The importance of bringing sexual assault awareness and what resources we have

The Daily Helmsman

Sexual assault is an umbrella term that includes everything from domestic violence to sexual harassment or rape. It is any unwanted sexual contact mean. We are in April, and that means we are in the month dedicated to sexual assault awareness in the US.

Amanda Taylor, Director of Nursing at Shelby County Crime Victims & Rape Crisis Center, said that last year they had over 500 cases of people who suffered sexual assault between Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee, with statistically more women. However, they are starting to see more men and transgender too. In the Center, they have a team of ten MPs; one is always on call 24 hours a day. "We will see victims of sexual assault up to five days after the assault, and we will do the physical exam, evidence collection, STD testing, prophylactic medications, take digital photography of injuries, and testify in court," Taylor said. They just started a program where they hired a nurse to follow up and get people that don't have insurance and get the CDC guideline or recommended testing for STDs at 4 to 6 weeks, three months, and six months. Everything is free and confidential.

Nathali Roberts, manager of rape crisis advocacy services at the Center, adds that they also have on-site trauma counseling and protection orders if they need to file it against their aggressor. Sometimes they also run sexual assault support groups. Being all victim centered. "It's up to them whether or not they want to take those services, and they can take the services and halfway through, say, never mind. We respect it; it's all about them and how and when they want to do it," said Roberts.

The victims can choose to involve law enforcement or not. In any case, they still would get STD testing, medications, and counseling services if they wanted to. And if they say not to involve law enforcement or nursing services, their advocacy group can still work with them. "We have people that were raped in the 70s, and they are like, I'm finally ready to talk about it. We can work with them. It does not have to have happened here; we've had people that were raped in other countries," said Roberts, "we won't turn anybody down, and it doesn't matter how long it's been."

On campus, we have the Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Coalition. Jules Daniel, the executive director, explains that their main objective is to raise awareness and do prevention work through educational presentations in freshmen classes where they talk about not only sexual assault but also healthy relationships. "If people don't know what assault is if they don't even know that it's a big issue, then we can't actually prevent it," said Daniel. They also help organize events like "Walk a mile in her shoes" every September and workshops where they seek to create a safe space.

Being an organization part of the campus, they must file a report if they find out someone has been assaulted. "However, I think a misconception about reporting is that once you file a report, it will be in the newspaper, or they will arrest the other person. But the thing about reporting is that you are just filing a paper, and from there, you have ownership over what happens," she said. The victim decides if they want to take legal action or simply have the report filed in case someone else experiences harm by that person.

They work with the campus Counseling Center which also helps victims, and with the Shelby County Center, where Taylor and Roberts work. "Unfortunately, Memphis has high rates of sexual violence, but at least we have a lot of resources in the community," Daniel said.

Being a survivor of sexual assault and rape during high school, Daniel also talks about the importance of ending victim blaming, not only in society but in the own victim. "It is hard to unlearn what society teaches about victim blaming, and you start internalizing that yourself. Or even if no one in your surrounding has told you that it's your fault, you may do that automatically," she said. "After it happened, I didn't even know I wasn't raped, and I minimized my experience. I was like, well, I wasn't raped. And I think that's where education failed us," said Daniel, "people were trying to call me a homewrecker, again, victim blaming."

As Roberts explains, what a person is wearing or how much alcohol they drink should not determine why they were assaulted. "In acute cases, when the assault just happened, it is pretty common to hear the, maybe I shouldn't have been walking down there, or I can't believe I trusted them. But we want to teach them that what they did or didn't do did not contribute to what happened," said Roberts.

Ending sexual assault is no easy task, and the international human rights organization Equality Now thinks that globally, sexual violence laws are failing survivors. Jacqui Hunt, Global Lead on Ending Sexual Violence at the organization, explains that most rape laws fall short of international human rights standards in the Americas. In addition, many good laws already in place to protect women and girls are badly implemented or enforced, thus failing to protect them.

"We believe that laws that stigmatize victims and hinder the possibility for justice and accountability must be replaced by laws that reflect the true nature of sexual violence," Hunt said. They said governments should improve protections in the law, improve access to justice under the law, and improve implementation, accountability, and accessibility to justice, including training criminal justice professionals to overcome gendered stereotypes and other negative stereotypes. And publically challenge negative stereotypes and improve public understanding of sexual violence, including age-appropriate sex and relationship education programs in schools.