Contemporary Authors

• Shattering Silences: Strategies to Prevent Sexual Assault, Heal Survivors, and Bring Assailants to Justice - 2018 Skyhorse Publishing, https://smile.amazon.com/Shattering-Silences-Strategies-Survivors-Assailants/dp/1510727574/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1531695284&sr=8-1&dpID=51EXCp5GjIL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=detail
• The Way I Saw It - 2012 iUniverse, https://www.amazon.com/The-Way-I-Saw-It/dp/1475924208

• Christopher Johnston - http://christopherjohnstonwriter.com/about/

  Christopher Johnston has been a freelance journalist and author since 1987.

  Christopher Johnston has published more than 3,000 articles in numerous regional and national publications. These include American Theatre, Balanced Living, Christian Science Monitor, Cleveland Magazine, Continental, Crain’s Cleveland Business, Credit.com, The Plain Dealer, Progressive Architecture, Scientific American (online) and Time.com. He served as a contributing editor for Inside Business for six years and was a contributing editor for Cleveland Enterprise for ten years.

  Currently, he is writing a book about the First Battalion, Ninth Marines, who suffered the highest loss rate in US Marine history at Khe Sanh during the Vietnam War. Johnston ghostwrote The Way I Saw It, the memoirs of the late Marc Wyse, co-founder of Wyse Advertising, which was published in 2013.

  For roughly 15 years, he wrote video scripts for the Multimedia Department at University Hospitals Case Medical Center, more than a dozen of which won Telly Awards. He also wrote two half-hour television programs for UH: "Gold Medal Medicine" about recent advances in orthopedic and sports medicine, which aired twice in October of 2005 on WKYC-TV3 in Cleveland, and "Vision of Hope: Winning the War on Cancer," which aired twice in September of 2006 on WKYC to more than 100,000 local viewers.

  Additionally, he wrote a series of case studies about organizations that have used Appreciative Inquiry, an organizational development methodology pioneered by Professor David Cooperrider at Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management. Previously, he wrote company abstracts and profiled a number of socially responsible businesses to help Weatherhead launch its Business as an Agent of World Benefit website.

  From 1991 to 1994, he worked with Frederick C. Crawford, the founding chairman of TRW Inc., on a variety of projects, including ghostwriting and editing four books about his life: Glimpses of Jimmy Doolittle (1994); Storyettes: Reminiscences of Frederick Coolidge Crawford, Vol. II (1994); Selected Speeches of Frederick Coolidge Crawford (1993); and Storyettes: Reminiscences of Frederick Coolidge Crawford (1992).

  Johnston is also a playwright, and his play, Ghosts of War, about a Vietnam War veteran he had interviewed for five years, premiered at Dobama Theatre in Cleveland in January 2013. His plays have appeared at Cleveland Public Theatre (Sexually Explicit Material, The Mind Field, Theories of Relativity, The Mad Mask Maker of Maigh Eo), Dobama (My Body is Blue, Murder in Mind, Loud Americans: A Punk Saga), convergence-continuum (Selfies at the Clown Motel, APORKALYPSE!, Spawn of the Petrosexuals), and Talespinner Children’s Theatre (Finn McCool). Last Light was performed at the West 78th Street Theatre Lab in New York. He has directed for The Bang & The Clatter Theatre Co., Charenton Theatre Co., CPT, Dobama, IngenuityFest, and Karamu House. He completed his playwriting internship at the Cleveland Play House.

  Johnston teaches playwriting and creative nonfiction workshop courses at Cleveland State University. He holds a BA and MA in English from John Carroll University.

• Aventri - https://www.eiseverywhere.com/ereg/popups/speakerdetails.php?eventid=147614&language=eng&speakerid=397168&

  Christopher Johnston, ASJA

  A freelance journalist, Christopher Johnston has published more than 3,000 articles in numerous publications, including American Theatre, Christian Science Monitor, The Plain Dealer, Progressive Architecture, Scientific American (online), and Time.com. Johnston wrote The Way I Saw It, the memoirs of the co-founder of Wyse Advertising, and is currently writing a book about the First Battalion, Ninth Marines, which suffered the highest loss rate in U.S. Marine Corps history at Khe Sanh.

• Linked In - https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-johnston-912a91a/

  Christopher Johnston
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  Freelance Journalist, Author and Playwright
  Cleveland/Akron, Ohio Area
  Shattering Silences: New Approaches to Healing Su...
  John Carroll University John Carroll University
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  Christopher Johnston has published more than 3,000 articles in numerous regional and national publications. These range from Cleveland Magazine, Crain’s Cleveland Business, Inside Business, Northern Ohio Live, and The Plain Dealer to American Theatre, Balanced Living, Christian Science Monitor, Continental, Credit.com, Progressive Architecture, Proto Magazine, Scientific American (online), Time.com, and Urban Design. He served as a contributing editor for Inside Business for more than six years, and he was a contributing editor for Cleveland Enterprise for more than ten years.

  Currently, he is writing a book: Shattering Silences: New Approaches to Healing Survivors of Rape and Bringing Their Assailants to Justice. He is also developing a book about the First Battalion, Ninth Marines, who suffered the highest loss rate in US Marine history at Khe Sanh during the Vietnam War. Johnston ghostwrote The Way I Saw It, the memoirs of the late Marc Wyse, co-founder of Wyse Advertising (published 2013).

  He wrote two half-hour television programs for University Hospitals Case Medical Center: "Gold Medal Medicine" about recent advances in orthopedic and sports medicine, which aired twice in October of 2005 on WKYC-TV3 in Cleveland, and "Vision of Hope: Winning the War on Cancer," which aired twice in September of 2006 on WKYC to more than 100,000 local viewers.

  From 1991 to 1994, he worked with Frederick C. Crawford, the founding chairman of TRW Inc., to ghostwrite portions and edit four books: Glimpses of Jimmy Doolittle (1994); Storyettes: Reminiscences of Frederick Coolidge Crawford, Vol. II (1994); Selected Speeches of Frederick Coolidge Crawford (1993); and Storyettes: Reminiscences of Frederick Coolidge Crawford (1992).

  He also teaches playwriting and creative nonfiction at Cleveland State University. Johnston earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s of Arts degrees in English at John Carroll University in Cleveland.

  Website: www.christopherjohnstonwriter.com

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  On July 25th, Difference Makers (10 Strong) will fly into Vandenberg Air Force Base for its first presentation with the U.S. Air Force. We’ll also be joined by the Santa Barbara District Attorney’s Office. Eliminating toxicity is our aim. The kind of toxicity that allows sexual harassment and violence to thrive in our communities/organizations. If you are in the area and would like to join us, please let me know. I’ll be joined by Dominique Waltower, Difference Maker and 10 Strong Member. Following the session I’ll be answering random questions by the Air Force SAPR team and DA’s Office, centered around improving community response efforts. #differencemakers#walkthewalk#10strong#culturechange#nomoretalk#actionsspeaklouder#secondsession

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  The Dark Things You know you are loved not by your ability to be something to someone, but rather by your ability to be nothing to them. To be nothing special. To be nothing outstanding. To not be whole. To not be complete. Everyone nowadays wants a complete something and someone, a neat little package, Mr. or Mrs. Perfect. I am not that guy. I once was, but my illness set me free. It forced me to accept that I am a collection of broken shards held together by grace and mercy. When you can be comfortable with the ghosts in your own closet, the demons in your basement, you are far more likely to find someone with the capacity not only to love you, but to help you tame/exorcize them. https://lnkd.in/eypWadR Poetry by Dr John A. King #dealwithit #poet #drjohnaking #dealwithitbook

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  WHAT IS SEX TRAFFICKING?

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  Imagine your walking along a path in the woods. This path is new to you, although you have heard stories your whole life about what lies beyond. Along the way you encounter several people, who share their travel experiences with you. They have decided to return to their original start point, or merely stay in place on the path. There are similarities and differences with each story you hear, but one thing is consistent - about 25% of them are injured. At this point you have two choices. You can stay in place and prevent others from advancing forward, or you can advance forward and learn more about the causes of injury. I’ve never been one to sit still, or watch others suffer. For me, advancement is the only logical move.I don’t take this journey alone though. I’ve simply decided to walk with others, and I’ve placed all of my faith in the possibility that change is possible. Join us in cultivating Difference Makers. #culturechange#walkthewalk#pathtochange#nooneleftbehind#differencemakers#10strong

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  Shattering Silences: New Approaches to Healing Survivors of Rape (Skyhorse Publishing, 2018)
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  Dates Employed Oct 2009 – Present Employment Duration 8 yrs 10 mos
  Freelance Journalist, Author and Playwright
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  Dates Employed Feb 1987 – Present Employment Duration 31 yrs 6 mos
  Location Cleveland/Akron, Ohio Area
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  Dates Employed 2009 – Present Employment Duration 9 yrs
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  John Carroll University
  John Carroll University

  Degree Name Master’s Degree

  Field Of Study English

  Activities and Societies: Graduate Teaching Assistant, Sports Information Director, poet for Carroll Quarterly, Football Team (Freshman year)

  Having the opportunity to teach freshman Grammar and Composition classes was a great experience that I needed to learn how to teach and work with students. I feel fortunate to have had an incredible English Department when I attended. I also enjoyed serving as Sports Information Director for two years while I was earning my Master's Degree. I learned a lot about how to budget and run a publicity department and assign projects to my assistant. I also learned a lot about informing and working with the media.

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  Mike McGraw
  Mike McGraw

  Recreational Therapy Assistant at PLAN (Jewish Family Services Association

  October 31, 2016, Mike was a client of Christopher’s

  I took Chris's class on pitching freelance non-fiction articles, which was offered as a workshop through the non-profit Literary Cleveland. In the first session we learned a practical, nuts-and-bolts technique for writing a pitch, and in the follow-up session we workshopped each other's pitch ideas. Chris is a helpful, easygoing teacher with decades of experience to bring to bear as an advisor.

  Edward Nishnic Sr.
  Edward Nishnic Sr.

  Disabled at Home/hospital

  March 22, 2013, Edward was a client of Christopher’s

  Chris is an outstanding,creative personable writer that will more than satisfy any project he is retained for. I highly recommend him to any company/person that is looking for the best writer that I know.

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• Fresh Water - http://www.freshwatercleveland.com/authors/christopherjohnston120115.aspx

  Christopher Johnston

  Christopher Johnston has published more than 3,000 articles in publications such as American Theatre, Christian Science Monitor, Credit.com, History Magazine, The Plain Dealer, Progressive Architecture, Scientific American and Time.com. He was a stringer for The New York Times for eight years. He served as a contributing editor for Inside Business for more than six years, and he was a contributing editor for Cleveland Enterprise for more than ten years. He teaches playwriting and creative nonfiction workshops at Cleveland State University. He wrote The Way I Saw It, the memoirs of Marc Wyse, co-founder of Wyse Advertising. His book, Shattering Silences: New Approaches to Healing Survivors of Rape and Bringing Their Assailants to Justice (Skyhorse) will be published in February 2018.

• Salon - https://www.salon.com/2018/04/28/why-victims-advocates-are-calling-this-the-golden-age-of-sexual-assault-reform/

  Quoted in Sidelights--and don't freak out about fair use, because these quotes are actually from the book (I checked via Amazon preview): “Along the way, though, I began to meet people who were responding to this terrifying, soulless criminal by improving the way sexual violence victims and cases were handled in Cleveland,” he writes in the book’s introduction. “They were the solution providers to this ancient problem of cruel victim-blaming, ignoring and disregarding rape and sexual assault victims, and allowing many of the predators committing these crimes to roam freely.” He expresses admiration for survivors, writing: “Each one of the survivors I met and spoke with, and numerous others I have read about or learned about from the professionals I inter­viewed—stands as a model of courage and heroism, even if they were still struggling with their recovery.” He concludes the introduction by saying: “After eight years of researching, reporting, and interviewing about rape and sexual assault, I am more convinced than ever that it is our absolute responsibility as human beings to offer any survivors the support, compassion, respect, and dignity they deserve and do everything in our power to ensure that we hold their assailants accountable and put them where they belong: prison.”
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  Why victims’ advocates are calling this “the golden age of sexual assault reform”
  The launch of the federal Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) was a turning point in advocacy for rape victims

  11510
  CHRISTOPHER JOHNSTON
  APRIL 28, 2018 10:30PM (UTC)
  Excerpted with permission from Shattering Silences: Strategies to Prevent Sexual Assault, Heal Survivors, and Bring Assailants to Justice by Christopher Johnston. Copyright 2018 by Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.
  Every two minutes someone in the United States is sexually assaulted, and each year there are nearly 300,000 victims of sexual assault. But survivors are no longer silent, and new practices by police, prosecutors, nurses, and rape crisis professionals are resulting in more humane and compassionate treatment of victims and more aggressive pursuit and prosecution of perpetrators. My book, "Shattering Silences," is the first work to comprehensively cover these new approaches and partnerships.

  * * *
  Compassionate professionals in a variety of fields have been promoting rape reform for decades. They were often working on their own as individuals or groups of advocates and activists, social workers or counselors, or staff at bellwether organizations such as the rape crisis centers in Cleveland, Boston, the District of Columbia, Oakland, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco.

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  Fortunately, we are now in the midst of a growing movement that began to coalesce through a synergy of events: the advent of DNA testing in the early 1990s and the subsequent launching of the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) database in 1999 that greatly facilitated suspect identification; the revelatory research of people like Rebecca Campbell, PhD, who brought training on the neurobiology of trauma studies that lucidly explain the sometimes erratic behavior and memory of victims of rape and sexual assault in a way not previously known to many of the professionals in the field; the discovery in the first decade of the twenty-first century of backlogs of an estimated 400,000 untested sexual assault kits (SAKs) in police property rooms and warehouses throughout the United States and the ensuing decisions by an enlightened cadre of attorneys general, county prosecutors, district attorneys, and law enforcement leadership to test and investigate the cases. Much credit goes to the investigative reporters who wrote about the neglected evidence and brought it to the public’s attention.

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  However, the federal Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) in 2014 represents the culmination and true turning point in the rape kit test­ing and processing and rape culture reform movement that’s crossing the country now. It provides financial, technical, and training support crucial to furnishing jurisdictions with the resources and knowledge to identify and disseminate best practices for this endeavor.

  In fact, Kevin Strom, program director in the Research Triangle Institute’s Center for Justice, Safety, and Resilience—this nonprofit organization oversees the SAKI project—labels this era “The Golden Age of Sexual Assault Reform.”

  “We’re still on the front end of this, but there is a lot of optimism that things are changing and improving,” Strom says. “We did things incorrectly for a long period of time, but there are a lot of good peo­ple out there improving the way we treat sexual assault, so it’s very inspirational.”

  I first learned of these significant changes and improvements when, in November of 2009, I got involved in the case of serial rapist and murderer Anthony Sowell, who had been arrested in Cleveland on Hal­loween after murdering eleven women and burying them in his back­yard and house. A good friend and fellow journalist, Robert Sberna, asked if I would be interested in coauthoring a book about the case. I wasn’t sure. Mainly, I wanted to see whether my hometown swept it under the rug or stepped up and said, “No more.” So, I did some preliminary interviews with people in Sowell’s neighborhood—police, urban affairs professors, and so on—and then later covered the trial with Robert. He writes a lot more about the crime beat than I do, so he went on to pen the definitive study of the case: "House of Horrors: The Shocking True Story of Anthony Sowell, the Cleveland Strangler" (The Kent State University Press, 2012).

  Along the way, though, I began to meet people who were responding to this terrifying, soulless criminal by improving the way sexual violence victims and cases were handled in Cleveland. They were the solution providers to this ancient problem of cruel victim-blaming, ignoring and disregarding rape and sexual assault victims, and allowing many of the predators committing these crimes to roam freely.

  Professionals such as Elizabeth Booth, RN, a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) at the MetroHealth System, or Megan O’Bryan at the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center (CRCC) or then Lieutenant Jim McPike, supervisor of the Cleveland Police Department’s Sex Crimes and Child Abuse Unit, became my initial guides into this world. Ever since then, they and many others I have met along the way have continued to help me understand the chal­lenges their organizations were facing, the tribulations of survivors try­ing to recover, and the radical new approaches and initiatives that were starting to be implemented not just in Cleveland, but also in Detroit, Houston, Memphis, and now many other cities.

  In 2016, I wrote a cover story for the Christian Science Monitor on what Cleveland had learned in responding to the “Cleveland Stran­gler” and how that had blossomed into a set of innovative and effec­tive approaches. Just as important, the key players had all come out of their silos to work together on this insidious phenomenon, and their camaraderie was apparent at press conferences or meetings and in the friendly way they related to each other as colleagues. Because I knew it was happening elsewhere, and that Cleveland, Detroit, and Memphis have partnered their Sexual Assault Kit Task Forces (SAKTFs), I felt there was need for a compelling book that would explore the successes and challenges of this movement, as well as the professionals who were committed to doing the right thing and spreading the good word.

  The history of how SAKI originated is an interesting one, with some roots in 2009. Two years prior, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ)—the research, development, and evaluation agency of the US Department of Justice—funded a study by Research Triangle Institute of why law enforcement agencies did not take sexual assault cases seri­ously or send evidence forward to initiate prosecution of offenders. The study found that often they didn’t understand the complex dynamics around sexual assault cases, nor did they understand the victims; law enforcement thought they were lying or partially to blame for the assault. Some didn’t fully understand the value of DNA evidence yet or believed it would cost too much to test the evidence in sexual assault kits.

  That set the stage for a distinctive federal response in 2009, when Human Rights Watch published its report on the backlog of 12,669 untested SAKs found in Los Angeles that were the property of the Los Angeles Police and Sheriff ’s Departments, which shared a criminal evi­dence laboratory.

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  The report quoted Marta Miyakawa, a detective for the Los Angeles Police Department Cold Case Robbery and Homicide Division: “If people in Los Angeles hear about this rape kit backlog, and it makes them not want to work with the police in reporting their rape, then this backlog of ours would be tragic.”

  The report triggered an avalanche of public, private, and journalis­tic responses. According to a source I spoke to who was working there at the time but who asked not to be named, NIJ reached out to the LAPD and Sheriff ’s Department and the crime lab directors they had exist­ing relationships with to offer any help or guide them to any resources they might need to resolve the untested kits issue. The law enforcement departments were both open to disclosing what the situation was, and NIJ used it as an opportunity to research the problem in what they call a “natural experiment,” where something is already happening so they take advantage and study it. LA allowed NIJ to perform random sampling on 370 backlogged kits to see what evidence they could reap from the testing. Subsequently, NIJ published the “Sexual Assault Kit Backlog Study” in June 2012.

  Concurrently, other jurisdictions started reporting enormous collec­tions of untested kits in their property storage, and everyone began to realize it was a more widespread problem than initially thought. In 2011, NIJ decided to solicit one of their “Action-Research Projects” to get to the root of why jurisdictions were experiencing these massive numbers of untested kits. Detroit and Houston were selected as the test sites. The objective was to have researchers and practitioners in those jurisdictions work together to understand and solve the problem. If they couldn’t solve the problem with their current methods, they could make “mid­course corrections,” providing an evolutionary type of research project to uncover solutions and generate protocols for other jurisdictions to follow.

  Both cities developed safe, effective means of handling victim noti­fication. Houston devised what they called a “whole-time justice advo­cate,” embedding advocates in their police department to work directly with victims and investigators. Both cities began to deploy funds to hire victim advocates, investigators, and prosecutors specifically to address the backlogged rape kits. NIJ credits that project with creating the groundswell of best practices and protocols, many of which other cit­ies, counties, states, and jurisdictions continue to implement. Addition­ally, according to my source, the former NIJ staff member, the number one lesson learned was the importance of having a multidisciplinary approach to take on the untested kits and resulting criminal cases.

  At roughly that same time, NIJ had another opportunity to perform a “natural experiment” in post–Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, when the police there revealed—along with other serious criminal justice issues—a backlog of more than seven hundred untested kits. Mayor C. Ray Nagin, the sixtieth mayor of New Orleans, requested assistance from NIJ, which provided financial support for testing the kits and launched a pilot project known as CHOP, or CODIS Hit Outcome Project. The NIJ earned about the backlog of untested kits through involvement with DOJ working group and responded with a solution. The goal was to test a new system that notified police departments when there was a hit in the national DNA database, so that they could follow up on investigating those cases to prevent them from falling through the cracks.

  In 2009, upon entering office, Vice President Joe Biden appointed the first White House Advisor on Violence Against Women, Lynn Rosenthal. (Nearly two decades earlier, Senator Biden had introduced the Violence Against Women Act in the US Congress in June 1990, and it passed in 1994.) When Rosenthal left to become Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at the National Domestic Violence Hotline, Biden replaced her with Caroline “Carrie” Bettinger-López in May 2015. Biden had also decided untested SAKs would be one of his signa­ture issues, along with campus sexual assaults. He became the first vice president to publicly address the issue of sexual violence.

  Under Biden’s leadership, Lynn Rosenthall and the Office on Vio­lence Against Women worked closely with NIJ and other organizations such as the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and its Office for Victims of Crime to obtain a Congressional appro­priation for SAKI to consolidate all the lessons learned from Los Ange­les, the Detroit and Houston action research projects, New Orleans, and other research to create the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative. Angela Williamson, PhD, was named by BJA to administer the SAKI program, after she was hired in 2014 as Senior Policy Advisor (Forensics) at the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Programs.

  In September 2014, Vice President Biden and Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced the $41 million FY2015 SAKI program. (Cy Vance, the Manhattan District Attorney, was also part of this announce­ment, as he released $35 million in New York City asset forfeiture funds as additional support for kit testing nationwide.) The initial awards went to twenty jurisdictions across the United States to fund kit testing, enhance investigations and prosecutions, and develop victim-centered protocols for notifying and interviewing victims.

  Thus far, Congress has approved $131 million for the thirty-two jurisdictions that have now received SAKI grants, including $40 million that was expected to be disbursed in fall of 2017 that would bring the total of SAKI sites to forty. The FY2018 budget Congress is considering has not been passed as of this writing, but the proposal includes another $45 million to help eliminate rape kit backlogs nationwide. SAKI’s mis­sion is to ensure that kits get tested and to provide the sites the resources they need to fully investigate and solve these violent crimes while always keeping victims as the focus of the cases and making sure their voices are heard and they are treated with the respect and understanding that they deserve.

  SAKI grants stipulate that only 50 percent of the funding may be used for testing. The rest must be applied to investigation and track­ing down offenders for prosecution. Research Triangle Institute (RTI) received $11 million to serve as the training and technical assistance (TTA) partner. They assembled a team of experts who travel to any of the sites requesting assistance or any of the District Attorney of New York (DANY)–funded sites to help them implement a tracking system, investigate a cold case, understand the victim’s response through the neurobiology of trauma research, train Sexual Assault Nurse Examin­ers, and so on. Key members of the TTA team include Dr. Rebecca Campbell and James Markey.

  “We meet with a site and create their TTA development plan,” explains Patricia Melton, PhD, codirector of the BJA National Train­ing and Technical Assistance Program. “We outline and identify all of their training and technical assistance needs at that time, but it’s a living document that keeps getting evaluated and modified. Then we build the subject matter expert team they need to provide their TTA, and that continues throughout the period of their grant.” The SAKI TTA website provides virtual training and support resources, too, she adds. That site is public, so the training resources are available to any law enforcement agency in the United States.

  In August 2017, the NIJ published the “National Best Practices for Sexual Assault Kits: A Multidisciplinary Approach,” which includes thirty-five recommendations that provide a guide to victim-centered approaches for responding to sexual assault cases and better supporting victims throughout the criminal justice process.

  In the end, there are two primary missions of this national effort to combat sexual violence. “We want to send a message to the perpetra­tors that they’re not going to get away with this,” Williamson informs me. “But the SAKI project also sends an even more important message to the victims that they do matter, and that’s who we’re doing this for. My hope is that it changes the way everyone addresses the crime of sexual assault.”

  Strom and Melton concur. “This is just the tip of the iceberg,” Strom says of this Golden Age of Sexual Assault Reform. “We need to look back twenty years from now and say, ‘This was just the start.’”

  Of course, there are numerous advocates who I haven’t examined as thoroughly, SANEs, Sexual Assault Forensic Examiners (SAFEs), police, participating prosecutors, and organizations such as Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN), the nation’s largest anti–sexual violence organization, but are doing important and far-reaching work. That was a good problem for me to have, as more and more professionals and volunteers step up to help these victims who for mil­lennia have been left alone in their suffering and silence. There are also specific populations where the prevalence of rape and sexual assault is at such epidemic proportions that I couldn’t fairly or adequately cover them: college students, human sex trafficking victims, military person­nel, and prison inmates. Perhaps in the future.

  One final note on the terminology I used for people who have been raped or assaulted. At one of the breakout sessions I attended at the Sexual Assault Kit Task Force Summit in Detroit in September 2016, one of the presenters—I believe it was Kim Hurst, SAFE and direc­tor of the Wayne County SAFE program in Detroit—explained in an inside-baseball way that law enforcement agents, prosecutors, and our criminal justice system refer to these individuals as “victims”; rape crisis advocates refer to them as “survivors” or “clients,” if they have a rela­tionship with a rape crisis center, and nurses call them “patients.”

  Essentially, on the law enforcement and legal side, those profession­als have to refer to them as victims, because that’s what they are in the eyes of the law. However, rape crisis advocates refer to them as survi­vors, whether they were assaulted two hours ago or twenty years ago. I was chided a couple times for referring to someone as a victim, even though I was talking about it in a legal context, so advocates are vehe­ment proponents of always using the word “survivor.”

  What I also found, however, is that some people in the field refer to someone as a victim if they have been assaulted recently or if they are involved in the prosecution of their assailant. Once they are on the other side of that, especially if they have made strides in taking their lives back through counseling, therapy, moving, getting a new job, exercise and fitness, etc., then they are more likely to be considered survivors.

  There is no exact definition or timeline, so I have tried to use the word that best fits their status at the time I was writing about someone.

  Each one of the survivors I met and spoke with, and numerous oth­ers I have read about or learned about from the professionals I inter­viewed—stands as a model of courage and heroism, even if they were still struggling with their recovery. Similar to veterans suffering from PTSD, whom I’ve also gotten to know in writing about Vietnam veter­ans or meeting veterans of the Middle East conflicts, there is no cure to the trauma they have suffered. They must find ways to recover their lives and move ahead for as long as they live. Some fare better than others.

  After eight years of researching, reporting, and interviewing about rape and sexual assault, I am more convinced than ever that it is our absolute responsibility as human beings to offer any survivors the sup­port, compassion, respect, and dignity they deserve and do everything in our power to ensure that we hold their assailants accountable and put them where they belong: prison.

Quoted in Sidelights: “The author’s hard-hitting, victim-centered report reveals the great strides being made toward achieving justice through collaborative and tech-innovative investigation,” remarked a Kirkus Reviews contributor, who termed the book “a hopeful report that is more triumph than trauma.”
Johnston, Christopher: SHATTERING SILENCES
Kirkus Reviews.
(Apr. 15, 2018): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Johnston, Christopher SHATTERING SILENCES Skyhorse Publishing (Adult Nonfiction) $24.99 6, 1 ISBN: 978-1-5107-2757-1
A timely update on efforts to combat sexual assault in America.
In a narrative bolstered by extensive research involving clinical professionals and law enforcement experts, Ohio-based journalist Johnston investigates how rape cases are processed today after decades of mishandling. Focusing primarily on the Cleveland area, the author spent eight years researching rape and sexual assault, and he presents his findings through the case histories of several survivors. Their stories are indeed unsettling, with many left unresolved for decades and now resurfacing through the advent of DNA analytics. Johnston reports on the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, and he compassionately profiles a group of "healers" comprised of sexual assault nurse examiners charged with the intake and rape-kit follow-through for assault victims. The victim's stories, however, are the true heart of the book, conveying a palpable sense of suffering. From a law enforcement perspective, Johnston looks at a Cleveland police commander responsible for the Sex Crimes and Child Abuse Unit who acknowledges that this particular work is psychologically and emotionally difficult and "not for everybody." Even more exacting is the work of an Ohio crime lab where forensic pathologists process rape kits and scrutinize DNA samples, now considered "law enforcement's greatest weapon" in convicting rapists. The legally irrefutable science of DNA examination, writes the author, is also making it possible for sexual assault cold cases to be reopened and litigated, as with the valiant ordeal of a girl who was raped 20 years ago at the age of 14. In Detroit, Johnston brings to life the court battles of rape victims and the challenges facing prosecutors attempting to exhume a backlog of rape kits for tracking and reanalysis. Though the challenges facing tireless task force detectives, medical staff, and community psychologists may seem insurmountable, the author's hard-hitting, victim-centered report reveals the great strides being made toward achieving justice through
1 of 2 7/15/18, 5:46 PM
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MA...
collaborative and tech-innovative investigation.
A hopeful report that is more triumph than trauma in the prosecution of sexual assault cases past and present.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Johnston, Christopher: SHATTERING SILENCES." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Apr. 2018. Book
Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A534375121/GPS?u=schlager& sid=GPS&xid=f8771734. Accessed 15 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A534375121
2 of 2 7/15/18, 5:46 PM

• New York Journal of Books
  https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/shattering-silences
  Word count: 1057

  Quoted in Sidelights: “deftly melds profiles of sex crimes professionals and rape survivors with examinations of the new technologies used to solve crimes.” Sherna concluded: “Published auspiciously in the wake of the sexual misconduct allegations against Hollywood celebrities and the #MeToo phenomenon, Shattering Silences offers solid evidence that meaningful rape reform is occurring throughout the U.S.”

  Shattering Silences: Strategies to Prevent Sexual Assault, Heal Survivors, and Bring Assailants to Justice
  Image of Shattering Silences: Strategies to Prevent Sexual Assault, Heal Survivors, and Bring Assailants to Justice
  Author(s):
  Christopher Johnston
  Release Date:
  April 30, 2018
  Publisher/Imprint:
  Skyhorse Publishing
  Pages:
  312
  Buy on Amazon
  Reviewed by:
  Robert Sberna

  “Shattering Silences offers solid evidence that meaningful rape reform is occurring throughout the U.S.”

  Statistics on sexual assault are grim. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, someone is attacked every two minutes in our country, with far too many of the cases not resolved by the criminal justice system. A great number of sexual assaults, in fact, go unreported by victims.

  The reasons that sex crimes are not reported are all too familiar: Victims may feel shame and guilt about the experience, or they fear reprisal by their attackers. In many cases, they are afraid that their reports will be viewed indifferently or even skeptically by law enforcement and medical personnel.

  The systemic mishandling of sexual assault crimes has given many victims little reason to believe they will see justice. However, in Shattering Silences, Christopher Johnston reports that there is a growing movement across the U.S. to take a more compassionate, victim-centered approach to rape and sexual assault cases.

  The product of eight years of research, Johnston’s book spotlights today’s best practices in the areas of victim treatment, criminal investigation, and the use of DNA evidence. Johnston, a journalist based in Cleveland, Ohio, deftly melds profiles of sex crimes professionals and rape survivors with examinations of the new technologies used to solve crimes.

  He begins his narrative in his hometown where he profiles what he calls the “solution providers.” These are the social workers, counselors, sexual assault nurse examiners, and law enforcement officers who are collaboratively working to improve the way victims and their cases are handled.

  Citing statistics that show one in five women and one in 71 men will be raped at some point in their lives, Johnston notes that two-thirds of those assaults will never be reported to law enforcement. For sexual assault victims, the ability to seek treatment, report the crime to police, and cooperate in the prosecution requires a great deal of courage, particularly when police can seem insensitive during their interviews.

  At the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, a program director tells Johnston that the shock and trauma caused by a sexual assault triggers the release of stress hormones that can blunt the victim’s emotions and impair their ability to recall details of the attack. When that happens, police can misinterpret victims as being uncooperative. Officers can then become discouraged from investigating cases, which ultimately results in offenders not being held accountable for their crimes.

  Now though, reports Johnston, Cleveland Police and many other law enforcement agencies are incorporating a more respectful and patient approach with victims, with a goal of understanding the trauma they’ve experienced.

  Johnston also focuses on the increasing importance of DNA testing in the criminal investigation process. The development of the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) database in 1999 has been an invaluable tool in the identification of sexual assault suspects. However, the critical factor in the rape reform movement has been, in large part, the launching of the federal Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) in 2014.

  The SAKI program provides funding to budget-strapped state and local law enforcement agencies to address their backlogs of untested rape kits. (A rape kit contains DNA and other forensic evidence collected from a sexual assault victim.) Reports show that, at one point, an estimated 400,000 untested rape kits were stored in police evidence rooms and warehouses across the country.

  By processing those kits, police have been able to use the DNA analysis to link suspects to unsolved crimes committed decades earlier. In empathetic detail, Johnston recounts the torment of a Cleveland woman who was raped in 1993 when she was 14. When her rape kit was finally processed in 2013, police were able to use the DNA results to identify her attacker, although they were unsuccessful in prosecuting him.

  Throughout Johnston’s eight-year research journey, he sought out dedicated rape reform advocates in various cities. In Detroit, he learns that Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy faced stiff budgetary and bureaucratic challenges in her to quest to submit 11,000 untested rape kits for analysis. Cobbling together public and private donations, Worthy led fundraising efforts to process the rape kits and bring justice to victims. As of June 2017, analysis of Detroit’s rape kits resulted in the identification of 797 suspected serial rapists and convictions of 95 offenders.

  In New York City, Johnston chronicles the efforts of Ilse Knecht of the Joyful Heart Foundation, who is committed to ensuring that DNA evidence is used to bring justice to crime survivors and accountability to offenders. Knecht focuses her efforts on monitoring the testing and investigation of backlogged rape kits across the U.S., while also promoting legislation that would require mandatory processing and tracking of the kits.

  Published auspiciously in the wake of the sexual misconduct allegations against Hollywood celebrities and the #MeToo phenomenon, Shattering Silences offers solid evidence that meaningful rape reform is occurring throughout the U.S. Further progress, notes Johnston, will be fueled by a multidisciplinary, concerted effort by the public and private sectors, and the work of dedicated nonprofit organizations.

  Robert Sberna is an award-winning journalist who contributes to several national publications. His most recent book is Badge 387: The Story of Jim Simone, America’s Most Decorated Cop, was a finalist for a Foreword Indie Book Award for Biography. His first book, House of Horrors: The Shocking True Story of Anthony Sowell, won the 2012 Foreword Indie Book Gold Medal for True Crime.
  Buy on Amazon