September 12, 2024 | 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM Pacific | Virtual
Barriers to Reporting Bias: Trust, Trauma, and Threat
Prior to 2020, the absence of a statewide reporting mechanism left significant gaps in our understanding of hate crimes and bias incidents in Oregon. The improvement of our bias crime and bias incident laws in 2019 has shed light on the reasons victims often do not come forward to report these incidents.
In this CLE, presenters will share information about Oregon’s hate and bias laws, the Bias Response Hotline, and what we’ve learned about the barriers to reporting from the victim’s perspective. We will focus on the lack of trust in our institutions, layers of individual, familial, generational, and community trauma, and the real threats, danger, and retaliation that individuals face in reporting hateful conduct. We will also address common challenges victims face during the investigation and prosecution phases, and ways victims’ rights attorneys can help victims meaningfully participate while reducing risk of re-traumatization.
The Bias Response Hotline is a critical tool, but achieving procedural justice requires widespread trauma-informed responses throughout the criminal justice system. By addressing trust, trauma, threats and ensuring procedural justice, we can help facilitate reporting as an option for survivors, aid engagement in investigation and prosecution, and support safer communities for all. This CLE aims to equip attorneys with the knowledge and strategies necessary to foster a supportive environment for victims and enhance community safety.
Presented by:
Johanna Costa, Bias Response Coordinator, Oregon Department of Justice
Johanna Costa is Oregon Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Manager, coordinating DOJ’s Bias Response and Sanctuary Promise programs. She has worked in the victim services field for 17 years, humbled to learn from incredible mentors, colleagues, community members, and victims. As the Hate Crimes and Bias Incidents Response Coordinator, she coordinates support for victims of hate and bias on Oregon’s statewide Bias Response Hotline, works with culturally and population specific community agencies to elevate legislative and systems changes for bias prevention and to improve bias response, and provides training, outreach, and education to law enforcement, government, and community partners throughout the state. In April 2022, alongside DOJ’s Civil Rights Director, many partners, and a talented team, Johanna launched Oregon’s new Sanctuary Promise Program, supporting individuals and families targeted by government and law enforcement in violation of Oregon’s sanctuary laws. Previously, she worked at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon as its first Tribal Victim Assistance Specialist, where she started the Indian Country team for the district, supported victims of crime in Indian Country as they navigated the federal criminal justice process, engaged with tribal members and leadership to increase transparency into the work at the USAO, created a national Indian Country newsletter, piloted a nationwide tribal advocate coalition, and successfully wrote a grant to fund the district’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons coordinator. As an advocate, she has worked on a domestic and sexual violence crisis response hotline, provided on-scene response to sexual assault survivors, helped coordinate mass casualty crisis response in three mass fatality events, and directed a district attorney’s office victim assistance unit. She has trained advocates throughout the nation on bias response, victim rights, ethics in victim services, and sexual assault response. She has served on a variety of boards including Oregon’s Coalition Against Hate Crimes and the Attorney General’s Victim Rights Task Force, as faculty for the Oregon and Nevada State Victim Assistance academies, as vice president of the Crime Victims’ Assistance Network, and as coordinator for a variety of local multi-disciplinary teams. Among her many accomplishments, she is most proud of her work to establish a victim’s right to a free interpreter throughout the criminal justice process in Oregon. Those who know Johanna know she stands firmly by her principles as well as her ethical obligations as a victim advocate.
Simon Lee, Assistant Attorney General, Oregon Department of Justice
Simon Lee is the Bias Crime Resource Prosecutor for the Oregon Department of Justice, Criminal Justice Division. He is tasked with providing technical assistance and case support to prosecutors and law enforcement officers around the state. He also coordinates with ODOJ’s Bias Response Hotline team, federal, tribal, state, and local prosecutors and law enforcement to promote best practices for bias crime investigations and prosecutions. Simon graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2012 with a B.S. in Marketing. He obtained his J.D. from Lewis and Clark Law School in 2015. In law school, he externed at the National Crime Victim Law Institute, Multnomah County DA’s Office, and Washington County DA’s Office. Upon graduation, Simon began his career as a deputy district attorney in Lane County DA’s Office. He transitioned to ODOJ in 2019 to work as an AAG in the Child Advocacy and Protection Division before beginning his current assignment in December, 2022.
Fay Stetz-Waters, Director of Civil Rights & Social Justice, Oregon Department of Justice
Fay Stetz-Waters is the Civil Rights and Social Justice Director for the Oregon Department of Justice. As the Director of Civil Rights and Social Justice, she is committed to increasing the Department’s impact on civil rights issues affecting marginalized and vulnerable Oregonians.
Fay has been a strong advocate for justice her whole life. She enlisted in the United States Marine Corps at age 17, where she worked as a field radio operator. While working as a 911 dispatcher at night, Fay earned a bachelor’s degree in history and graduated with honors from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. She attended Lewis and Clark Law School, where she wrote on constitutional issues like marriage equality, transgender rights, and crime victim’s rights.
She has also worked as an Administrative Law Judge for the Employment Department, a Hearings Officer for the Parole Board, an Equity Associate at Oregon State University, and as a Circuit Court Judge in Linn County. Fay likes writing, studying history, gardening, attending summer concerts, and spending time with her wife Karelia and their dog Willa.
This project is funded under 15POVC-22-GK-03314-NONF, awarded by the Office for Victims of Crime, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this project are those of the contributors and do not necessarily represent the official policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.
