I’ll be honest with you–last week was not my best week. I can muscle my way through almost anything, with good game face, to boot. But last week I succumbed to a migraine, and as I’m sure many of you know, there’s nothing more humbling than being alone in an ED in a city very far from home, spending hours trying to will your body to work just enough to get you to the next city.
Category: Sexual Assault
It’s time once again for Articles of Note. These are a selection from the late December and January peer-reviewed journals that have caught my attention. Remember, it’s in no way a comprehensive or exhaustive list, but it’s an excellent place to start. The majority of the links will take you to PubMed. There are also a couple free full-text article in here. I’ve tried to add in a few more non-North American studies at the request of a few of my readers.
I just received this notice, but I’ll be on a plane when it’s scheduled (on Monday the 9th). Perhaps some of you would like to attend:
Friends:
The Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation has announced the adoption of a revised definition of rape in the Uniform Crime Report.
I missed this offering when it was live, but happily for us, it’s been archived:
The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation held a webinar in November, Best Practices to Combat Child Trafficking. The archived webinar also includes downloadable slide decks from each of the 3 speakers, as well as a nice looking resource page.
Because it’s one of the most popular items here at FHO, just a quick head’s up: it’s been updated.
Vera Institute of Justice is offering a webinar on January 17th as part of their Accessing Safety Initiative, which “promotes collaborations between disability and victim service organizations and enhances organizational capacity to serve Deaf survivors and survivors with disabilities”. The session, Mandatory Reporting and Confidentiality, will take place from 3-4:30 pm ET.
The US Department of Defense just released a report on sexual assaults in military service academies (PDF), along with information about 2 new sexual assault policies (transfers for victims and maintenance of records). You can find an overview of the information here.
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Forensic Compliance Update
SAFEta and EVAW are hosting a joint webinar, Forensic Compliance: Where Do We Stand in 2012? The session will actually be offered twice–February 7th and February 16th, at 2pm ET. Kim Day and Kim Lonsway, from the above organizations, respectively, will be the presenters. Get registered, because you know this one is worth your time. And, of course, it’s free.
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NISVS Fact Sheet
As a follow up to yesterday’s post, CDC has also created a two page fact sheet (PDF) that would be a great inclusion for staff meetings, clinical in-services and conversations with potential funders.
Results from the CDC’s 2010 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS) have just been released. You can read the Summary Report here (PDF); the briefer (8 page) Executive Summary here (PDF). Some of the bleak stats:
**Nearly 1 in 5 women (18.3%) and 1 in 71 men (1.4%) in the United States have been raped at some time in their lives.
**More than half (51.1%) of female victims of rape reported being raped by an intimate partner and 40.8% by an acquaintance; for male victims, more than half (52.4%) reported being raped by an acquaintance and 15.1% by a stranger.
**Most female victims of completed rape (79.6%) experienced their first rape before the age of 25; 42.2% experienced their first completed rape before the age of 18 years.
**More than 1 in 3 women (35.6%) and more than 1 in 4 men (28.5%) in the United States have experienced rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime.
In what appears to be the 1st in a series they are doing on the issue (next week’s article will focus on care of sexual assault victims), the New York Times published a beautiful piece yesterday, The Twice-Victimized of Sexual Assault. Plus it quotes one of my favorite people, Dr. Rebecca Campbell. Good stuff–do read.
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In the News Today
UPDATED 12/15/11
With the massive amount of media buzz surrounding Jerry Sandusky’s pretrial hearing (or waiving there of, as I have just read), I figured I’d point you toward a couple of recently posted (related) resources at the NSVRC site. The 1st is Answers to Questions About Recent Child Sex Abuse Case, written in conjunction with ATSA.
I’m headed to the 216 for some quality family time, to practice a little self-care of my own in the wake of some very trying times. I leave you with this blog post over at Psychology Today by Olga Trujillo: Getting Through Sex Abuse Scandals and Depression.
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Sexual Assault in the Military
I spent several days this week teaching for the Marine Corps; one day with the prosecutors and one day with defense. So I definitely have been thinking about the issue of sexual assault in the military and their criminal justice response. But it’s more than just training JAGs; it’s also several items that have come across my desk in the past week, which add a layer of complexity around discussions on this issue.
The Family Justice Center Alliance is hosting a webinar on Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence in Native Country. The webinar will be December 13th from 1-2:30 pm ET. You can register for the session here.
With it being a slow time of year for educational offerings, I’m thrilled the research journals hold some amazing treasures. This month feels particularly useful, especially if you’re a pediatrics person. As always, this is not a comprehensive overview of what’s newly out, but it is a good selection of late November and December articles you might want to check out. Even if you don’t fancy yourself a journal person, there’s some really clinically applicable material here on everything from STI testing in kids, to emergency contraception and implantation, to evaluating digital photography.
Several folks sent me this yesterday, and I see it making the rounds on Twitter and Facebook. I just got around to reading it this morning. If you have not seen it yet, please read Tyler Perry’s Open Letter to a Penn State 11-Year Old published this week in Newsweek.
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Making Your Case
I almost titled this post, “Everything I need today can be found over at the RWJF site”, but I didn’t feel like it would really grab anyone’s interest. However, I spent a lot of time trawling through their Vulnerable Populations portfolio, and frankly, there are some tools there that could help us make the (stronger) case that prevention is a part of forensic healthcare; that engaging our communities to support our work means thinking about the messages we craft about our work; and that conversations about social determinants of health must address the impact of violence in the home, in the workplace and in the schools.
November 25th begins 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence. From the site:
Participants chose the dates November 25– International Day Against Violence Against Women-and December 10– International Human Rights Day- in order to symbolically link violence against women and human rights and to emphasize that such violence is a violation of human rights. This 16-day period also highlights other significant dates including November 29, International Women Human Rights Defenders Day, December 1, World AIDS Day, and December 6, which marks the Anniversary of the Montreal Massacre.
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Over It
Thank you, Eve Ensler. I believe you’ve summed it up quite effectively.