Amachi Pittsburgh: Saving the Hidden Victims of Crime

Even if we don’t know it by name, most of us are still familiar with Newton’s Third Law of Motion – that is, every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

And while it may seem strange to consider the eighteenth century physicist when we talk about crime in our community in 2016, many of us are still downright Newtonian when it comes to crime. After all, every crime has its punishment. Every cause has its effect. And for every criminal, there’s a victim.

Our criminal justice system was designed to protect those victims, but what many of us fail to realize is that the plaintiff on the stand isn’t the only person affected by a crime. In fact, there’s a whole generation of hidden victims out there that are slipping through the cracks.

We’re talking about the children of incarcerated parents, kids whose moms or dads are often locked up for years at a time, leaving them without a positive role model, without economic support, and – all too often – without hope.

That’s where our friends and clients at Amachi Pittsburgh step in, providing guidance and mentorship to the children of imprisoned parents. We’ve written before about the amazing work Amachi is doing through its Victims No More campaign, but this article in Next Pittsburgh lays it out better than we could say it ourselves, and looks in-depth at some of the many success stories the organization has produced over the years.

We urge you to give it a read, and, as always, share your (equal and opposite) reaction on our Facebook page.