Multidisciplinary Response to Sexual Assault

At EVAWI, we encourage victim-centered, multi-disciplinary collaboration which strengthens the criminal justice system as well as the public’s ability to understand the realistic dynamics of sexual assault.  Sexual Assault Response & Resource Teams (SARRT) or Coordinated Community Response (CCR) teams are critical components of the overall community response to violence against women.

I remember an issue facing the Kansas City Community a few years ago. We were dealing with a situation where several young women had either called the crisis line and/or presented at local Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) programs, all sharing a similar story – they’d been raped by four men in an apartment type setting above a bar in the downtown area. None of these victims reported to law enforcement. As my agency provided advocacy at numerous SANE programs, we, along with the SANE programs, were able to begin putting pieces together to show an alarming trend. We used a regular SARRT meeting in our community to talk with law enforcement about these assaults, being careful not to identify the victims or violate confidentiality.

As advocates, we often have information that other community professions don’t -- because for a variety of reasons, victims are not comfortable reporting to law enforcement or going to a SANE program. When we saw trends forming, we used SARRT meetings to share that information.

In another example, we began to notice similar stories of drug facilitated sexual assaults originating in the new downtown area in Kansas City, where a number of restaurants, bars, and clubs are located. At first, everyone figured it was Kansas City Police Department’s problem because the downtown area is in their jurisdiction, but the sexual assaults weren’t necessarily being completed there. In these situations, the initial contact between the victim and suspect was taking place downtown, but the sexual assault was being perpetrated in the same type of place they usually are – at the victim’s home, or a friend’s home, etc. – typically outside the downtown area.  This made it a metro-wide problem, not just a problem for Kansas City Police Department. We tracked a number of these stories, and shared this information at the various SARRTs in the metro area so other jurisdictions could be informed and prepared when victims come forward in their communities.

We found that law enforcement really appreciated this type of information, especially when we provided it during roll call trainings. They were tired of hearing about our services and the role of the advocate – they wanted information that was more immediately relevant to the cases they were seeing. Sharing this information not only kept law enforcement aware of the things that weren’t being reported, but also helped show the importance and relevance of working together as a collaborative team.

We want to hear from you. What issues or projects are your SARRT or CCR working on right now?