U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson partnered to volunteer at the Genesis Women’s Shelter on Tuesday, tying up the end of the year by wrapping gifts for domestic violence survivors.
The Genesis Women’s Shelter Holiday Workshop in Dallas gave Sen. Cornyn (R-TX) and Mayor Johnson an opportunity to select, wrap, and hand off gifts to survivors of domestic violence. Items ranged from pastel bows for an infant to a set of dishes for a family.
“Domestic violence is obviously a scourge on our society,” said Mayor Johnson.
“I am happy to say that we have actually had some success in the City reducing domestic violence,” he said. “We are actually down almost 12% year over year in aggravated assault, domestic family violence.”
“But as long as there is a single person in this City who is dealing with family violence, we’re not going to be satisfied,” he added.
While monetary funding remains the shelter’s most significant need, the chief development officer of Genesis, Amy Norton, praised generosity in all forms.
“We probably collect over a million dollars of in-kind donations each year — which means we do not have to go out and then spend that money each year. These donations include everything from feminine products to coats and toys — we are very grateful for what the community provides,” Norton told The Dallas Express.
The shelter has a gift list that changes as needs arise and can be found online.
“We serve around 3,700 women and children each year in Dallas across our residential and non-residential facilities,” Jenna Severson, director of communications at Genesis, told DX.
“In the United States, one in four women will know domestic violence in their lifetime. In Texas, it is actually one in three. We are at a higher risk of women and children seeing abuse in their home,” said Severson. “We hold onto this as the reason why Genesis is here. We have a strong sense of ‘why.’”
“We know that statistically more women end up in hospital emergency rooms as a result of domestic violence than rape, muggings, and car accidents combined each year,” said Norton. “So, what that tells us is that the most dangerous place for a woman is in her own home in that relationship with the abuser.”
The biggest miss in the legal system right now, in Norton’s opinion, is “understanding the trauma and the types of domestic violence.”
“Right now, in Texas, you can’t find someone guilty of emotional abuse, but we know this often runs even deeper than physical abuse,” Norton said.
“A lot of times when we think of domestic abuse, we think of the black eye, the scratches on the arm, or the marks around the neck, but it goes way beyond that. I think the first step is educating people on the different types of domestic violence, then helping others learn how to respond and notice the types of abuse,” added Norton.
Mayor Johnson is taking steps to help bring awareness to the different types of domestic violence and has created a domestic violence task force.
“This task force is chaired by Councilwoman Gay Willis. They work with the police department very carefully to try to figure out ways to enhance safety in this space, but it is very tricky.”
“The police department does not take the position that just because [abuse] takes place behind closed doors, there is nothing we can do, which is why we track it,” Johnson said.
“But at the end of the day,” he concluded, “it takes all of us” to address the prevailing issue of domestic sexual assault.
One person determined to address this issue is Dr. Lavinia Masters. She was inducted into the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame in November 2023 for her commitment to speaking for survivors of sexual violence and advocating for survivors’ rights in the legal system.
The Dallas Express had the honor of interviewing Dr. Masters, who advocates from a position of experience: She was raped at knifepoint in 1985 at the age of 13 in Dallas County. At that time, the two DPD officers who handled her case appeared untrained in how to adequately address sexual assault victims, she said, as they discounted her experience and made her feel “almost dehumanized in the process.”
Masters went on to say that because of the way those who had taken an oath to protect her had handled the situation, doubt crept into the minds of other members of her family, causing her additional trauma.
“I know what happened to me,” she said. “The police dismissed me — they left me without answers — didn’t hear anything for years from them.”
When DX asked Sen. Cornyn about what is being done to help prevent survivors of sexual abuse from being retraumatized through the legal system like Masters was, the senator replied, “The Debbie Smith Act is a federal effort to eliminate the rape kit backlog. I’ve had a number of women here in Dallas who were sexually assaulted and had their rape kit — the forensic examination taken after the sexual assault — sitting in an evidence locker or police station and being untested.”
“We’re also doing all sorts of training. I’m thinking specifically of the de-escalation training of people in a mental health crisis who were approached by the police. Dallas, in particular, has a wonderful program where they send out social workers with the police to try to de-escalate those events,” said Cornyn. “It is an ongoing effort.”
“This is never a subject where you take a victory lap,” added Mayor Johnson.
Cornyn addressed the many hats officers are expected to wear while serving the community.
“We expect [the police] to be social workers; we expect them to not only investigate crimes but to solve them and to prevent them. It is really too much to expect of the police, but certainly, they have been more than willing, the chief and the Dallas Police Department, to take advantage of this sort of training that I think has helped them to do their job better, including what you mentioned, to de-traumatize people who have been traumatized by crime all over again by the legal process.”
In an effort to evolve the justice system to avoid revictimizing domestic abuse survivors, the Genesis Women’s Shelter has created the Conference on Crimes Against Women, which offers over 200 workshops, case studies, and in-depth discussions to join leading experts in the field from across the country to help train first responders, advocates, legal officials, prosecutors, attorneys, and community stakeholders, bridging the gap between law enforcement and victims. 2024 registration is now open.
“The system is broken — we can do better. It must be a collective effort,” Masters told DX. Otherwise, “bad history will repeat itself — that is why I continue to do what I do.”
Masters attributes her ability to move beyond fear and into being a voice for others to her faith.
“I talk about the darkness because I lived in a space where I thought I was by myself. I had to learn that darkness is nothing but fear — there to intimate me — almost make me give up my fight. I had to learn that God was still with me to find peace within myself. So, I moved all the distractions away and realized that light outshines the darkness no matter how small the light is or how big the darkness is.”
Masters’ rape kit sat on the DPD’s shelf for over 20 years before it was processed, exceeding two statutes of limitations. The treatment she received from law enforcement prompted Masters to become the voice that no one was for her — to “return to the darkness to be a light for others,” she said.
“If we collectively use our voice, we can make a difference,” she added.
Due to Masters’ efforts to prevent history from repeating itself, in September 2019, Gov. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 8, the Lavinia Masters Act, into law. This bipartisan bill “Relates to the criminal statute of limitations for certain sex offenses and the collection, analysis, and preservation of evidence of sexual assault and other sex offenses,” per the bill.
Masters said she devotes her time to chipping away at the societal predilections that lead people to dismiss survivors of sexual assault.
“Shame belongs to the perpetrators, not the victims,” she emphasized.
The advocate stands alongside sexual assault survivors, helping them to find their voice. To that end, she founded the Hope Saves Ministry, dedicated to empowering “survivors of sexual trauma to discover their voices of hope.” The ministry’s “goal is to end the backlog of thousands of rape kits currently sitting on shelves nationwide, preventing victims from moving forward,” as stated on its webpage.
To donate to Hope Saves Ministry, please visit its website. To contribute to Masters’ mission of being a voice for sexual assault survivors through speaking, coaching, and consulting, please visit here.
