Third-Year law and CEASE student Copelenn McMahon (’23) recently published a blog post for the Georgia Law Review Online titled The Need for an Affirmative Defense for Victims of Sex Trafficking in Georgia. McMahon writes, “An affirmative defense of trafficking victimization would allow survivors charged with crimes to establish the interrelationship between the criminal conduct…
CEASE Releases Policy Brief on Decriminalizing Victims of Child Sex Trafficking
CEASE recently released its policy brief, Child Sex Trafficking and Enhancing Georgia Responses, providing an overview of how common misunderstandings about the realities of child sex trafficking prevent the identification of victims, resulting in survivors being treated more like adult criminals than child victims. Despite Georgia’s commitment to the protection of survivors of child sex trafficking, victims…
Webinar on CSEC, Bias, and Litigating Race
As National Human Trafficking Prevention Month comes to a close, we’d like to highlight CEASE’s webinar from October 2020 on CSEC, Bias, and Litigating Race featuring Shomari Ward and Cait Mullen from the Juvenile Rights Division of the Legal Aid Society of New York and Georgia Law and CEASE alum Victoria Hicks (’21) discussing how…
CEASE Welcomes New Interdisciplinary Staff
The CEASE Clinic welcomed new interdisciplinary staff in 2022. Thanks to a grant funded through CJCC, Jocelyn Crumpton joined CEASE as the clinic’s Social Work Advocate, providing social work case management, intern supervision, and systemic policy advocacy and community outreach. The addition of the social work advocate position enhances CEASE’s ability to provide quality legal…
Atkinson and Hetherington Present at the 2022 Summit
CEASE Staff Attorney Brian Atkinson presented on “Trauma-Informed Representation for Crossover Youth” at The Summit 2022: Georgia’s Child Welfare Conference in December. Director Emma Hetherington presented “Exploring Careers in Child Protection Law” alongside Diana Rugh Johnson, Court Improvement Program Director at the Administrative Office of the Courts; Jerry Bruce, Director at the Office of the Child…
CEASE Director presents and publishes on the commercial sexual exploitation of children
CEASE Clinic Director Emma Hetherington presented “Integrating Evaluations in Practice: Lessons Learned from Representing Survivors of CSEC” for the National Association of Counsel for Children’s Member Webinar Series in December 2022 along with the School of Social Work’s Dr. Allison Dunnigan and Kasandra Dodd. She also published “Measuring Therapeutic Outcomes for Survivors of CSEC” in…
CEASE and HOPE Court Highlighted at The Summit
CEASE’s collaboration with Chatham County Juvenile Court’s Healing Opportunities for Positive Empowerment (HOPE) Court, Georgia’s first treatment court for child survivors of human trafficking, was highlighted in 2022 at The Summit: Georgia’s Child Welfare Conference through the debut of “HOPE for Victims”, a video featuring CEASE Director Emma Hetherington and second-year student Jessica L. Davis….
CJCC Awards CEASE Funding under the TANF Grant Program for Minor Human Trafficking Services and Training
CEASE has been awarded an additional $75,900 under the Georgia Criminal Justice Coordinating Council’s TANF Grant Program for Minor Human Trafficking Services and Training to provide community-based follow up and aftercare services for survivors. The clinic will use these funds to hire a full-time social work advocate to provide quality legal representation to survivors in…
CEASE Receives Safe Harbor for Sexually Exploited Children Grant for 2022-2023
The CEASE Clinic received a $72,000 Safe Harbor for Sexually Exploited Children grant from the Georgia Criminal Justice Coordinating Council to strengthen the state’s response against the sexual exploitation of youth. This is the second year in a row that the Wilbanks CEASE Clinic has been awarded funding from the council. Additionally, earlier this year,…
CEASE Clinic receives Crime Victim Service Collaboration and Innovation Award
The CEASE Clinic was awarded the 2022 Georgia Crime Victim Service Collaboration and Innovation Award in April from the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC). “This prestigious award honors extraordinary individuals, task forces, or programs that provide services to victims of crime. [CJCC] would like to recognize those whose work has been particularly noteworthy, and who…