Addressing Violence Against Minority Populations Through Multidisciplinary Training for Criminal Justice Professionals

The Graham County Attorney's Office (GCAO) proposes to implement the “Addressing Violence Against Minority Populations Through Multidisciplinary Training for Criminal Justice Professionals” project. The project would focus on training law enforcement, prosecutors, and victim advocates across the state of Arizona on investigation, prosecution, and victim support related to cases that may have been committed out of malice toward a victim because of the victim's actual or perceived race, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, or disability.

Project activities will include providing in-person, virtual, and recorded training to law enforcement, prosecutors, and victim advocates. GCAO will partner with the Arizona Prosecuting Attorneys' Advisory Council to provide both in-person and webinar training sessions. Over the 48-month performance period, GCAO intends to conduct 15 in-person trainings and 16 live webinars which will be recorded and made available to watch. GCAO will also contract with the What You Do Matters Institute to bring the What You Do Matters: Lessons from the Holocaust training to prosecutors and law enforcement professionals across the state. GCAO received 17 letters of support from community stakeholders, 16 of whom have vowed to assist the office and the subgrantee with curriculum development and identification of training faculty.

Expected outcomes include improved capacity of law enforcement professionals and prosecutors to identify and understand hate crimes, including subtle or less obvious forms of bias-motivated incidents; enhanced law enforcement understanding of investigation best practices in hate crimes cases; increased prosecutorial competence in arguing cases involving hate crimes, leading to increased accountability of perpetrators; and better understanding by victim advocates of the unique trauma experienced by victims of hate crimes and thus providing these victims with an elevated level of support. In addition, by demonstrating their commitment to addressing hate crimes through education and training, law enforcement and prosecutors can build trust and strengthen relationships with affected communities.