JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Despite vowing to change, the FBI is still mishandling cases of child sexual abuse, according to the Justice Department's internal watchdog. A new report identifies failures in several areas, including reporting suspected child abuse to other law enforcement agencies and sharing tips with other FBI field offices. In response, the FBI has said it is taking the compliance issues seriously and will, quote, "continue to work urgently to correct them."
The FBI's mishandling of these kinds of cases came to light in the case of Larry Nassar, the USA Gymnastics doctor who sexually abused athletes for years. Rachael Denhollander was the first woman to pursue criminal charges against Nassar. Today, she's an attorney, advocate and educator on sexual abuse, and she joins us now. Hi, Rachael.
RACHAEL DENHOLLANDER: Hi. Thank you so much for having me.
SUMMERS: Rachael, if I could, I'd just like to ask you - what was your immediate reaction upon seeing this report?
DENHOLLANDER: You know, I wish I could say I was shocked. This report reveals what survivors and advocates have known for a very long time, which is that it is next to impossible to get justice as a sexual assault survivor. Survivors are always asked, why don't you report? And the reality is that so many survivors don't have safe places to report because the systems that we are dependent on are incredibly broken. It's an incredibly gut-wrenching thing to read - to realize that we went through what we went through, and, eight years later, there are still almost no tangible changes.
SUMMERS: This probe pointed out a number of issues in these cases, and I'll just highlight one of them here. Inspector General Michael Horowitz found no evidence that FBI employees complied with mandatory reporting requirements to local or state law enforcement in nearly half of the cases. Having looked at this, did any of the failures that were revealed in this report - were they surprising to you?
DENHOLLANDER: Yeah, ultimately, again, they're not. And that's part of what is so heartbreaking to grapple with - is that these are the same failures that we see over and over and over again. Law enforcement has all of the authority in this country. It is the system that survivors are dependent on, and yet there is no accountability much of the time. And then you couple that with a lack of alternate processes, lack of access to the civil justice system, lack of robust independent investigations in our religious denominations, our athletic organizations, and what you've created is the perfect storm, where there is literally nowhere for survivors to turn.
SUMMERS: Rachael, as I'm listening to you talk, you're so clear about the distrust that you and other victims feel when they don't feel like - that you can get help through official channels - through the people who are supposed to be there to help you seek justice. Can you talk a little bit about what that feels like?
DENHOLLANDER: It's an incredibly hopeless place to be, and it's an incredibly unsafe place to be because what it ultimately means is that it's not just your abuser who's unsafe. It's everyone around you. It's the people that you have to rely on. The individuals that are supposed to keep you safe, that are supposed to care the most about what's happened, are often where the deepest level of betrayal comes from, you know? And it's not something we don't know how to fix.
SUMMERS: You are also an attorney and advocate in this area. You work on behalf of survivors of sexual abuse. What changes do you think that law enforcement needs to make in order for cases like these, like yours, to get the proper attention and treatment that they need?
DENHOLLANDER: Ultimately, it really comes down to how much do we care? Are there funding issues? Yes, absolutely. Are good agents who want to do the right thing overwhelmed with caseloads? Yes, absolutely. But we put our money where our priorities are. If we are not providing adequate training so that investigators have the skill level to be able to investigate these allegations and investigate them in a timely manner, it's because we haven't prioritized it enough.
And the other thing we really do have to begin dialoguing about more intentionally is what alternate channels need to be available to survivors. Statute of limitations reform to open up the civil justice courts is absolutely integral to abuse prevention and response, having good, robust, independent investigations, banned coaches lists, lists of clergy who are credibly accused of sexual assault - setting up good processes so that we can warn of known predators and we can provide support and care to survivors. And that's going to take intentionality on a community level and on an institutional level beyond what we need for law enforcement.
SUMMERS: Now, NPR did reach out to FBI Director Wray, and he declined NPR's request for an interview. But Rachael, I want to ask you, if you could talk to him, what would you say?
DENHOLLANDER: I'd ask him for a conversation. Let us help you get it right. Let's talk about why this matters so much and start engaging with the people that you've hurt directly instead of trying to just fix it going forward on your own.
SUMMERS: Attorney and advocate Rachael Denhollander - Rachael, thank you.
DENHOLLANDER: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
