Taking Stock: Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the New York State Judicial Committee on Women in the Courts

Jill Laurie Goodman

Introduction

On April, 5, 2011, the New York State Judicial Committee on Women in the Courts celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary with a symposium, co-sponsored by the New York University Review of Law and Social Change. The Symposium was a gala event. It was attended by a long list of distinguished judges, lawyers, court administrators, advocates, and activists.

Anniversaries, though are times not only for celebration, but for reflection.  In keeping with the reflective tradition, the April 5th Symposium looked both backwards and forwards as it took stock of progress, stasis, and unfinished agendas twenty-five years after the New York Task Force on Women in the Courts issued its report and the New York State Committee on Women in the Courts was first appointed.

This introduction will set the stage for the rest of the volume by providing a brief history of the Committee and a summary of the Symposium events.

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In Our Own Backyards: The Need For a Coordinated Judicial Response to Human Trafficking

Hon. Toko Serita

Introduction

In a relatively short period of time, New York State has put itself at the vanguard of the battle against human trafficking. New York has passed several laws criminalizing sex and labor trafficking, recognized that anyone younger than eighteen years of age arrested on prostitution charges is a “sexually exploited child” and a “victim of a severe form of trafficking,” and, most recently, provided a way for sex trafficking victims to vacate their prostitution convictions.

In the years since these laws took effect, I have observed that our understanding of the dynamics of domestic and foreign sex trafficking, both locally and domestically, has improved. The trafficking cases that are seen in the Human Trafficking Intervention Court (HTIC),over which I preside provide a glimpse of this expanded understanding. These cases discredit the popular notion that modern day slavery and the sexual enslavement of girls, women, and foreign undocumented persons do not occur “in our own backyards.” And yet, despite this improved understanding, defendants arrested on prostitution charges are not generally recognized as victims, but are charged as criminals. The criminal justice system has been unable to adequately identify those defendants that might be victims of trafficking. To date, there has been very little scholarship analyzing either New York’s human trafficking laws or the role prostitution diversion courts play in identifying trafficking victims and providing alternatives to incarceration. This article addresses the different types of trafficking cases that are intercepted through the criminal justice system, the current state of sex trafficking law in New York, and, finally, the role of the HTIC in identifying and providing solutions for trafficking victims. It also addresses the necessity of creating a coordinated judicial response to this human rights problem, and recommends ways that this can be accomplished.

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Preface

On Tuesday, April 5, 2011, the Review of Law and Social Change hosted a symposium: Taking Stock: A Symposium Celebrating the New York State Judicial Committee on Women in the Courts.  This issue is dedicated to that symposium.

Hon. Betty Weinberg Ellerin, then Senior Counsel to Alston & Bird and Chair of the New York State Judicial Committee on Women in the Courts, delivered the preface to this issue.

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The (In)visibility of Motherhood in Family Court Proceedings

Melissa L. Breger

Abstract

Issues of bias in Family Court in the context of race and overrepresentation of people of poverty have been extensively explored in academic literature. There is arguably a parallel overrepresentation of women, and particularly mothers, in our Family Courts. I question whether the Family Court would function as it currently does without mothers as its core litigants. Specifically, I delve into the implicit gender biases inherent in societal expectations of mothers as all-knowing, ever-nurturing, and ever-protective of their children––expectations that often ignore the complexities and nuances of motherhood. To illustrate my thesis, I focus on a case that I was involved in over a decade ago, which was subsequently featured in Professor Dorothy Roberts’ book: Shattered Bonds: The Color of the Child Welfare System. Through this narrative, the Article raises critical questions regarding the influence of implicit gender bias and the construct of motherhood in Family Court proceedings. As a result of its predominance, has the gender of Family Court litigants become virtually invisible? How might we identify, confront, and address this (in)visibility in our family justice system?

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