PRINCETON, NJ — A Princeton-based company is addressing harassment and domestic violence with an app designed to bolster victims’ testimony in court, according to a release. VictimsVoice, founded by Princeton area resident Sheri Kurdakul, is currently available for download for free.
VictimsVoice asks its user to document incidents of domestic violence, LGBTQ harassment and abuse, elder abuse, bullying, stalking and others and to answer a few questions, the app’s about page says.
The app, available at the Google Play Store and as a web app, meets the Daubert Standard for admissibility in court, meaning those who use it will be able to present the information as evidence.
Kurdakul is herself a survivor of domestic violence, the release from VictimsVoice says, and she aspired to help other victims seek legal justice. “It took me years to overcome and navigate the complexities of abuse survival and the court system,” she said in the release.
“While the #MeToomovement has increased the conversation about harassment and abuse, victims are still not being believed, reports are not being turned into cases, and cases are not being taken to court,” Kurdakul said.
The release cites the Bureau of Justice Statistics in saying 80 percent of reported cases of domestic violence are dismissed due to lack of evidence.
See VictimsVoice’s video below:
“Victims tend to not be able to remember specific details of the past when they’re suffering from PTSD and other traumas, and therefore cannot produce enough evidence to present a case,” says Kurdakul. “During the Kavanaugh Senate hearings in September 2018, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford could not remember many of the specific details of her assault and because of this, her case would not have been prosecutable. We want to address this huge problem.”
Information input into the app is encrypted and stored permanently, preventing the data from being found or destroyed, the app’s about page says.
It’s not available on Apple, a public relations worker for VictimsVoice told Patch, because they “could not come to terms with Apple wanting us to relinquish control of our data to them.”
You can see the VictimsVoice website here.