What is your vision for preventing and reducing crimes of sexual assault and rape? What is your plan to prevent, identify and keep women safe from abusive intimate partners?

Other than improving the transparency and effectiveness of the criminal justice system, what multidimensional and innovative plans of action will you specifically implement?

Ray McGuire

Tackling serious crimes will be the number one priority for the NYPD in my administration. The NYPD will redouble efforts in combating professional criminal networks that are responsible for issues like gun trafficking, burglary rings, and sex trafficking, as well as other types of crime that have the greatest impact on New Yorkers, including sexual assault, gun violence, and online financial crime. We will support that in part by conducting a top to bottom review of the city’s entire public safety budget to identify spending that is ineffective at improving safety or does not track with my vision for a safe and just city – that money can be better focused on real public safety issues.

The most important thing is to provide individuals who have experienced domestic violence with access to safe, affordable housing. My housing plan would expand access to supportive housing for those who need it, and would also expand rental assistance to help people move from shelter to permanent housing. I will pair the NYPD DV Unit with civilian specialists as part of my Emergency Services System plan to provide on-scene crisis intervention counseling and share victim awareness of community resources to break the cycle of violence, and get abuse victims out of their situation. We need to set up a rapid response system, provide mobile phones, personal attack alarms, security locks on doors as well as help women get an injunction such as a non-molestation order, and put a ‘marker’ on the house so an officer can get there as quickly as possible, when called out. These DV teams can also act as referral agents to other professionals, such as a domestic violence and abuse agency, housing department, a women’s refuge, a sexual assault unit, family justice center, mediation or counseling.

Dianne Morales

Despite increased attention in the past few years, rape and sexual assault and harassment are pervasive. No workplace, community group, or organizing space is immune to creating an environment where this behavior is possible, and we must all remain vigilant and committed to continually learning and improving. Sexual education, including learning about consent, harassment, and bodily autonomy, can and should begin at a young age. As Mayor, I would require age-appropriate sexual education to begin as early as possible in our schools.

I would also review, update, and improve City agencies’ procedures for handling sexual violence. This would also mean ensuring there is an accessible way for survivors to access City services without filing a police report. Additionally, I would work to set an example in City government by improving the current sexual harassment training for city employees. A two hour presentation once a year is not enough time to impart this critical information. I will work with educators and advocates to evaluate the current training’s success and revamp the program to improve efficacy. Further, I will not hesitate to hold senior leaders accountable to these standards. As Governor Cuomo has taught us, bad behavior at the top, even when it is masked behind the right public stances, can create a toxic environment.

I strongly believe that survivors of domestic violence deserve opportunities to access anti-carceral resources that help facilitate healing without interference from police or other enforcement agencies, so that these women feel more comfortable reaching out for help before violence becomes life-threatening. I would move response and outreach to survivors of domestic violence and abuse away from the NYPD and towards a domestic violence prevention unit of my Community First Responders Department, which would be staffed by social workers and other individuals with experience in gender based violence. For many survivors, keeping police involvement in domestic violence responses creates additional barriers to accessing support and assistance, as many survivors face further violence and/or harassment at the hands of the police, when they should be supported and cared for. Our Community First Responders Department would establish a new hotline number for those experiencing domestic violence to call, and would help provide survivors with necessary resources, such as safe, non-congregate housing, so that women can leave dangerous situations. Our department would also provide survivors with the opportunity to undertake transformative justice proceedings with their abusers, if they are willing to do so, to create structures of accountability for the abuser and allow both partners to understand the level of harm that has been caused to the survivor.

Maya Wiley

My vision for preventing and reducing sexual assault and rape is grounded in shifting to a “community-driven” public safety model. My approach to innovation will be changing the very function of policing. Our solutions will be restorative, through comprehensive investments in the community based organizations that are trusted by New Yorkers, and serve as safe havens. I have laid out a comprehensive action plan against gender-based violence, focusing on: improving the economic independence of women and LGBTQI folks; providing safe shelter for those who need it; decriminalizing survivors; responding to harmful gender norms; increasing community knowledge of and access to support services; and long term, comprehensive intervention programs for perpetrators.

I will take a multifaceted approach to addressing and preventing DV, recognizing that each of the contributing factors must be tackled to end domestic violence, specifically: 

• Improving the economic independence of women and LGBTQI folks

○ Economic independence is critical in violence prevention. The pandemic has exacerbated financial entanglement of couples by causing increased job loss and unemployment, particularly among women of color, immigrants, and workers without a college education.

■ My Universal Community Care Plan is one step toward addressing this problem, and will allow for some of the most at risk New Yorkers to gain economic independence

■ The plan builds on my New Deal New York proposal and works to rebuild economic growth in sectors dominated by women of color, address the crisis of affordable childcare and eldercare, and fight for fair wages and protections for care economy workers.

• Providing safe shelter for those who need it

○ Domestic violence is a housing issue, with housing insecure New Yorkers making it difficult for some to leave a DV situation. The majority of people in shelters are women and families – 41% of whom are there because of DV

■ In response, I will ensure that shelters are adequately funded, and streamline bureaucracy to expedite the transition to permanent housing

• Decriminalizing survivors of domestic violence

○ The current criminalization and policing responses to domestic violence simply don’t work. Increased reliance on the criminal legal system has failed to lower rates of domestic violence, has worsened conditions that spur on that violence, and in some cases, harms the very people it was meant to benefit

■ As Mayor, I will ensure that domestic violence is a central part of the legal system and police reform efforts

• Responding to harmful gender norms

○ Gender stereotypes can undermine and limit people of all genders, and their capacity to develop their own abilities, careers, and choices about their lives

■ I will strongly enforce NYC’s Human Rights Law, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression

■ In addition, I will create an awareness campaign around the harms caused by gender stereotyping

• Increasing community knowledge of and access to support services

○ I will increase awareness of the services provided by the Family Justice Centers, and NYC’s HOPE Program, and ensure equitable distribution of these centers across the city

○ In addition, our Community Care Centers will be information hubs for those seeking support or services related to DV

• Long term, comprehensive intervention programs for perpetrators

○ Current batterer’s intervention programs (BIPs) offered by nonprofits and community organizations are of varying quality, and little is known about their effectiveness

■ In response, we should pilot a range of interventions, including psychotherapeutic models, and evaluate them carefully, to develop service networks based on empirical evidence of effectiveness

■ In addition, we should integrate BIPs into comprehensive integrated community services that can adequately address the multifaceted issue of domestic violence

Andrew Yang

My administration is committed to preventing and prosecuting sexual crimes, whether they are committed within government or across NYC. The city is the largest employer in NYC and should set the highest standard for what a model employer looks like. Under my leadership, I will ensure that NYC sets the best example for how to create a safe work environment where people feel comfortable coming forward and every allegation is taken seriously. Every city employee will be part of mandatory anti-bias and anti harassment training that will be interactive and ongoing. Open dialogue and available resources for all employees who are victims, supporting victims, or trying to educate themselves on how to create a better and safer work environment will be key.

By modeling the best example of a safe workplace, New York businesses, and cities around the country, will hopefully start to reflect those changes in their own workspaces. Also, by introducing mandatory sexual education classes in all NYC schools, we will educate and embolden the next generation of New Yorkers. Consent will be a key focus for young students, empowering all students by giving them the language and tools to speak up against harassment and assault for themselves and the people around them.

Screening for domestic violence and sexual assault requires a trusting relationship. My administration will expand primary care and women’s healthcare in NYC, in part via a transformative expansion of NYC Care, to ensure that women – and immigrant women in particular – have unfettered access to healthcare and associated social services. A Yang administration will invest in women’s shelters and safe havens and expand programs for victims of domestic violence available at NY Health+Hospitals, including interdisciplinary interpersonal violence teams and investment in child services and financial support. I will also work with community organizations and healthcare professionals to de-emphasize police involvement in domestic violence disputes where appropriate, to ensure the safety of victims and provide them with agency and social support.

I will continue to invest in New York City’s Family Justice Centers, ensuring that coordinated responses to domestic violence and sexual assault that centers trauma-informed care is available to all survivors, regardless of when and how they report violence.

Eric Adams

Preventing and reducing crimes of sexual assault and rape starts with acknowledging the pervasiveness of these crimes and overcoming social and sometimes cultural barriers to discussing them and addressing them effectively and appropriately. This must include education of young people, training for police, and ensuring our criminal justice system recognizes the full scope of the crisis, including rape and sexual assault crimes committed against transgender men and women, children and non-binary individuals. Law enforcement must also commit to clearing rape kit backlogs and developing specific plans for dealing with pervasive race and gender discrimination that leads to injustice for survivors of sexual assault and rape.

As someone who lived through domestic violence as a child, these issues are deeply personal to me. During my time as Borough President, I have held annual resource fairs for survivors of domestic violence to connect these survivors with the support they need and I recently introduced legislation in partnership with CM Alicka Ampry-Samuel to establish a committee on female genital mutilation and cutting.

However, in order for New York City to truly address domestic and gender based violence we must not only support the survivors, but engage the perpetrators and abusers. We must acknowledge that current programming to change abusers’ behavior is insufficient and doesn’t deal with root causes, which are often traumas experienced by the abuser themselves. To address this, we will launch the “Family Violence Perpetrator Program”, based on cognitive and behavioral therapy, in order to evaluate abusers’ traumas and treat them to prevent further violence.

In addition, I called for and helped secure the expansion of the Family Eviction Prevention Supplement (FEPS) program to include New Yorkers who were forced to leave their homes as a result of domestic violence. What we must do now is increase the subsidy provided to families to match fair market rental values for New York City.

Finally, I worked with AMs Paulin and Williams to allow residents of domestic violence shelters the ability to vote in their current districts so survivors can still participate safely in elections. At the city level I have urged the Mayor’s Domestic Violence Task Force to actively engage the voice of survivors in a leadership capacity, ensuring the survivor perspective is part of the decision-making process as well as advocated for expanded information and training for survivors to facilitate renewing orders of protection, focusing on matters such as the process to obtain and renew orders, criteria for renewal of orders, as well as agencies and organizations available to assist with renewals and violations.

Shaun Donovan

We will ensure that perpetrators of sexual assault are held accountable and will afford those who have been victimized the respect, attention, and compassion that they deserve. This begins with making it easier for people to come forward to report assault and rape. Unlike the current administration, we will give the NYPD sex crimes unit the staffing that it needs to be effective–including experienced investigators who understand the complexities of solving and prosecuting sex crimes. We also will make sure that the department is fully responsive to and respectful of victims and make trained social workers are available to support everyone who has been victimized. Ultimately, the process for reporting assault and working with investigators to hold the perpetrator accountable has to be more responsive and less invasive for the victim, so they are not re-traumatized by the process.

Importantly, our response to sexual violence will be broader than simply policing and prosecution. Sexual assault occurs in a societal context that too often places responsibility on the victim rather than the perpetrator – and our administration will proactively seek to change this dynamic through messaging campaigns and through the anti-sex discrimination work of the Human Rights Commission.

It is crucial that people who are victimized by intimate partners have sufficient trust and confidence to come forward and have access to options that can keep them safe. To this end, we will make DV a priority for the criminal justice agencies and expand funding for programs like Safe Horizon and family justice centers so that people threatened by DV have access to housing, childcare, counseling, and other needed services.

We will create a domestic-violence-focused flexible funding reserve that addresses problems and expenses before they lead to rent arrears and the possibility of homelessness, helping domestic violence survivors and their children remain housed after a case of domestic violence. The administration will work with and listen to domestic violence survivors to determine which pathways are appropriate.

Kathryn Garcia

We need to continue to dismantle the culture that allows these crimes to occur unpunished, and  frequently at the expense of the victim. Sexual assault and rape pervade so many of our spaces — from  food service, to academia, to entertainment, to government. We need to send the message to potential  perpetrators that these crimes have consequences. We must encourage reporting of crimes, and in order  to do so, we need to ensure victims know their allegations will be taken seriously, and offer meaningful protection from retaliation and other threats.

The pandemic lockdown has been a nightmare for so many victims of domestic violence. We need to  ensure that DV victims have a simple way to report crime, a safe place for them (and their children, if  necessary) to stay, and a full suite of support services (economic, mental health, etc.) to help them get  out of dangerous situations.

When there is a 911 call for domestic violence, we must embed qualified professionals to help address non-violent situations. Each year we have tens of thousands of calls that don’t require an armed  professional–and we can use data and predictive analytics to make sure that we are sending a combined  team of mental health professionals and police officers to the calls that are most likely to need that  combination. Having trained experts responding to these 911 calls will be critical for identifying situations  that may need additional intervention.