How to implement a fair, transparent, and trauma-informed investigation
Contributed by: Ashley Richards and Ivana Bozinovic of Richards Advocacy
Organizations are increasingly being tasked with processing and investigating disclosures and complaints of sexual and gender-based violence. The approach to such task must be holistic in nature, addressing policies, procedures, safety, and the sensitives of the parties and issues involved.
The purpose of this article is to provide practice points that may assist in conducting a fair, transparent, and trauma-informed investigation in any organizational setting.
Review and Update Policies & Procedures
Organizations should develop standalone sexual violence policies with clear terminology and companion procedures. Regular review cycles are advised to assess the strength, coherence, and thoroughness of these policies and procedures. As new complex issues arise, consider whether your policy can address those complexities or whether updates are required. Your policy should provide a comprehensive roadmap to the organization’s values, principles, and goals in addressing sexual and gender-based violence, and your procedures should address how a disclosure and/or complaint will, or can be, handled. These documents should use plain language and be adaptable in various ways, avoiding the need for extremely lengthy policies and procedures that try to cover all scenarios.
Consultations with stakeholders during the review period can provide helpful guidance on how your policy and procedure are working, or not. Ensure that any feedback can be accommodated operationally given the staffing and resources available. For example, stakeholders may want the organization to set timeframes for the completion of an investigation, which can often be unrealistic (e.g., 30 days, 60 days).
Know Your Policies
Investigators are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the scope and practices of their policy and procedure. They are well advised to review their organization’s policy, and applicable procedures, before taking any measures in responding to a disclosure or complaint. Likewise, they are advised to properly determine the scope of the investigation, and whether the issues in the disclosure or complaint fall under any additional policies at the organization. This may engage consultation with other departments and administrators.
Limit Frequency and Nature of Contact
Investigators must be aware that disclosure of a sexual and/or gender-based violence incident can have the effect of re-traumatizing or harming the reporter. Organizations are encouraged to continuously assess how they can support the physical and emotional safety of the reporter. It is wise to, for example, limit the number of administrators contacting the reporter to just one person, and refrain from having the reporter repeat their experience to multiple persons at the institution.
Disclosure vs. Complaint
Every disclosure is not necessarily a complaint that requires an investigation and finding. Your procedures should address the difference between a disclosure and a complaint and provide a roadmap for how the organization will address these differences operationally.
Consider Fairness and Neutrality
Where a complaint is being investigated, immediate and/or interim measures are usually put in place. In doing so, organizations must balance the reporter feeling safe on, and the respondent continuing their activities, pending the outcome in the investigation.
Be Transparent About the Process
Organizations are advised to recognize the importance of facilitating trust and transparency in the investigation process. From the onset of a complaint, information sharing is paramount. Investigators are encouraged to share with the respondent, the nature of the complaint, and any records or documents upon which the reporter relies, as soon as possible. Likewise, any responding records or documents, can be offered to the reporter, however, caution should be applied depending on the nature of the records and the impact they may have. For the reporter, transparency about the types of information that has been received may be sufficient. In addition, investigators should routinely update the parties to the investigation as to its status.
Conduct Trauma-Informed Interviews
Investigators must adopt a trauma-informed approach to those being interviewed. They are encouraged to build rapport and trust at the onset of the interview by acknowledging the difficulty of the reporting and the difficulty of responding to a complaint. Investigators are wise to provide the reporter control over the interview, by allowing them to tell their story, without interruptions. Investigators ought to avoid perpetrating rape-myths by refraining from asking questions about past-sexual experiences, sexual experiences with the respondent that are not part of the complaint, or questions about how, or why, the reporter did not leave the situation or “fight back”. Additionally, questions should also be open-ended and without judgment. Interview times should consider schedules and other commitments that may impair the party’s availability during business hours. Flexible interview times are often preferred, as well as virtual interviews, as these allow those being interviewed to use a familiar (comfortable and safe) space for the interview.
Resolving Conflicting Information
Critically, an investigator who is completing an investigation must be skilled at resolving conflicting information that will likely be presented in the investigation. While the parties may agree on some facts, the vast majority of respondents present a narrative that is completely different from the information shared by the complainant. Resolving this conflicting information requires an investigator to be skilled at determining if any witnesses can assist, how information may be illogical based on known factors, how information is, or is not consistent and clear, and how to assess the credibility and reliability of the parties.
Consider the Impact
Investigators conducting investigations are encouraged to obtain evidence from all parties about the impact of the incident complained of, and where relevant the impact of the investigation. This line of inquiry often opens participants up, and garners evidence from the parties that otherwise may not have been elicited. In addition, this information is often helpful to decision-makers during the sanction stage of the complaint process.
Conclusion
Completing a fair, thorough and timely internal investigation is no small task! Organizations have a responsibility to ensure that disclosures and complaints are appropriately addressed and investigated, if required, while also maintaining the integrity of due process, and minimizing re-traumatization. Executing this responsibility requires constant revaluation and mindfulness of best practices. Organizations are encouraged to adopt the above tips to better serve their community.
If you would like more information on investigations, or would like assistance in an external investigation, please contact:
Ashley Richards: arichards@richardsadvocacy.com, or Ivana Bozinovic: ibozinovic@richardsadvocacy.com
Please visit www.richardsadvocacy.com for more details on the firm’s experience and expertise with investigations.