Thoughtful, Committed Prosecutors Will Lead Reform ... Just as They Always Have.

• Author: Stone, Duffie

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." This quotation is usually attributed to the great American anthropologist Margaret Mead, and it is one of my favorites. Consider its message in the context of prosecutors, a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens who can --and do--change the world. In the past 35 years, every major innovation, improvement or reform measure in the criminal justice system has had a prosecutor at the forefront.

Prosecutors are in a unique, front-line position to observe problems in the criminal justice system, which makes us ideal innovators to improve the experience of victims. For example, District Attorney Bud Cramer of Huntsville, AL, set out in 1989 to change the way child sexual assault cases were handled.

Cramer was troubled that victims were forced to repeat their stories--and thereby revisit their trauma--over and over again. Child victims were going to one location for a forensic interview, another for a sexual assault exam and yet another for counseling. Law enforcement, social services, child protective services and counseling were available, but they were dispersed across Cramer's jurisdiction. He decided they needed a central, child-friendly location to make these services more accessible, less time-consuming and less stressful.

So Cramer, along with a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens created the first child advocacy center. Today there are more than 1,000 child advocacy centers in our country--at least one in every state--and in 33 other countries, too. A thoughtful prosecutor recognized a problem, resolved to fix it, then did.

Similarly, City Attorney Casey Gwinn, working with the San Diego District Attorney's Office in 2002, was an innovator on behalf of domestic-violence victims.

For many of our jurisdictions, domestic violence is a major crime problem, primarily affecting women. According to the NDAA Women Prosecutors Section white paper on the topic, 85 percent of victims are female. Those unaffected by this crime sometimes struggle to understand it. Stories of women abused repeatedly and brutally by their partners are often met with, "Why doesn't she just leave?"

As prosecutors who work and conduct research in this field, we know leaving is a process, not an event. Victims of domestic abuse need financial and emotional support to remove themselves from harm's way. They need counseling and...