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Teresa Miranda, Senior Attorney, Violence Against Women Program
APRI announces the addition of Teresa Miranda as a senior attorney in the Violence Against Women Program, working with Acting Program Manager Susan Kennedy. Teresa has nine years of experience as an attorney, including nearly five years as an assistant district attorney in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, where she helped to create a Sexual Assault Unit. Most recently, Teresa was the policy attorney for the National District Attorneys Association.
In October, in honor of National Domestic Violence Awareness month, the Violence Against Women Program at APRI hosted the third annual Violence Against Women Leadership Summit in Alexandria, Virginia. The leadership summit is targeted toward executives who have the ability to implement innovative strategies in their offices and communities. Leaders from prosecutors’ offices across the country and other allied professionals gathered to discuss current topics, including fatality reviews, law enforcement liability in domestic violence cases, workplace violence, the link between animal cruelty and human violence, and assistance for immigrant women. Additionally, prosecutors discussed the development of policies and protocols for handling domestic violence prosecutions as a way of providing guidance to other system components, taking the pressure off the victims of domestic violence and sending a message that violent conduct in the home is not a private matter.
The prosecution of domestic violence becomes even more complex when dealing with cultural and immigration issues. Immigrant women who are battered by intimate partners experience cultural and language barriers as well as fear of deportation. To assist prosecutors with these difficult cases, APRI will present a course on “Cultural and Immigration Issues in Domestic Violence” in San Francisco, California, December 5-7, 2002. Nationally recognized experts will identify the barriers faced by many immigrant women and provide methods of overcoming those obstacles. Additionally, prosecutors will learn the basics of immigration law and the implications of domestic violence for immigrants.
For more information about any of these trainings or technical assistance services, please contact us at (703) 549-4253 or vawa@ndaa-apri.org.
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