Professional Documents
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Case presentation
Sexual Assault Victim Emergency (SAVE) Program
Emily Jackson
Referral source and client descriptive information
The client population that I will be referring to in this case presentation is
sexual assault victims in general. Anyone can be the victim of a sexual assault
regardless of age, gender, sexual orientation, etc., but in general the victims are
predominantly women. Every year there are approximately 237,868 victims of
sexual assault. Research shows that 1 in every 6 women will be the victim of a
sexual assault during her lifetime. The data also reveals that less than half of these
crimes are reported and even fewer of these perpetrators ever serve jail time for
their crimes (Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network [RAINN], n.d.). Clearly this is
a substantial problem in our society that needs to be addressed.
The referral source in this case is the updated Violence Against Women Act
(VAWA) that passed in 2005 that includes federal mandates imposed by the
government. In response to these federal mandates, Colorado passed House Bill 081217 in 2008. It is these two pieces of legislature that created the demand for the
SAVE program. Together VAWA and HB 08-1217 mandate that sexual assault
victims have the right to request and receive medical forensic exams without
participating in a law enforcement investigation. In addition, the victim is not
responsible for paying for the medical forensic exam. The burden of covering the
cost of the exam will fall on either the law enforcement agency involved, or if the
victim chooses not to report then the DCJ will pay for the exam. This gives the victim
access to the care they need and gives them the time they need to weigh their
options and make an informed decision about whether or not they want to report to
law enforcement. With better treatment by the system, the idea is that more victims
will feel comfortable enough to report the crimes to law enforcement, which is the
only way to get the perpetrators off the streets.
Readings
In the beginning, I did a lot of research in order to familiarize myself with the
general trends and statistics involving sexual assault. One of the most helpful
resources I found was from the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN).
I learned about the prevalence of sexual assault and the staggeringly un/underreported nature of the crime. I also learned about many reasons why victims are
reluctant to report sexual assault crimes. According to RAINN 1 in 6 women are
sexually assaulted in their lifetime, only about 40% of rapes are reported to police,
and only 3% of rapists will ever spend a day in jail for their crimes.
In order to educate myself on law and policy changes involving sexual
assault, I looked for information on the DCJ website. I found a wealth of information
regarding the new changes to VAWA and the implementation of HB 08-1217 and HB
13-1020. House Bill 13-1020 mandates that all rape kits be tested and analyzed by
CODIS, even the backlog, unless the victim does not consent to have the kit tested.
The goal of this law is to identify more offenders, especially serial offenders, by
analyzing as many crime scenes as possible and detecting DNA matches (New Law,
2014).
I read the report that was created by Terri Livermore, my supervisor, and
Karen Moldovan in order to educate myself about the both the effective approaches
and challenges faced around the state of Colorado since the implementation of the
forensic compliance laws mandated through VAWA 2005 and Colorado statutory
changes in 2008. The report looked at victims decisions to convert from medical to
law enforcement reporting status and different professional opinions on how well
that worked. The study also found that there was much confusion regarding the
medical mandated reporting statute that is currently in place (Livermore, 2013).
Diversity issues
On a micro scale, diversity issues to examine could be related to prejudices.
As stated previously, most sexual assault victims are women who are an already
disadvantaged group. For example, a victim being denied a medical forensic exam
due to her race or sexual orientation would be another diversity issue that needs to
be addressed. Another issue is the ability of a victim to pay for the cost of medical
forensic exam or not, which could prevent some victims from getting the medical
care that they need.
When it comes to policy and program changes, diversity issues to keep in
mind are mostly centered on the differences between communities and community
systems throughout the state. Communities have different resources, cultures,
strengths, populations, etc. All of these factors impact the effectiveness of the SAVE
program, the development of Sexual Assault Response Teams (SARTs), and the
knowledge about and use of the SAVE program. When implementing a program like
this on such a large scale it is important to keep in mind that each community is
different, there is no such thing as a one-size fits all program, so you have to be
flexible in implementation. It is possible that larger communities could overrule
some of the smaller rural communities in a project such as this simply due to pure
size, resources/demand, and influence so it is important to keep every communitys
needs in mind.
Practice situation
There are many myths surrounding sexual assault in our society, so here is
some background information about sexual assault that I have gathered from my
research. Sexual assault is the most underreported crime in the United States. It is
estimated that only about 40% of sexual assaults are actually reported to law
enforcement (RAINN, n.d.). Due to lack of evidence and lack of trauma informed
response from the system many victims quit participating with law enforcement
and many offenders are not prosecuted, resulting in only about 3% of rapists ever
spending a day in jail (RAINN, n.d.). Many sexual offenders are repeat offenders, and
most sexual assaults are committed by someone who the victim knows.
In response to these disheartening statistics, the two major goals of the SAVE
program are to improve victim treatment through the entire system so that
everyone receives fair, standardized, quality, trauma-informed treatment. By
improving victim treatment throughout the system and increasing victim autonomy,
the SAVE program hopes to see an increase in the number of sexual assaults that are
reported to law enforcement so that more cases can be prosecuted and more
offenders held accountable.
Contract goals and objectives
The two major goals of the SAVE program are:
to increase the number of sexual assault victims who receive medical care
by relieving them of the burden of paying for a medical forensic exam.
to increase the number of sexual assaults that are reported to law
enforcement so that more cases can be prosecuted and more offenders
held accountable, by improving victim treatment and increasing victim
autonomy throughout the entire system.
Assessment and planned change process
The SAVE program is still very new, it has only been in place for about a year
and a half now. The SAVE program began in fiscal year 2014, so it has been in place
since July 1, 2013. We are now about halfway through the second fiscal year of the
program. At this point, the DCJ is trying to improve the way the program functions
and fix any gaps or challenges that have arisen thus far in the programs
implementation.
I recently finished configuring a database in Microsoft Access in order to
record, store, and organize all of the data for this program. I am now in the
beginning phases of evaluating the data from the first fiscal year and determining
what the outcomes were and if the program goals were met in the first year. After I
am finished with my field placement, the DCJ will be able to use this database to
store all future data as well which will make it much easier to track progress and
goal attainment. This database will assist me is completing a formal assessment of
the SAVE program.
In my work with this program I utilize systems theory a great deal. This is a
helpful framework to use when evaluating a program with such a large scope
because it is important to keep in mind that many different factors are impacting the
program as a whole. Especially in this project where multiple professional
disciplines are involved, it is important to try and understand how each intersects
and interacts and how the interactions of these systems impacts the programs
effectiveness. It is easy to get caught up on one statistic or data point for example
and think that there is a problem with the system, but it is important to remember
that there are many factors working together to cause this specific outcome, it is not
one discipline or one agencys work alone that caused the particular outcome.
Interventions
The intervention we used to meet the goals was the implementation of the
SAVE program. The Sexual Assault Victim Emergency (SAVE) program developed
after the implementation of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) mandates in
2005 and House Bill 08-1217 in 2008. These two pieces of legislature mandate that
victims of sexual assault can request and receive medical forensic exams without
formal report compiling all of the findings and deliver it to a member of the
legislature in order to show why the program should continue to receive federal
funding.
Issues and Concerns
Specifically, we are addressing the un/under-reported nature of sexual
assault and the reluctance of victims to request and receive care.
Problems or Dilemmas
Time is a huge dilemma that I have run into. Working with policy and on a
macro scale everything takes much longer. Legislation takes forever to get passed,
decisions are slowly made, and policy changes are hard fought over. On top of that, it
takes a long time to collect data for a program like this. I only now have most of the
data that I need to complete the evaluation for the previous fiscal year, and since
this is a new program I dont have much previous data to compare it to simply
because no one was tracking this data before. Also, it can be complicated trying to
track down information from different sources because different facilities track
things differently, some are more timely than others as far as sending bills out, some
police departments are more helpful than others when providing information, etc.
What problems or dilemmas are you facing with this client? What is not
working? With what do you need help? For example, you could discuss the clients
lack of motivation, lack of needed of resources to accomplish the determined goals,
or what systems you dont know how to change.
Specific questions for the class
-Any suggestions for additional data points that would be interesting to track.
-How can we better accomplish data collection and storage?
-How should I compare this first fiscal years data?
-Suggestions for working with people who arent as proficient with
technology.