Criminalized survivor

Criminalized survivor is a term used to describe a person who suffers from domestic abuse or sexual violence but is punished by the legal system, "both for when they fight back and when they don't." Their criminal acts are known as "criminalized survival." In many states this has been codified with laws like Failure to Protect, which strive to punish a parent who allegedly did not protect their children from abuse that they were aware was happening, sometimes because they feared abuse themselves.^[1][2] In Oklahoma, where Failure to Protect laws are in place, 90% of people incarcerated for the crime are women and are more harshly sentenced than the actual abuser.^[3] In other cases, the survivor can be incarcerated for killing their abuser or rapist. Or, they are incarcerated for participating in crimes their abuser made them commit or that they committed willfully in an attempt to protect themselves or others from further abuse. Advocates for reform point out that self-defense or Battered Women's Syndrome legal defenses do not typically work in the favor of criminalized survivor cases.^{[4][5][6][7][8]}

In pointing out the lack of proportionality in sentencing of criminalized survivors, advocates state that "the average prison sentence for men who kill their female partners is 2 to 6 years. The average sentence for women who kill their male partners is 15 years, despite the fact that most women kill their abusive partners in self-defense."^[9] According to the Battered Women's Justice Project, criminalized survivors are "arrested and incarcerated for doing what they needed to do to survive and protect their children and loved ones. Criminalized survivors are re-victimized by the very systems that were intended to protect them."^[10] Often, they are criminalized for not being "perfect victims" of abuse^[11] Rachel Louise Snyder notes that in New York, "two-thirds of incarcerated women in 2005 had been abused beforehand by the person they killed" though in many states still today, "victims are barred from using their long histories of enduring violence at the hands of their partners in their own defense" and are thus harshly punished.^[12]

Legislation reform

The Survivor Justice Initiative notes that some states have "passed legislation pertaining to survivor justice". The legislation they passed "allows for survivors to obtain relief on the basis of their survivorship."^[13]

In 2019, New York passed the Domestic Violence Survivor Justice Act (DVSJA), which "gives judges the discretion to issue lower sentences to survivors of domestic violence who can establish that their abuse was a significant contributing factor to their offense."^[14] In March 2025, least 71 people had received a sentence reduction and 85 applications were denied. California has a similar law."^[15] In 2023, the Oklahoma Survivors Act was passed in Oklahoma.^[16][17] The Oklahoma bill was modeled on the New York bill.^[18][19]

Post-bill passage application

After the New York law passed, there was confusion from the courts about the process for seeking resentencing, leading to judges "denying some claims initially because they did not understand this was a new process." Another hurdle for survivors is "the lack of representation or bandwidth from attorneys representing those incarcerated" which caused "significant delays when people started applying for resentencing in New York."^[20]

Leigh Goodmark, professor at the University of Maryland Carey School of Law and the author of Imperfect Victims: Criminalized Survivors and the Promise of Abolition Feminism, states that sentencing relief legislation doesn't "always provide relief to those who deserve it because they require judges to use their discretion to benefit survivors" and "discretion is what enables judges to rely on victim stereotypes to minimize or reject the evidence of victimization presented by criminalized survivors." She sates that even when laws function for cases like Nikki Addimando's it "can still mean that a survivor of violence serves a lengthy prison sentence, adding injury to injury." Once a "state has passed a survivors justice act," there is also "a risk that its lawmakers and citizens will believe the problem of criminalizing survival has been solved, while imperfect victims remain trapped in the criminal legal system."^[21]

Notable cases

April Wilkens killed her abuser in the late 90s and claimed Battered Women's Syndrome. She was sentenced to Life with the possibility of parole but remains incarcerated.^[22]

Alexis Martin, in the late 2010s, was sex trafficking survivor "who was sentenced to 21 years to life in prison due to her involvement in a fatal shooting of her pimp." Kim Kardashian advocated for her release.^[23][24][25]

Nikki Addimondo, a subject of the documentary film And So I Stayed, killed her abusive partner in the late 2010s, with his gun that was in their house.^[26] Judge McLoughlin "sentenced Nikki to 19-years-to-life, plus 5 years post supervision for possessing her abuser's gun."^[27]

Pieper Lewis, an Iowa teen and sex trafficking victim in an early 2020s case, killed the man she claimed had raped her multiple times. She faced up to 20 years in prison.^[28] She was ordered to pay $150K.^[29]

Tracy McCarter, in a 2025 case, killed her abusive ex-husband, claiming self-defense. She faced a Life sentence.^[30][31] Charges were eventually dropped.^[32]

Organizations and coalitions supporting criminalized survivors

Survived & Punished (S&P) is a "collective of organizers" which "exchanged stories about the promises and challenges of defense campaigns, and ideas about the intersections of criminalization and surviving domestic and sexual violence." They started in Chicago in March 2016. They have affiliate collectives in California and New York.^[33] They "demand the immediate release of survivors of domestic and sexual violence and other forms of gender violence who are imprisoned for survival actions, including: self-defense, 'failure to protect,' migration, removing children from abusive people, being coerced into acting as an 'accomplice,' and securing resources needed to live."^[34]

The Battered Women's Justice Project, or BWJP, provides "some of the nation's leading specialized policy and practice initiatives on improving survivor safety." ^[35]

The Survivors Justice Project organized after the New York DVSJA was passed to "assure that the survivors most in need would be able to access the law’s relief."^[36]

The Oklahoma Survivor Justice Coalition worked to pass the Oklahoma Survivors Act.^[37]

Survivor Justice Initiative is a coalition based in Georgia. They represent "over 53 domestic violence organizations and programs across the state."^[38]