Courses

Save the Date! Please join the Family Justice Center Alliance at its 10th Annual International Family Justice Center Conference.

Special Registration Rates:

• San Antonio Local Offsite partners - $250
• Onsite partners of BCFJC - $175

Conference registration information is available here:  REGISTER

Conference agenda and overview of the outstanding presentations and presenters is available here:  AGENDA

The Family Justice Center Alliance welcomes law enforcement personnel, prosecutors, shelter staff,  community-based victim advocates, civil attorneys, judges, counselors, policy makers, elected officials, board members, survivors, parole and probation officers, rape crisis workers, medical personnel, educators, and all others interested in the future of family violence prevention. National and international speakers will share their expertise in the area of domestic violence, child abuse, elder abuse, sexual assault and funding. This conference will focus on training matter within the contexts of leadership, accountability to survivors, guiding principles and promising practices in the rapidly evolving national and international movement toward Family Justice Centers and other approaches to co-located, multidisciplinary services for victims of family violence and their children.  The conference will also include practical, hands-on training for police officers, prosecutors, advocates, and medical professionals in the day to day handling of domestic violence cases.

Our new co-partners, Catholic Charities Immigration-STAR will give a presentation about their program.

Josie Lozano, Staff Attorney and Lillian Kingrey, BIA Accredited Representative with Catholic Charities will explain how STAR, Serving Together Achieves Results helps undocumented victims of crime achieve legal status through VAWA, U Visas and T Visas.  

The VINE webinar training is designed to create awareness about automated victim notification.  It also introduces how VINE can serve as a resource not only for victims and survivors of crime, but also law enforcement, service providers, and communities. The session will teach what VINE is, how VINE works, and creative uses for VINE.

• How VINE  works
• Offender Search and Registration process
• Automated victim notification

Family JusticeCenter
527 North Leona, 2nd Floor, Building C
Group Viewing in FJC Board Room or register for your local viewing at:

Witness tampering is the most common crime perpetrated by batterers, yet, is the least charged, prosecuted, and sentenced offense.  Intimate partner violence (IPV) offenders commit astonishing levels of witness tampering for which they are rarely held responsible.  Successful witness tampering by offenders sabotages the court system by silencing victims through an array of unlawful conduct including coercion and violence. The doctrine of forfeiture by wrongdoing should afford a viable solution, but several obstacles constrain its efficacy. Much confusion exists regarding witness tampering and forfeiture law as a result of the recent trilogy of Crawford, Davis, and Giles cases.  Giles offers both "intent to silence" and "classic abusive relationship" frameworks that may provide additional options for prosecutors when a victim is not testifying in trial.  Additionally, we will discuss seven case factors that I think should be argued as inferring a defendant's intent to silence the witness: murder, pending criminal proceeding, present protective order, classic abusive relationship, victim recantation, mixed purpose, and context. 

Topics of discussion will include:

• School-based teen dating violence preventive interventions with at-risk youth.
• The results of health-clinic interventions in reducing teen dating violence, birth control sabotage and sexual coercion.
• Links between pregnancy and interpersonal violence; ways of improving the lives of pregnant and parenting teens.
• Exploring ways to prevent teen dating violence and improve the lives of those impacted by teen dating violence.

Panelists include:

• David A. Wolfe, PhD - RBC Chair in Children's Mental Health; Director, CAMH Centre for Prevention Science; Professor of Psychology & Psychiatry, University of Toronto
• Elizabeth Miller, MD, PhD - Assistant Professor in Pediatrics, UC Davis School of Medicine
• Pat Paluzzi - President/CEO, Healthy Teen Network
• Carrie Mulford, PhD - Moderator, Social Science Analyst, National Institute of Justice

Katrina Daniels, Bexar County Criminal District Attorney’s Office