People of color who have been traumatized by violence in the Portland metro area are too often presumed to have committed a crime when they were the ones harmed and as a result are less likely to report crimes to police and get the services they need, a new study finds.
The nonprofit Partnership for Safety & Justice, which advocates for public safety and criminal justice reforms, coordinated with local service groups to interview 40 Black, Indigenous and Latinx people affected by crime. The interviews occurred in 2017 and 2018.
Those in the study were 25 to 73 years old and were victims of crimes ranging from attempted murder to burglary, assault and sexual assault. Of those interviewed, 23 were women and the rest were men.
Three-quarters of those interviewed said they didn’t report the crimes they endured.
The top reason, according to the study, was mistrust of police and the broader criminal justice system. Some people said officers ignored them or treated them poorly. Others, including undocumented immigrants, said they feared they would be separated from their families if police got involved. Language barriers also were a factor in some cases, the study found.
Because many didn’t report the crimes, they often didn’t receive the services they needed to deal with the trauma, including mental health care, safety plans, emergency housing or help from victim advocates.
“Culturally specific, financially accessible, and community-based services are critical for survivors of color to heal and rebuild lives after trauma,” the report said. “When life is upended and unrecognizable, people need someone who looks like them, sounds like them, and
understands their experience in ways they won’t need to explain.”
The groups who assisted in the study were the Latino Network, Portland Police Bureau’s Crisis Response Team, the Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center’s Healing Hurt People, Portland’s Office of Youth Violence Prevention, Red Lodge Transition Services and the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office victim’s assistance program.
Amy Davidson, crime survivor project director for the Partnership for Safety & Justice, said the nonprofit recognized it needed to know more about how crime impacted people of color in order to help shape policies.
“We’re so quick to shift the focus toward the person holding the gun and yes that matters,” she said. “But we first need to ask the person on the other side of that - What do they need to heal to feel whole again?”
Some crime survivors were reluctant to even acknowledge they had suffered from a crime, the study found.
“The fact that survivors don’t see themselves as victims of crime really speaks to the historical trauma and normalization of violence that they have experienced, not just at the hands of the individual but at the hands of the state,” Davidson said.
Roy Moore, an ex-gang member who is now a community outreach worker who helps run the Healing Hurt People, said he’s one of only two people who answer phones and make hospital visits, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for the organization. The hospital-based violence intervention program goes to hospitals to connect immediately with injured crime victims.
“We bridge the gap between the hospital and the patient, and we provide support during that person’s most vulnerable moments,” he said. “A face that looks like them, that’s bringing comfort and offering help for as long as they need it,” he said.
The report recommended greater investments in community-driven support programs, increased funding for new and existing culturally specific healing services, addressing historical trauma to communities of color in Oregon and providing culturally specific training to law enforcement and other agencies on how to interact with people of color harmed by violence.
-- Maxine Bernstein
Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212
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