Module 5
Medical Forensic Sexual Assault Examinations: What Are They, and What Can They Tell the Courts?

Benefits of SANE Programs

Professor Rebecca Campbell’s research into the effectiveness of SANE programs highlights their benefits for victims:

“For individuals who experience this horrendous crime, having a positive experience with the criminal justice and health care systems can contribute greatly to their overall healing.”1

In their own article about this research, Why Rape Survivors Participate in the Criminal Justice System, Professors Campbell and Debra Patterson explain how a positive experience with a SANE contributed to continued cooperation with the prosecution.

“[S]urvivors identified that the SANE personnel helped them cope immediately with the rape, which made them feel strong enough emotionally to continue participating.”2

Unfortunately, as noted earlier, many communities do not have SANE/SAFE programs and victims are examined by emergency department doctors and nurses with no specialized training. They may be unfamiliar with “rape kits” and how to conduct the medical forensic sexual assault examination, and they may ask insensitive, victim-blaming questions.

 

Disclaimers and Footnotes

1. Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice, A National Protocol for Sexual Assault Medical Forensic Examinations 52 (2d ed. 2013).

2. Debra Patterson and Rebecca Campbell, Why Rape Survivors Participate in the Criminal Justice System, JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY, Vol. 38, No. 2, 191–205 (2010) at 200

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