" Acknowledging that a woman's right to be safe from a gender-based attack was a " civil right," I believed, was critically important in changing the American consciousness. When a right reaches the status and categorization of a " civil right," it means the nation has arrived at a consensus that is nonnegotiable. Violence against women would no longer be written off ... Once our criminal justice system -- at the local, state and federal levels -- recognized these as serious and inexcusable crimes, women could stop blaming themselves. "