Badges & Boxes Founder Among NC Voices Backing Survivors' Justice Legislation

Albemarle, N.C. — The North Carolina Survivors' Act, legislation that would allow state courts to consider a defendant's experience of domestic violence, sexual abuse, or trafficking as a mitigating factor in sentencing, was filed in the North Carolina Senate on March 26, 2025. George Wilson, Founder and President of Badges & Boxes and a North Carolina law-enforcement detective with more than two decades of public safety experience, is among the grassroots advocates who worked with legislators on the measure.

The bill, filed as Senate Bill 676, would create a new section of Article 81B of the General Statutes, requiring courts in qualifying cases to depart from standard sentencing ranges when a defendant can show by clear and convincing evidence that abuse or coercion was a substantial contributing factor in their offense. Similar laws have been enacted in New York (2019) and Oklahoma (2024), and comparable legislation is under consideration in several other states.

For Wilson, the bill is the policy expression of investigative work he has carried out for years. Throughout his career he has handled cases involving internet crimes against children, domestic violence, and human trafficking — work that, he says, repeatedly demonstrates how traffickers and abusers weaponize the criminal legal system itself against the people they exploit.

Wilson serves on the North Carolina Domestic Violence Commission and the North Carolina Child Fatality Task Force by gubernatorial appointment, and is a member of the CPAC Center for Combating Human Trafficking's North Carolina coalition, which has publicly endorsed the legislation as a state-level companion to federal anti-trafficking reform.

The bill has been referred to the Senate Committee on Rules and Operations. Badges & Boxes will continue to support advocacy for the measure through public education and partnerships with survivor-serving organizations across the state.