Northeast Minnesota Criminal Justice Summit Focuses on Crime Survivors

DULUTH, Minn. — The 2024 Northeast Minnesota Criminal Justice Summit took place Thursday.

The St. Louis County Attorney’s Office hosting the event at Pike Lake Beach and Gold Club. The day long training is for law enforcement, prosecutors, social workers and others to learn new ways to serve victims of crimes. It focused on human trafficking, compensation for victims, sexual assault case testing. The theme this year is “How would you help? Options, services, and hope for crime survivors.”

“Some of the trainings that we’ve arranged today are one, to help us do better prosecutions, but two help us interact with victims and their families in a much better way. To learn from the past so we can improve our services going forward,” said Kim Maki, St. Louis County Attorney.

One group gave a presentation about human trafficking and exploitation. They talked about how trafficking is different than how it is portrayed.

“It’s really great to have the opportunity to talk to folks who work in our community about what exploitation and trafficking looks like, how to work with survivors and generally just build some tools to for us to better serve the folks that we’re here to serve,” said Carly Hiti, Safe Harbor Youth Advocate at PAVSA.

The summit coincides with National Crime Victims’ Week which highlights the importance of victims’ rights and needs.