NCJ Number
209842
Date Published
April 2006
Length
0 pages
Annotation
This DVD explains how the creation of Sexual Assault Response Teams (SARTs) has improved the quality of the response to victims of sexual assault while enhancing the amount and quality of evidence available for a prosecution.
Abstract
The DVD features interviews with sexual assault survivors, victim advocates, forensic medical professionals, law enforcement officers, and prosecutors. Each discusses the value of SARTs from his/her perspective. A sexual assault victim praises the SART that handled her case with sensitivity and efficiency, which led to a reduction in her stress and relief when her attacker was apprehended and convicted based on evidence collected by the SART that handled her case. One of the key members of a SART is the sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE), a nurse who has received special training in dealing sensitively with sexual assault victims while collecting evidence from the victim that is critical in making an arrest and obtaining a conviction. In the DVD, a SANE discusses her work. Other issues discussed in the DVD are procedures for obtaining evidence from victims of a drug-induced sexual assault and the use of DNA evidence to apprehend and convict sexual assault suspects.