mind when we think about a person who commits a sexual offense is more often than not, male. While it is true that the vast majority of sexual harm around the world is committed by men, women can – and do – commit sex crimes. In this episode of Beyond Fear, Alissa interviews Alexa about her expertise on female sexual offending. Alexa sheds light on this important, understudied and often misunderstood issue.

The names that come to mind when we think about women who sexuall offend are those that have become household names: Mary Kay Letourneau and Debra LaFave. Both were attractive, relatively young school teachers who sexually abused younger boys. However, we cannot and should not reconcile all sexual abuse committed by women with that which was committed by these two women.

Sexual abuse by women happens for a variety of reasons. Some of these reasons are similar to those we understand about men who sexually offend and some are quite different. It is important that we recognize and understand these reasons so we can promote prevention efforts.

A few important things we do know:

Women who sexually offend have significantly high rates of all forms of abuse and family dysfunction in childhood.
Approximately 10% of sex crimes are committed by women.
Women are likely to offend with a co-offending male partner.
Sexual abuse by women causes similar harm to sexual abuse by men, but it is far less likely to be reported.

For an interview with Debra LaFave click here.

For a transcript of episode 11 click here.

For a direct download of the episode click here.

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Episode 10: Once You See, You Can't Unsee Sep 23, 2020

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Episode 9: Why Should I Care?! Sep 09, 2020

In Episode 9, “Why Should I Care?!”, Alexa interviews Dr. Alissa Ackerman about sex crimes policies in the U.S. Alissa is widely considered an expert on sex crimes policy and much of her research has examined the efficacy of the sex offense registry, residence restrictions, and community notification. Notably, her research, and that of most other researchers, have found that sex crimes policies have done nothing to make society safer and have not reduced rates of sexual violence since their implementation.

In this episode, we discuss two policies that apply only to those who have committed what the law defines as a “sex crime”: the publicly available sex offender registry and residence restrictions. These policies were enacted after the high-profile abductions and murders of young children by a known “sex offender”. The names of these child victims, Adam Walsh, Megan Kanka, and Jacob Wetterling, are well known. Unfortunately, these cases do not represent typical sex offenses. In fact, these are the rarest type of sex crimes.

The assumptions underlying sex crimes policies is the notion that sex offenders are somehow different from everyone else. That they do not stop offending and each offense is more violent than the last. As we discussed in Episode 8 with Dr. Danielle Harris, most people who have committed sex offenses do desist, or stop offending. Additionally, studies of recidivism rates consistently indicate that people who offend sexually recidivate at lower rates than most other offenders and are more likely to recidivate with a non-sexual offense than a sexual one. The collateral consequences of these laws, the shame, stigma, inability to find housing and employment, are precisely the elements that are necessary for a person to reintegrate into their community in a positive, prosocial way.

Why should you care?! Anyone that wants to end sexual violence should care about the ineffectiveness of sex crimes policies and their collateral consequences. Instead of spending money on policies that are doing nothing to decrease rates of sexual violence, money and legislative efforts could be better directed toward sexual violence prevention.

In this episode we referenced several studies. You will find links to those research articles below. If you would like more information, please feel free to email us.

To read about Alissa’s work with the data from NCMEC, click here.

To read more about the sex offender registry in an article by Dr. Alissa Ackerman, Dr. Andrew Harris, Dr. Jill Levenson, and Dr. Kristen Zgoba click here.

To read more about research on the efficacy of sex offense policies on reducing rates of sexual violence, read an article by Dr. Alissa Ackerman, Dr. Meghan Sachs, and Dr. David Greenberg here.

We highly recommend the documentary Untouchable which provides a comprehensive understanding of these policies and the very human impact of them.

Please note that Alissa references the findings of a meta-analysis conducted to evaluate the impact of sex offense legislation. She actually was referring to a comprehensive literature review on the topic which can be accessed here.

For a transcript of this episode, please

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Episode 8: The Deliberate Shift Aug 26, 2020

Research shows that, like people who commit other crimes, those who sexually offend also desist from offending. This is both hard to hear and important to acknowledge. In Episode 8 of Beyond Fear, we made the deliberate decision to pivot from conversations about survivor experiences to a focus on the experience of individuals who have sexually offended.

When we first started studying sexual violence, we both wanted to study the effects of victimization, but it didn't take us much time to figure out that in order to stop sexual violence we had to go further upstream. Victimization doesn't end without stopping offending.

In this episode we interview Dr. Danielle Harris, a friend and colleague based at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, whose work focuses almost exclusively on desistance from sexual offending. What we know from the research is that recidivism rates, or reoffense rates, for people who sexually offend is quite low. In fact, studies consistently find that sexual recidivism rates for those who sexually offend are low.

So why does this matter? Why should we care about people who sexually offend? Why do their experiences of reintegration matter to us? And why should they matter to you?

Well the answer is quite simple, actually. What we are doing doesn't work. First, the vast majority of people who commit sex crimes will never be processed through the criminal justice system and even if they were, this still wouldn't end sexual violence (this is an entire episode in itself). Second, people who commit sex crimes are not monsters or boogeymen. They are our family members, our friends, our clergy, our coaches, our teachers... they are people we know and they are people we love. It is easy to treat people as castaways when we treat them as "the other", but people who commit sex crimes are just that.... people... who commit sex crimes.

This requires that we understand why they offend in the first place and how to help them to stop. This is at the heart of Danielle's work.

In "The Deliberate Shift", we talk about Danielle's path to this work, the major findings of her research, why she continues this research agenda, and why we advocate for a better understanding of those who sexually offend.

In this episode we referenced several books and studies.

To find out more or to purchase Desistance from Sexual Offending, click here.

To find out more or to purchase Making Good, https://www.apa.org/pubs/books/4316097 click here.

Sample, L. L., & Bray, T. M. (2003). Are sex offenders dangerous? click here.

For additional reading, check out Chapter 5 of the Sex Offender Management and Planning Initiative Report on adult sexual recidivism https://smart.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh231/files/media/document/recidivismofadultsexualoffenders.pdf

For a transcript of this episode, please https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wQhExAdX0xsADwpruVLi7rStx8dgSaZV4rNkDNAOUcI/edit

To download a direct MP3,https://www.buzzsprout.com/1054714/5110456-episode-8-the-deliberate-shift.mp3 please click here.

Follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/fearcrimes, on Instagram @beyondfearpodcast, and on Twitter @fearcrimes,

If you have questions about this episode or any of our previous ones, please reach out to us at beyondfearpodcast@gmail.com.

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Episode 7: The Second Rape Aug 12, 2020

The Beyond Fear Podcast is one continuous story, where episodes build from one to the next with the ability to reach back to previous episodes when necessary. Yet, when we started writing the story in episode 1, we didn’t fully recognize the impact that telling the story would have on us. Recording Episode 7 was one of those experiences that is hard to put into words.

In this Episode, we sit down with Alexa’s mom, Stacey Branchini, for a intimate, unscripted and candid conversation about the impact of a criminal trial on a survivor and their family. Often referred to as “the second rape”, the criminal trial is often just as traumatizing as the assault itself. This is evident in our decision to invite Stacey to talk with us, because as we worked on writing this episode Alexa was unable to remember many o f the details from after her rape. Including Stacey provides a unique perspective of this process and also highlights how trauma due to the rape impacted Alexa’s ability to recall certain events around that time.

In this episode, Stacey and Alexa often refer to “the foundation”. After Alexa’s rape and the criminal justice process that ensued, her family founded the “It Happened to Alexa Foundation” to help survivors and their families navigate the justice process. Specifically, the It Happened to Alexa Foundation provided financial support for survivors and their support networks at the time of trial. This included airfare, lodging, money for meals, and more throughout the time of the trial.

We hope that this episode provides insight for our listeners into “the second rape”. When we first began working on this episode we envisioned a more academic episode, but we believe Alexa’s story highlights what the justice process is often like for survivors and their families.

We know that material like this can be difficult to listen to. It is okay to listen in short chunks, to listen with a friend, or to turn us off.

If you have questions about this or any of our previous episodes, or if there is anything you’d like to know about our work, we hope you will email us at beyondfearpodcast@gmail.com.

For a transcript of this episode of Beyond Fear, click here.

For a direct download of this episode of Beyond Fear (MP3), click here.

Follow us on Facebook at Beyond Fear: The Sex Crimes Podcast, on Instagram @beyondfearpodcast, and on Twitter @fearcrimes

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Episode 6: How Hasn't it Affected Me? Jul 29, 2020

In “How Hasn’t It Affected Me?” Alexa and Alissa have a candid, unscripted, and vulnerable conversation with Monishia “Moe” Miller and Guy Hamilton-Smith. We each talk about the ways that sexual violence has impacted our lives.

As with all episodes of this podcast, we want to warn our listeners that this can be difficult to listen to. It is okay to listen with a friend, listen in short chunks, or walk away. To offer fair warning for this episode, in particular, we talk about both in the short and long-term impacts of sexual violence in our personal stories, including substance abuse, self-harm, eating disorders, workaholism and suicide attempts.

This was a special episode for us to record. We spoke with two individuals we both admire and respect. The four of us created a safe space to talk very intimately and vulnerably about the ways that sexual violence still impacts us.

Material like this can be hard to listen to. It may bring up triggers for you. There are resources available should you need. The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (www.rainn.org) has an abundance of resources, including the National Sexual Assault Hotline.

Some of the material we referenced in this episode includes:

Van der Kolk, Bessel (2015). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma.

Classen, C. C., Palesh, O. G., & Aggarwal, R. (2005). Sexual revictimization: A review of the empirical literature. Trauma, Violence & Abuse, 6(2), 102-129.

Maker, A. H., Kemmelmeier, M., & Peterson, C. (2001). Child sexual abuse, peer sexual abuse, and sexual assault in adulthood: A multi-risk model of revictimization. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 14(2), 351-368.

Nelson, E. C., Heath, A. C., Madden, P. A., Cooper, M. L., Dinwiddie, S. H., Bucholz, K. K. et al. (2002). Association between self-reported childhood sexual abuse and adverse psychosocial outcomes: Results from a twin study. Archives of General Psychiatry, 59(2), 139-45.

Arata, C. M. (2002). Child sexual abuse and sexual revictimization. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 9(2), 135-164.

Fleming, J., Mullen, P. E., Sibthorpe, B., & Bammer, G. (1999). The long-term impact of childhood sexual abuse in Australian women. Child Abuse & Neglect, 23, 145-159.

Vandiver, D., Braithwaite, J., & Stafford, M. (2017). Sex crimes and sex offenders: Research and realities. NY: Routledge

https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/blog/trauma-sexual-assault-and-eating-disorders

Moe is an adjunct lecturer of criminal justice at California State University, Fullerton, where she teaches courses in Juvenile Justice and Corrections. She received her Master of Science degree from California State University, Los Angeles in Criminal Justice Administration. Her research includes trauma and delinquency, youth services, and juvenile justice reform. She has worked as a youth advocate in the juvenile justice field for over twenty years.

Guy is a fellow at the Sex Offense Litigation and Policy Resource Center at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law, a 2019 JustLeadershipUSA fellow, and a writer with bylines in The Appeal, Slate, and other outlets. His work focuses primarily on the ways in which legal responses to sexual violence are ineffective and harmful, particularly focusing on post-sentence registration laws and indefinite civil imprisonment. You can read his writing on his website, https://guyhamiltonsmith.com and follow him via Twitter, @G_Padraic.

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Episode 5: The Weaponization of Sexual Violence Jul 15, 2020

In Episode 5 of Beyond Fear: The Sex Crimes Podcast, Alexa and Alissa interview Dr. Nicole Fox, an assistant professor in the Criminal Justice Division at CSUS whose current research focuses on how post-genocide communities remember violence through the creation of national collective memories embodied in memorials and monuments. In “The Weaponization of Sexual Violence” we talk about rape as it is used during war and genocide.

At the 18:00 minute mark in this episode, Dr. Fox mentions an article that has the most accurate counts of the number of rapes that occurred during the Rwandan genocide. You can access that article by clicking here.

Dr. Fox’s forthcoming book Rising From the Ashes: Memory and Reconciliation in Rwanda After the Genocide is due out in the spring of 2021.

We recognize that every episode of this podcast can be difficult to digest, but episode 5 in particular is quite heavy. We caution that you listen with care.

For a transcript of this episode of Beyond Fear, click here.

For a direct download of this episode of Beyond Fear (MP3), click here.

Follow us on Facebook at Beyond Fear: The Sex Crimes Podcast, on Instagram @beyondfearpodcast, and on Twitter @fearcrimes

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Episode 4: The Many Reasons Why Jul 01, 2020

In Episode 4: The Many Reasons Why, Alexa and Alissa breakdown some of the various reasons why people commit acts of child sexual abuse and rape. It might come as a surprise, but there is not one reason why these kinds of offenses happen. In order to prevent future sex crimes from happening and to ensure that people who do sexually offend get the help they need, it is crucial that we understand the factors that lead to offending behavior in the first place.

In this episode, we bust some myths about sexual offending and provide some insight into the complex nature of sexual offending. We discuss paraphilias, cognitive distortions, grooming behavior, opportunities, adverse childhood experiences, and rape myths, among other factors.

This might be a difficult episode to listen to, as we talk about these factors in an open and non-judgemental way. We recognize how hard this can be and suggest listening with care. It is okay to listen in short chunks, listen with friend, or tune out completely.

For a transcript of The Many Reasons Why, please click here.

Follow us on Facebook at Beyond Fear: The Sex Crimes Podcast, on Instagram @beyondfearpodcast, and on Twitter @fearcrimes

For a direct download of Episode 4: The Many Reasons Why, click here.

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Episode 3: Understanding Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church Jun 17, 2020

In Episode 3, Alexa and Alissa interview Dr. Karen Terry about her research on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

Karen J. Terry is a Professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. She holds a doctorate in Criminology from Cambridge University. Her primary research interest is sexual offending and victimization and sex offender policy. Her current research focus is on the abuse of children in an institutional setting, and she was the principal investigator for two studies on sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests in the United States.

The interview delves into multiple topics related to sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests including how the two studies were designed, the major findings of both studies, and a discussion of situational crime prevention strategies that can aid in the prevention of sexual abuse.

For the full report on the Nature and Scope of the Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests click here.

For the full report on the Causes and Contexts of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests click here.

Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Sexual Abuse can be found here.

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Episode 2: Into the Weeds: Measuring Silence Jun 08, 2020

“It depends…”

This is the language that research often use when people ask them questions about sources of data.

This is because the findings we obtain in our research depend on how we ask questions, when we ask questions, who asks the questions, etc. There are also different methods for obtaining data and just because two data sources provide different data doesn’t mean that either is incorrect. It depends…

In episode 2, Into the Weeds: Measuring Silence, Alexa and Alissa talk about the major sources of counting sexual crimes that occur in the United States. The compare two major data sources and discuss some of the benefits and shortfalls of each.

In this episode we utilize data from the following sources (each bullet point is hyperlinked):

The Uniform Crime Report

The National Crime Victimization Survey

The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey

An additional resource we did not use in the episode related to child neglect, abuse and maltreatment is the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS).

Follow us on Facebook at Beyond Fear: The Sex Crimes Podcast, on Instagram @beyondfearpodcast, and on Twitter @fearcrimes.

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Episode 1: Ride or Die May 17, 2020

In episode one of Beyond Fear: The Sex Crimes Podcast, Alexa and Alissa introduce themselves, their stories, and their commitment to understanding every aspect of sexual harm as sex crimes experts and as rape survivors.

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