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Anti-Violence Advocate

Recent Rape Cases

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Last night we had two rape cases reported and two victims in the Emergency Room. Through the progress we have made with law enforcement and medical personnel, these victims can feel more comfortable reporting, getting evidence collected, and prosecuting. Those things are not enough. Victims need the support of a hotline, clothing to wear home from the hospital, crisis support from trained crisis advocates, and counseling.

It costs $376 to provide services to one victim for crisis emergency response. It costs $150 to provide legal advocacy for one victim. And it costs over $1200 to provide trauma counseling services and support for victims for 8 weeks.

As more victims report and seek services, we need to be able to have services available for them.

Donate today to help us serve victims of violence and consider adding to that donation a few dollars more to help us provide prevention so we may have fewer victims.

www.rcasa.org

Thank you for your support as we work together to end violence.
Carol Olson,
Executive Director

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Virginia’s Hospital Protocol for the Treatment of Sexual Assault Victims

On behalf of the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance (Action Alliance) and the Virginia Chapter of the International Association of Forensic Nurse Examiners (VAIFNE), we are pleased to announce that “Virginia’s Healthcare Response to Sexual Assault: Guidelines for the Acute Care of Adult and Post-Pubertal Adolescent Sexual Assault Patients” is now available at http://www.sexualanddomesticviolencevirginia.org/health.htm. May take a few minutes to download. Please be patient.

In 2007, the Governor’s Commission on Sexual Violence recommended the development of a consistent healthcare response to sexual assault. Subsequently, a multidisciplinary team of dedicated healthcare providers, criminal justice professionals, sexual assault victim advocates, and survivors of sexual assault was convened to commence this effort.

These new guidelines are the culmination of their efforts, replacing “Virginia’s Hospital Protocol for the Treatment of Sexual Assault Victims” that was developed in 1990. This new document incorporates recommendations from professionals across Virginia, as well as information from relevant state and national resources on the management of sexual assault patients and the collection of forensic evidence. Recognizing that not all communities or facilities can sustain forensic nursing programs, these guidelines were developed to assist all healthcare providers.

It provides: Guidance and tools for clinicians providing care to sexual assault patients; Guidance for healthcare facilities developing or enhancing policies for the provision of medical and forensic services; and Guidance to communities working to establish a coordinated community response to sexual assault. While these guidelines were developed for healthcare professionals, we know that the healthcare sector is just one component of a comprehensive response to sexual assault. It is hope of the committee that these guidelines will be a valuable resource and tool in our efforts to establish policies, procedures, and practices that promote a quality, consistent, and compassionate response to sexual assault patients in your community.

reprinted from the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance

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Help Protect Crime Victims, Promote Community-Based Policing, and Ensure a Safer Virginia for All!

Join advocates from around Virginia on Tuesday, January 12, 2010, from 12:00pm-1:00pm, for a state-wide conference call to mobilize support for reintroduction and passage of the Victim Witness Bill (last session’s SB 1436), in the Virginia General Assembly. This critical legislation would keep police from asking victims and witnesses of domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, and other crimes about their immigration status – bolstering trust between police and immigrant communities, and reassuring victims and witnesses that they can come forward without fear. The call, hosted by the Tahirih Justice Center, Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance (Action Alliance), and CG2 Consulting, will provide an overview of the Victim Witness Bill and discuss the many ways that advocates can get involved in this year’s campaign.

Many of you are members of the Virginia Alliance for Sensible Community Police (VA-SCOPE), and know how close our hard work came to getting the bill passed last year.

This year WE NEED YOUR HELP to spread the message and rally support! Please RSVP for the call to policy@tahirih.org by Monday, January 11, 2010.

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Virginia has a plan for Primary Prevention of Intimate Partner Violence

Our statewide sexual and domestic violence agency: The Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance (VSDVAA) with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) implemented a project on domestic violence prevention back in 2003.  This program continues and will continue past 2009.  This project, the Domestic Violence Prevention Enhancement and Leadership Through Alliances (DELTA) major role was to develop the Virginia Intimate Partner Violence Prevention Plan.  The overall goal was to create evidenced-based strategies that prevent first-time perpetration of intimate partner violence.  Goals were developed for the next 8 – 10 years with achievement by 2014.

Goal 1:  Increase the number and diversity of communities in Virginia that engage in effective programs to promote healthy relationships. This goal is to increase funding to $500,000 a year, located 50% of the projects in historically oppressed communities and increase the capacity of local communities to engage in the promotion of healthy relationships.

Goal 2: Increase the VSDVAA members commitment to achieving economic equality in Virginia. This goal will achieve the salaries of all staff to a living wage with family leave and health care benefits for partners and dependents, increase member agencies to be able to provide the same, and increase organizational commitment to address racism by 25 percent.

Goal 3:  Increase the capacity of young adults to effectively identify and respond to behaviors that may be precursors to IPV. 75% of students surveyed on 3 diverse college campuses and 75% of high school students, after the Red Flag Campaign, will demonstrate that they are more likely to intervene in behaviors that are potential precursors to intimate partner violence.

Goal 4: Increase the resources available to professionals who serve youth for building healthy relationship skills and positive racial identify for African-American youth in pre-K through elementary school. This goal is do develop a partnership with key leaders from the African-American community and develop five new tools for modeling healthy relationships; promoting media literacy related to gender, race, and violence; teaching skills for engaging in healthy relationships; providing lessons that promote positive racial identity for pre-K through elementary-school-aged African-American children.

Goal 5: Increase our understanding of perpetration of intimate partner violence. This goal is to partner with Va. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and law enforcement leaders to structure a set of qualitative data, specific to perpetration of Intimate Partner Violence taht could be consistently collected in IPV homicide investigation and through surveillance.

This report has been originally published by the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance.  You can request a full report by emailing info@vsdvalliance.org

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Forensic Nurse Examiners Week

I missed forensic nurse examiners week.  I didn’t even realize they had a week to recognize their work.   My apologies to FNE’s everywhere!  I respect what you do, work with great nurses at the Mary Washington Hospital Forensic Nurses program, and know that your efforts to help victims of assault is meaningful. 

I feel that forensic nurses (FNEs), previously known as Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANEs), are crucial to the process of collecting evidence in rape cases. These specialized nurses undergo specfic and arduous training in how to collect DNA and other evidence from a rape victim.  This can be both additionally traumatic for the rape victim as well as stressful for the nurse to navigate collecting evidence from a traumatized person.  A forensic nurses job is crucial to a successful prosecution.  They participate in collecting and documenting all evidence, from torn clothing to hairs or debris; photographing external injuries; taking blood to check for pregnancy or STIs; and collecting traces of DNA. Forensic nurses often participate as expert witnesses if the case goes to trial.

After working with nurses through the Forensic Program at Mary Washington Hospital for the last three years, I have come to appreciate the work they do to help victims of crime. 

So my very late kudo’s to the Forensic Nurses at Mary Washington Hospital and to forensic nurses everywhere.

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Review: Does Acknowledgement as an Assault Victim Impact Postassault Psychological Symptoms and Coping?

Caroline Clements and Richard Ogle write an interesting article in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence.  Their findings report that women who do not acknowledge  victimization report greater problems across the scope of their lives: disability, psychological problems, and reduced or impaired coping skills.  This seems so obvious, that un-acknowledgment of problems leads to greater problems.  I appreciate this article as they acknowledge the difficulty women have in identifying what is rape.  This relates to our society’s view of rape as being only from strangers and less likely from known individuals.  Yet our statistics report that most rape is from individuals known to the victims.  Our society continues to disregard the acts of coercion that are a part of rape.  This continued blatant disregard of all the ways that rape can happen directly effects the numbers of rape and intimate partner violence that happens.  Findings like Clement’s and Ogle help identify the importance of acknowledging rape and the longer term effects on psychological functioning in IPV victims, the reasons victims don’t report and methods to help encourage reporting.

Their article is significant in it’s findings and I hope people will read it and consider their findings in the service of acknowledging the realities of violence in our society and the need to address acknowledgment and prevention.

Find the article in Volume 24, number 10, October 2009 of the Journal of Interpersonal Violence

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Family Violence Social Indicators

Last week I attended an interesting discussion/workgroup on family violence social indicators.  While there is some agreement on what are social indicators of violence, there is debate on what are the most important indicators to study to get the best information.  In the section of preliminary social indicators are the community context areas limited to alcohol abuse, substance abuse, poverty, and unemployment?  Or are these symptoms or outcomes of violence?  Do these issues predict or cause violence or does violence make one more at risk for these problems?

I wonder if with all these efforts to classify and categorize violence really help us understand the scope of violence and its effects on individuals, families, and communities.  I feel it’s a much more blended phenomenon in our culture  and beyond simple cause and effect.  Meaning that to simplify a violent experience as the cause of alcoholism or that alcoholism puts one at a higher risk for violence denies the greater impact of the culture of violence in our society as influencing the overall presence and acceptance of violence in our society.

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