Invisible Victims

 

What do we owe victims of crime? For over a century, Black activists built movements dedicated to supporting victims of violence and halting cycles of harm before they become unstoppable. More recently, during the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s, a predominantly white coalition arose, focused instead on enshrining victims’ rights in federal and state law. This group succeeded in securing funding, legal support, and special privileges in courts and legislatures across the country. However, as Invisible Victims reveals, in the system they built, not all victims count.

 

Miriam Gohara has spent two decades defending those facing capital or life-in-prison sentences. Whether actually innocent or guilty, all of her clients are themselves victims of violence—and yet none have received the resources earmarked for victims. Drawing together those experiences with new archival research, Gohara unfolds what our society lost by sidelining Black survivors who found real means of repairing society’s problems by attending to the needs of all victims, even those who commit the most heinous crimes. Provocative and empathetic, Invisible Victims revolutionizes the conversation about violence and victimhood and insists that there is a better way.