State defines guidelines for sex assault victims

EWING - Law enforcement officials and sexual assault counselors yesterday announced a new set of guidelines for dealing with victims aimed at uniformed assistance anywhere in the state.

The guidelines are not codified in law, but the state Division of Criminal Justice insists that county Sexual Assault Response Teams (SARTs) follow them to be eligible for its grant funding, which since 1996 has totaled more than $3 million.

Speaking at The College of New Jersey - where SART team members are trained - Attorney General Peter C. Harvey said more than 100 people have been taught the new guidelines.

Deputy Attorney General Linda Rinaldi later said by phone that the first guidelines were published in 1998 when there were only two pilot programs in the state. Over time, a best approach has become clearer, she said.

One area that has changed is that the old guidelines which called for victims to be tested for physical evidence of rape within 72 hours have been altered, partly because of improved technology, to urge they be tested within five days of an assault.

The guidelines also call for physical evidence to be held at least 90 days in case victims do not at first know if they want to press charges, Rinaldi said.

There is no statute of limitation on sexual assault. Law enforcement officials are free to keep evidence longer. Rinaldi said some keep it permanently to build databases of genetic information that may be used to solve future crimes.

Rinaldi said the only county without a fully active SART was Essex, but she said it is scheduled to have an operation by summer.

SARTs are made up of sexual assault nurse examiners, rape care advocates and specially trained law enforcement officers who cooperate to offer a "victim-oriented" response to sexual assaults, Harvey said.

SARTs responded to 980 incidents from Oct. 1, 2002 to Sept. 30, 2003 and to 1,150 over the next 12 months.

In a different statistic, the state's various county rape care programs served 3,539 new victims in 2004. The figure includes more victims than just those helped by SART teams. "Nationally we know something like 3 to 5 percent of . . . college women are victims of sexual assault or sexual violence of some sort," said TCNJ Provost Stephen Briggs. "So it's an important issue for all of us who work at colleges to think a lot about."

Briggs said that for the past three or four years his school has been trying to reduce sexual assault on its campus by shining a light on the problem even though it may not make the school look good. The goal, he said, is to make students, males especially, aware of the problem's extent in the hopes it will lead to fewer assaults.

"What we're trying to do now is create as safe a place and as conducive an environment for an individual (victim) to come forward in some way," Briggs said.