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 What is SART?

SART is a multidisciplinary team that oversees the coordination and collaboration related to immediate response to sexual assault cases, ensures a victim-centered approach to service delivery, and explores ways to prevent future victimization. (US DOJ, April 2001)
 

 Richland County SART

Maintains the SART vision, and meets monthly at rotating member agencies and organizations. Meetings have formal agendas that include topics such as community trends, agency updates and announcements, case updates, team-member appreciations and/or concerns, and new information such as forensic technology, and other cutting-edge practices. Meetings have an average of 15 participants. On occasion, trainings are scheduled in place of meetings, and outside individuals are invited to meetings for in-services and training purposes.
 

 Richland County SART abides by the tenets of the Duluth Model:

  • Victim safety as central to justice/intervention.
  • Use of written “best-practice” protocols to guide agency actions.
  • Networking among justice/service intervenors.
  • Monitoring case events and case-handling.
  • Creating a community environment that supports victims of interpersonal violence.
  • Sanctions and rehabilitation opportunities for abusers.
  • Evaluating justice/services responses from the standpoint of victim safety.

 What are the advantages of SART Programs?

  • Research has documented that jurisdictions with an interagency council such as SART, produce a higher rate of prosecution and conviction for child sexual abuse (Boerma 1985). As a result, coordinated multidisciplinary teams were created for adult sexual assault (Carrow 1980), with the understanding that they would have the same effect.
  • According to research conducted by the National Law Enforcement Integrity Institute (NLEII), over recent years, support for LE has declined dramatically and is still in a downward spiral. The NLEII suggests that for the community to regain and increase public confidence, police departments must demonstrate innovation, courage and the willingness to work outside of an existing structure to bring about collaborative and positive results. Joining community response teams such as SART is one way in which to do this.
  • The mission of SART follows the same mission as community policing.
  • Coordinates services for victims and minimizes the number of contacts that the victim must make with the various professionals. This reduces the number of times that a victim must describe the details of the assault.
  • From a victim’s perspective, repeating the account of events is one of the most difficult aspects of disclosing a sexual assault.
  • From law enforcement’s perspective, each retelling increases the likelihood of inconsistencies-no matter how trivial-that can later be used by defense counsel to challenge the victim’s credibility.
  • By exemplifying a collaborative and supportive approach to sexual assault, more victims will report assaults, more offenders will be held accountable for their actions, therefore ultimately leading to a safer community.
  • Studies show that prosecutors that work with Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE) are able to obtain increased numbers of guilty pleas from defendants as their evidence collection is virtually impeccable. (Ledray 1999)
  • SART members grow relationships in which they agree to disagree. They agree to address concerns that may be differing, and they remain open to the perspective of others. As a result, some common ground can be pulled out, and the members can move on to other areas. (Los Angeles Community Policing 2004).
  • Allows for clarification of agency roles.

 Why is SART crucial to the Richland County community? 

  • According to a National Violence Against Women Survey conducted in 2000 by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), each year there are 8.7 rapes per 1,000 US women over the age of 18. The US Census reported that in the year 2000, Richland County had an adult female population of 125,669. This amounts to roughly 1093 adult women raped per year in Richland County. Yet, the Uniform Crime Report states that in the year 2000, only 37 arrests were made in Richland County for all sexual offenses.
  • The 1093 cases do not include the transient population of college women, where the rate of rape of women on college campuses is higher than the general rate. It also does not include the rapes of men or adolescents and children under the age of 18.
  • The NIJ found in a 2000 study, that a college with 10,000 women has roughly 350 rapes per year. Richland County houses several colleges that would drastically raise the 1093 estimate.

 The Reality of Sexual Assault:

  • The national average of sexual-related offenses being reported to law enforcement is 16%, making sexual assault the most under-reported violent crime in the United States (Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center of the National Victims Center, 1992).
  • Rape is the fastest growing violent crime in The United States. (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 1994).
  • According to the FBI, only 4 - 5% of rape reports are suspected to be false -- the same rate as that of false reports for all other violent crimes.

 Richland County SART members:

  • Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center

  • Richland County Solicitor's Office (5th Circuit)

  • Benedict College and their PD

  • Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) Program

  • City of Columbia Police Department

  • Sexual Trauma Services of the Midlands

  • Columbia College and their PD

  • SC Attorney General’s Office for Violence Against Women

  • Forest Acres Police Department

  • SC Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault

  • Fort Jackson

  • South University

  • Midlands Technical College and their PD

  • State Office of Victim Assistance

  • Palmetto Health Alliance

  • University of South Carolina Police Department

  • Post Trauma Resources

  • Richland County Sheriffs Department

  • USC’s Office for Sexual Health & Violence Prevention

 Current and/or pending SART initiatives:

  • Secure funding through VAWA grant to maintain and expand the SANE program (Sept. 2004).
  • Finalize HIPPA Documentation & Protocols (August 2004)
  • Hold press conference with formal signing of SART Cooperative Working Agreement (Sept. 2004)
  • Attend Making a Difference scholarship training in San Diego in order to stimulate innovation and social change in the RC SART community (Oct. 2004).

 SART vision and future goals:

  • Apply for VOCA funding in order to secure and expand the SANE program for males and children.
  • Recruit nurses for SANE training
  • On-going training for SART & Community Members (May 2005)
  • Membership Recruitment
  • Future In-service Trainings
  • On-going Case Staffing
  • Continuous tracking of community trends (e.g. Predatory Drugs, Rape Protocol Kit, Legal Updates, National Trends – Literature Review)

 

© 2005 Richland County SART

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