NC must do more aid victims of domestic and sexual violence
As someone who works professionally in the domestic and sexual violence field, I was very pleased to read news of two recent developments. One story focused on new efforts to train law enforcement across the state in the Lethality Assessment Protocol (LAP) which will enable officers to better predict which abusive relationships may turn deadly.
The other was the signing into law of Senate Bill 199. The new law closes the “loophole” that prevented consent from being revoked once sexual activity had begun. North Carolina was the only state in the country with such a loophole and this actually prevented some sexual assaults from being prosecuted. Other provisions ensure that sexual assaults can be prosecuted even if the survivor became incapacitated through their own intake of drugs or alcohol.
These are great developments for our state, but we have a long way to go towards providing even many basic services for survivors of domestic and sexual violence. We have a wonderful network on domestic violence agencies that serve every corner of North Carolina, but according to 2018-2019 statistics from the Council for Women, 5,752 victims who called these agencies seeking shelter had to be referred elsewhere due to lack of space. Due to space limitations, many shelters only allow survivors to stay for a few days which may not allow enough time to set up permanent housing. As a result, some survivors have no choice but to go back to their abusers.
On the sexual assault side, research compiled by the Carolina Public Press showed that fewer than one in four sexual assault defendants were convicted and that 38 counties had no convictions at all in a 4-year period of data collection. While there’s been much needed attention placed on untested physical evidence from sexual assaults, the reality is that according to a forensic nursing registry, only 28 North Carolina hospitals have Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners on staff. This means that many survivors either have to drive long distances for a “rape kit” or simply can’t get one at all.
When I give talks on domestic and sexual violence, I am frequently asked why people stay in abusive relationships and why people don’t report sexual assault. The answers are obvious. When we as a society fail to consistently provide the resources so that people can leave, they have to stay with abusive partners. When we fail to give access to evidence collection, rape survivors don’t get rape kits. When survivors hear that so few defendants are convicted in our courts, they lose faith in our criminal justice system and chose not to report.
Until we find effective methods to prevent domestic and sexual violence, we must do more to help our survivors of domestic and sexual violence. We need to push for additional funding for our rape crisis and domestic violence agencies and include them in our personal charitable donations. We desperately need to open both more shelters as well as options for transitional housing so those experiencing domestic violence can actually “leave.” We need to push for additional training for our police and prosecutors in order to hold perpetrators accountable and keep survivors safe from further acts of violence. We need to find creative solutions so that more hospitals can offer rape evidence collection at no cost to survivors.
To learn more, visit the North Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence at nccadv.org/ or the North Carolina Coalition Against Sexual Assault at www. nccasa.org/cms/.