Interview with Susan B. Speckert, December 16, 2009

Interview Summary

T.K. Logan interviews Susan Speckert about her life and career prosecuting cases of intimate partner violence or domestic violence in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Lexington, Kentucky. Speckert discusses common misconceptions of stalking and how it actually manifests quite often in abusive relationships. She talks about how prosecutors structure their cases to both try to get convictions of abusers and to protect the safety of survivors through safety planning and use of the Coordinated Community Response (CCR) model. Speckert describes the challenges of prosecuting stalking and intimate partner violence cases and shares a few stories of cases from her career, as well as how she came to be involved in domestic violence prosecution.

Interview Keyword

Commonwealth's Attorneys Assistant Commonwealth's Attorneys Fayette County (Ky.) Lexington (Ky.) New Orleans (La.) Women's Center at the University of New Orleans Criminal justice Domestic violence cases Power and Control Wheel Domestic violence Battering relationships Abusers Empowerment Safety planning Evidence-based prosecutions Coordinated Community Response Coordinated Community Response model Defendants Attorneys "Stalking logs"

Interview LC Subject

University of New Orleans Women--Education (Graduate) Women--Education (Higher)--United States Women's shelters Women lawyers--United States. Intimate partner violence. Control (Psychology) Stalking Abused women--United States Stalking--Law and legislation Dating violence. Prosecution--United States. Prosecution--United States--Decision making Abusive men Stalking victims

Interview Rights

All rights to the interviews, including but not restricted to legal title, copyrights and literary property rights, have been transferred to the University of Kentucky Libraries.

Interview Usage

Interviews may be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries.