2003 LEGISLATIVE AND POLICY AGENDA Legislative advocacy is key to Safe Horizon’s mission of providing support, preventing violence, and promoting justice for victims of crime and abuse, their families and communities. With 25 years of experience serving those who are facing violence and trauma, Safe Horizon supports policy and legislative initiatives that respond to the needs of New York and beyond. The following is an outline of the major issues Safe Horizon advocates on behalf of.   Expand Services for Survivors of Sexual Assault Support DNA testing. DNA testing has enormous potential both to bring perpetrators of rape and sexual assault to justice and to exonerate the innocent. Funding should be released to decrease the backlog in DNA samples and to train law enforcement and medical personnel to appropriately collect DNA from crime scenes and victims. Eliminate the statute of limitations for rape. New York’s current five-year statute of limitations for rape and sexual assault cases should be removed, particularly in light of advances in DNA technology. Rape should be treated as seriously as murder, kidnapping, and arson, which historically have no time limitations. Oppose mandatory transmissible disease testing of criminal defendants. Legislation requiring defendants, who are charged with but not yet convicted of a crime, to be tested for disease does not increase meaningful protections for sexual assault survivors and risks eroding fundamental privacy rights.   Support Domestic Violence Victims Reform Mandatory Arrest and Primary Physical Aggressor laws. New York’s mandatory arrest and primary physical aggressor laws should be made permanent and require data collection of all domestic violence arrests. The definition of household member should be expanded to include those in dating relationships, persons with a child in common, and unmarried and same-sex domestic partners. Primary physical aggressor standards should cover felonious assaults to ensure that victims of domestic violence are not mistakenly arrested. Police and prosecutors should be trained on implementation of these laws. Improve New York’s response to domestic violence. New York should amend the definition of “household member” so that domestic partners in dating relationships and same-sex couples have access to family court in domestic violence proceedings. The law should authorize courts to issue lifetime orders of protection, require judges to consider domestic violence in bail determinations, and mandate a presumption against awarding custody to an abusive parent. Mandate restitution for domestic violence victims. Restitution is an important tool for helping to alleviate the financial costs crime victims incur as a result of a crime. New York’s penal law should be amended to mandate restitution to victims when an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal is issued in a legal proceeding concerning domestic violence. Ban discrimination against victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking. New York law should prohibit employment and housing discrimination against victims of violence. Employers should provide employees who are victims of sexual assault and domestic violence with leave to attend court, counseling, and other related services. Guarantee that batterers are not permitted to receive permits for handguns, rifles or shotguns. Safe Horizon supports gun control and licensing legislation prohibiting the issuance of gun licenses to individuals who have a history of domestic violence or against whom a court order of protection has been issued.   Promote Economic Independence Participation in domestic and sexual violence programs should satisfy Temporary Assistance for Needy Families work requirements. Survivors of domestic and sexual violence addressing violence through program participation should be eligible for a waiver of TANF work requirements. Policies should encourage working domestic violence victims to seek shelter and other services. Personal contributions to shelter should foster a victim’s transition to independence.   Protect Children Legislation should mandate a uniform protocol for interviewing child victims or witnesses. Re-interviewing child victims reinforces the trauma of their abuse. Standardized interview protocols minimize trauma for children and better safeguard evidence for law enforcement. New York law should be amended to allow a child’s testimony to be taken by closed-circuit television. Legislation should authorize taking a child’s testimony by closed-circuit television in all family court matters, except juvenile delinquency. As early as feasible in cases of child abuse and neglect, interviews of the child should be audio or videotaped.   Support Initiatives for Youth Ensure safe schools. Schools should be places of learning, not forums for discrimination. New York law should require schools to institute policies and procedures that will prohibit student-to-student harassment and other forms of discrimination.   Aid Asylum Seekers and Trafficking Victims Ensure safe haven for torture victims. Safe Horizon supports continued funding of direct services for torture victims through the Torture Victims Relief Act. Domestic violence and sexual assault should be recognized as grounds for gender-based asylum. Provide for trafficking victims. Programs should be established which specifically serve victims of international trafficking. Trafficking victims should have access to pre-certification benefits, as well as safe and appropriate shelter.   Enhance Victims’ Rights and Services Expand and enforce victims’ statutory rights. Federal statutes should require notice to victims of all critical proceedings; the right to attend and be heard at proceedings; and notice of all forms of prisoner release. Congress should eliminate the current Victim of Crime Act Fund cap to ensure funding for critical state programs. New York’s Crime Victims Board’s should make permanent rules adopted in response to September 11th: eliminating the requirement that victims prove financial difficulty; providing assistance to domestic partners; and raising the cap on burial expenses. The Crime Victims Board should allow families of non-innocent victims of homicide to file claims for burial expenses and should allow all crime victims to be reimbursed for lost wages for court appearances and medical appointments Prohibit bias crimes. Federal law should criminalize bias crimes based on gender, sexual orientation and disability.