JUSTICE
DEPARTMENT OUTLINES BENEFITS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT NURSE EXAMINER PROGRAMS
Contact:
Office for Victims of Crime, 202-307-0703
SAN ANTONIO, May 25 -- Specially trained nurses
called Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANEs) can play a pivotal role in
responding to sexual assault by providing valuable services to victims and
collecting evidence.
The Justice Department's Office for Victims
of Crime (OVC) will
release
the SANE bulletin tonight at the Sexual Assault Response
Team
(SART) Training Conference in San Antonio, Texas. The SART
Training
Conference, the first national, multi-disciplinary
conference
on training members of community response teams that
serve
sexual assault victims, will continue through Sunday.
"The SART Training will help
communities develop and improve
comprehensive
and coordinated efforts to serve sexual assault
victims,"
said OVC Acting Director Kathryn Turman. "Sexual Assault
Nurse
Examiners are a critical part of these efforts because they
provide
victims with needed services, while also improving evidence
collection
for better prosecution."
SANEs are registered nurses who have
advanced education and
clinical
preparation in examining sexual assault victims. They are
also
trained in gathering evidence. SANEs can offer prompt,
compassionate
care that preserves victims' dignity and reduces
their
psychological trauma.
A Wisconsin SANE program reported that
during a 38-month period,
prosecutors
had a 100 percent conviction rate in cases where a SANE
testified
at a trial. A prosecutor in Virginia reported that SANEs
are
particularly effective in child sexual abuse cases. Children
who are
examined by SANEs are less traumatized by the exam, which
allows for
improved evidence collection and leads to more
successful
prosecutions.
Since 1997, the number of SANE programs
nationwide has grown
from 86 to
more than 340 today. In 1999, OVC released the "Sexual
Assault
Nurse Examiner (SANE) Development and Operation Guide,"
which
provides detailed information on how to operate model
hospital
and community-based SANE programs, including assessing
community
needs, developing community support and staff selection
and
training.
The new bulletin, "Sexual Assault
Nurse Examiner (SANE)
Programs:
Improving the Community Response to Sexual Assault
Victims,"
examines the impact of SANE programs on victims'
services,
law enforcement and prosecution. It describes promising
SANE
practices, possible funding sources and a list of resources.
SANEs will be one of the topics at the SART
Training, which will
also
highlight issues such as DNA evidence, offender profiling,
drug-facilitated
sexual assault, child victims, and victims with
developmental
disabilities. Nearly 700 participants
are expected
to attend,
including law enforcement professionals, prosecutors,
forensic
examiners, SANEs, victim service providers and victim
advocates.
"Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE)
Programs: Improving the
Community
Response to Sexual Assault Victims," as well as the
information
about other OVC publications, programs and conferences,
are
available through the OVC Website at
www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc
and from the OVC Resources Center at
800-627-6872.
The "Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner
(SANE) Development and
Operation
Guide," and more information about the SART Training
Conference
are available at www.sane-sart.com
Information about other Office of Justice
Programs (OJP) bureaus
and
program offices is available at www.ojp.usdoj.gov. Media
should
contact OJP's Office of Congressional and Public Affairs at
202-307-0703.