A woman is constantly looking over her shoulder in the day or nighttime. It’s a never-ending alarming feeling all women have, the fear of being kidnapped, abused, raped and so much more.

Chrystul Kizer was a 16-year-old girl who was charged a life sentence for murdering her abuser, 34-year-old, Randall Volar in Wisconsin. Volar sex trafficked and abused young teen girls some as young as 12 and would film the acts of these eye-straining crimes. He was arrested in February of 2018 but was released, without bail, even though authorities discovered he’d abused at least a dozen other girls and many of them were on video. Far too often, survivors of violence especially women of color and girls, are punished for defending themselves. Instead of being given care and support from the beginning, Kizer had been wrongfully incarcerated for nearly two years now for choosing to survive, before a Chicago-based aid organization raised $400,000 to post her bond. 

In Dallas Tx, Zephaniah Trevino is another teen girl who is facing capital murder and armed robbery charges for a crime her sex trafficker Philip Baldenegro committed and forced her to participate against her will. She is free on bond awaiting trial as a 16-year-old girl. I feel Trevino has enough trauma from the experience Baldenegro put her through she should not be put through a trial. These are just a few examples of young girls going through these tough times right now; some women and girls don’t even get to see another day.

These situations happen every single day all over the world. Women are being raped and abused by men and are then being charged if they defend themselves.  So many young girls have lost their lives or have lost their dignity due to these horrible crimes where they are penalized for being a victim. This is something our justice system needs to correct and it needs to be fixed now. There is just no way we as a society can ethically put these women, mostly teen girls, on trial for defending themselves against their abusers.